Situated on the western highlands of Wai'an at Xipuding, this structure was built during the Japanese colonial era and remains intact today. According to the 1920 "Penghu Fortress Construction Guidelines(澎湖島要塞建設要領書)", the original plan was to construct a coastal artillery battery in Wai'an to defend against potential naval attacks from the west and south of Magong. The design included two 35cm-caliber cannons with 200 rounds of ammunition—one of the largest coastal defense installations of its time. However, after construction began in 1921, the 1922 Washington Naval Treaty, signed by the five major naval powers— the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France and Italy—prohibited the expansion of new fortifications and coastal defenses. As a result, the Wai'an Battery construction had to be halted. In 1923, the Japanese Ministry of the Army ordered the construction of a fake turret at the original site and designated the surrounding area as a fortress zone, attempting to mislead the public into believing that the defensive structures had already been completed before the treaty's restrictions took effect, with the intention of later replacing the fake turret with a real one. With the rapid advancement of aerial warfare, stationary turrets like this became obsolete and Penghu's coastal defenses shifted toward mobile artillery. Consequently, this dummy cannon never became operational and was never targeted by U.S. bombers during World War II. By sheer chance, it survived the war and now stands as a relic of Penghu's military history.
Recommended Duration of Visit: 30 minutes

Source:Penghu Travel