Qualla: Beauty Cave

Beauty Cave: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Taiwania Justo, CC BY-SA 4.0. The island of Xiaoliuqiu floats in the Taiwan Strait about 15 kilometers off the coast of Pingtung County, small enough to circle by scooter in an afternoon. Its geology is coral limestone — the same material that defines the Hengchun Peninsula across the water — and rain has spent thousands of years carving that limestone into caves, notches, and sinkholes. One of those caves has a name that needs no elaboration: Beauty Cave. The name comes from a story, and the story has outlasted everything else that might have been said about the place.

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Image: Taiwania Justo | CC BY-SA 4.0

Beauty Cave: The Woman in the Cave

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Taiwania Justo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Local legend says the cave took its name from a young woman who once lived inside it. In one version of the story, during the Wanli Era of the Ming Dynasty — somewhere between 1573 and 1620 — she survived a shipwreck in the Taiwan Strait and swam or drifted to Xiaoliuqiu. Finding...

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Image: Taiwania Justo | CC BY-SA 4.0

Beauty Cave: Limestone Carved by Water

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Taiwania Justo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Beauty Cave is a solutional cave — formed not by volcanic activity or tectonic force but by the patient chemistry of slightly acidic rainwater dissolving the calcium carbonate in limestone over long stretches of time. Xiaoliuqiu's entire island is composed of uplifted coral limes...

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Image: Taiwania Justo | CC BY-SA 4.0

Beauty Cave: A Scenic Area with Neighbors

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Taiwania Justo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Beauty Cave is not a standalone attraction on Xiaoliuqiu. It is administered as part of a unified scenic area, and a single admission ticket includes access to two nearby sites: Mountain Pig Ditch and Black Dwarf Cave. The three together form a compact circuit of the island's und...

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Image: Taiwania Justo | CC BY-SA 4.0

Beauty Cave: An Island Apart

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Outlookxp, CC BY-SA 4.0. Reaching Beauty Cave means reaching Xiaoliuqiu first, which means a ferry from Donggang on the Pingtung coast — a crossing of roughly 30 minutes. The island is small: most visitors arrive on one ferry, rent an electric scooter from one of the shops near the pier, make a circuit o...

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Image: Outlookxp | CC BY-SA 4.0