烏鬼洞

Wugui Dong - Black Ghost Cave

Useful Information

Location:	929, Taiwan, Pingtung County, Liuqiu Township, 屏東縣琉球鄉. On Liuqiu Island, southwest. (22.3296715, 120.3549915)
Open:	All year daily 7:30-17. [2025]
Fee:	Adults TWD 120, Reduced TWD 80. [2025]
Classification:	Talus Cave
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Wugui Dong - Black Ghost Cave, 929, Taiwan, Pingtung County, Liuqiu Township, 屏東縣琉球鄉, Tel: +886-8-861-2501, Tel: +886-8-861-2405.
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History

1975	scenic area created.

Description

烏鬼洞 (Wū guǐ dòng, Wugui Dong - Black Ghost Cave) is one of those names which are extremely difficult to translate. The cave has thus a wide bunch of different but similar names, it is called Black Dwarf Cave, Black Devil Cave, Black Spirit Cave, Black Ghost Cave, and even Black Dwart Cave. We have no idea what a dwart is though. Sometimes it is also called Wugui Cave, which is the transliteration of the Chinese name. It is located at the southern tip of the small island 琉球嶼 (Xiaoliuqiu, Liuquiu Island, Ryuku Island) on the western side, in Tianfu Village. The name is explained with the following legend, and actually we found three slightly different versions, the main idea is the same though.

The island was a Dutch colony, until it was annexed in 1683 by the Qing dynasty of China. In the 15th year of the Yongli reign of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong, the Prince of Yanping, recovered Taiwan and Penghu and drove away the Dutch. Some black slaves, abandoned by the leaving Dutch, were living secretly in the cave. They had stone tables, stone chairs, stone beds, stone bowls, silverware, jewelry in the cave. Liuqiu island is located between Taiwan and The Philippines, the ships of merchants traveling between the countries often anchored off Gaben, north of the cave, especially in case of strong winds and waves. At night the slaves swam to the anchored boat and made a hole into the bottom. After the boat sank to the sea, they stole foods and all the property on it. Happening once, this would have been explained with some kind of accident. But when it happened repeatedly, the sailors and the merchants started an investigation and finally realized that the former slaves had commited the crime. The named them the Black Ghosts. They discovered the cave, piled up firewood outside the entrance and set it on fire, and all slaves died in the cave. So the boat accidents ended and the cave was named Black Ghost Cave.

In the 15th year of the Yongli reign of the Ming Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong, the Prince of Yanping, recovered Taiwan and Penghu and drove away the Dutch. A few black slaves did not return to their owners, they fled to the island and hid in this cave. A few years later, a British boat landed on the clam plate northwest of the cave to enjoy the scenery. The black slaves took advantage of the situation, to rob and burn the boat, and kill all the British soldiers. Soon British warships came in search of the boat and found it destroyed, and the people killed. So they went ashore to search, but the black slaves were hiding in the cave, luring and threatening them in every way and swearing to die. They piled up firewood, poured oil on it and set it on fire, and all of them were burned to death.

Zhang Zhanqiu of the Qing Dynasty said that they were burned to death by the people of Quanzhou. Later generations named the cave Black Ghost Cave, as the cave was inhabited by black people. Nevertheless, it is possible that they were actually enslaved by one coloniser or another.

The black islanders are slaves of the Dutch in above versions of the legend. Actually scholars now believe that the "negroes" were actually Siraya Aborigines. They were related to tribes which lived in the area that of Pingtung County for some 3,000 years. They are extinct now, although some genes may have survived in the locals. And so there is a fourth version of the legend which claims that more than three hundred aboriginals were burned alive here by the Dutch during their occupation of Taiwan.

The island is composed of reef limestone, which is not only subject to erosion but also to karstification. The cave is located at the coast, with an entrance to the plateau on top of the reef limestone. It is entered down a staircase from the plateau. The former main entrance toward the sea is said to have collapsed and is now inaccessible. However, this is actually neither a sae cave nor a karst cave, it is a tectonic cave, actually a boulder cave. The sea eroded the reef limestone at the bottom, and so blocks of limestone fell down. When they settled there were narrow, triangular gaps between the boulders, typical tectonic caves which are named Speleology Talus Cave.

There are two large clam fossils on the hillside near the Black Ghost Cave. The fossils are huge, about one meter in diameter.

The cave is located in a small Scenic Area, which is the common way to develop tourist sites in China. The scenic area which was created in 1975 has numerous sights like Ganquan, Bitao Pavilion, Yi Bridge, Liechi, Youqing Valley, Bieyoutian, and Haoran Pavilion. In other words, it’s nothing special, as normal a sort of park with trails, kiosks and an entrance fee. The cave, as well as the rest of the park, is visited self-guided. We were not sure how to classify the cave, as it is not a show cave with speleothems, as you might expect. It is nevertheless a tourist site, and actually the trail leads through several cracks and small caves to the sea. The site is the most famous tourist spot on the island.

A similar spot is located on the northwest side of the island, and is named 美人洞 (Beauty Cave). It is quite similar, a park with trails through gorges and boulder caves in reef limestone. The tickets to Black Ghost Cave include access to Mountain Pig Ditch and Beauty Cave.

Beauty Cave was named after the young daughter of a Ming loyalist who fled China to escape Manchu forces. He and his daughter hid out in this catacomb of coral grottoes, surviving off wild plants and fish until the day the father died. Local inhabitants later discovered the young girl weeping over her father’s body. But rather than leave his side she bit her tongue in half and took her own life.