Beautiful Dives I Did at LiuQiu Island 小琉球 | Taiwan

A wonderful day spent checking out the underwater world of Taiwan. Liuqiu Island, also known as Lambai Island or Ryukuu Island, is a perfect place to launch into the seas of Taiwan from Kaohsiung City.

Diving in Taiwan was part of my two-week-long itinerary in Jan 2023, where I had the great opportunity to experience the Lunar New Year celebration in Taiwan with my partner and of course, check out some of the mountains and touristy spots around the island.

My last dive before Liuqiu was at Miri, Sarawak of Malaysia, in Jul 2022, and before that, was The Poor Knights Island in New Zealand.

Post contains affiliate links that charge you nothing, but if you do book from my link, you’ll be supporting my blog. Cheers!

Photos courtesy from Liuqiu Dive.

I did this dive in Jan 2023. Post may be updated periodically.

---

Liuqiu from Kaohsiung

If you’re not already in Kaohsiung, book a seat on the high-speed rail to Zuoying Station.

Kaohsiung to Donggang

Private Transfer: Getting to Liuqiu from Kaohsiung without a car or scooter requires a bit more planning. The fastest and most efficient way is, needless to say, to hail an uber or taxi. But this is also the costliest option. If not, Klook’s transfer from Kaohsiung to Donggang or Kenting is a deal to check out.

Shuttle Bus: The other option is this complicated route of grabbing a shuttle bus. Mariza from Hoponworld, who has extensively travelled around Taiwan, suggest taking a red MRT line to Kaohsiung Main Train Station (TRA), then to Spring Tourist Rental (春天旅遊汽機車出租) for a shuttle taxi to Donggang ferry terminal. You can read more about it here.

Public Bus: Take Bus 9117 or 9127 from Kaohsiung and get off at Donggang Station. Next, walk for about 10 mins to the port. For Bus 9189 (Kenting Express Line), get off at Dapeng Bay Station and change to Bus 503 towards the port.

Scooter: We took a scooter and travelled from Kaohsiung to Donggang – the ferry station. The journey was dusty and bumpy but a lot of fun. It took us almost an hour with a toilet break in between. The scooter went on board the ferry with us to Liuqiu.

Donggang Ferry to Liuqiu

There’s practically a ferry every hour from Donggang 東港 to Liuqiu 小琉球 from 7 am to 5 pm. Have a look at the official ferry website – it’s in Mandarin, so you would have to Google translate the page.

We scooted to the terminal and bought out return tickets there and then for TWD 950 from a vendor without even stepping into the building. So that’s TWD 400 per person for the return ticket and TWD 150 to bring the scooter over. The return tickets are valid for a week, which leaves you more than enough time to explore the island.

The journey from Donggang to Liuqiu is 30 mins.

Cars have to be parked in Donggang.

Transport within Liuqiu

According to a travel pamphlet of Liuqiu, a KBUS Island Tour Bus brings tourists to major scenic spots. The cost for that? TWD 100 per day.

Or else, you could pick up a scooter or an e-bike to tour the island as most of the scenic spots are next to Huandao Road (the main road in Liuqiu).

---

Best Time to Dive

Taiwan may look small, but the north and south have different climates, which explains why it is a year-round dive season in the south but not the north. Taipei was considerably gloomier, colder and wetter than Kaohsiung when I was there in Jan 2023.

Diving in the winter months from Dec – Feb in Liuqiu may be chilly, but you get considerably less crowd. The water temperature hovered between 23 – 24 dC in Jan 2023.

---

Dive Sites

The small island of Liuqiu has a dozen dive sites – sufficient for any leisure diver to spend a weekend or more exploring.

1. Vase Rock 花瓶岩 | Beginner | 12 m
2. Beauty Cave 美人洞 | Beginner | 15 m
3. Lobster Cave 龍蝦洞 | Beginner | 18 m
4. Dafu West 大福西 | Beginner | 16 m
5. SanFu Port 杉福漁港 | Beginner | 16 m
6. Houshi Fringing Reef 厚石礁群 | Beginner | 10 m
7. Duoziping 肚仔坪 | Intermediate | 20 m
8. Shipwreck Reef 沈船 | Intermediate | 24 m
9. Black Dwarf Cave Sea Fan Forest 烏鬼洞海森林 | Advanced | 25 m
10. Zhenhai Battleship Reef 鎮海艦沈船 | Advanced | 35 m
11. ChungAu Shipwreck Reef 中澳沈船 | Advanced | 26 m
12. Venice Shipwreck Reef 威尼斯沈船 | Advanced | 32 m

Liuqiu is known for its turtles – you would get to see lots of turtle memorabilia around the town – so expect to see lots of them in your dives too.

---

My Dive School

We went with 琉潛貨櫃潛水旅宿 Liuqiu Dive.

There are many dive schools to go with, but we went with Liuqiu Dive as my partner knows a friend working in this dive school. Liuqiu Dive has a good reputation on the island too.

The dive shop has an accommodation that is cleverly constructed using shipping containers, ropes, and lots of ferns and greens. You could choose a single dorm bed or two singles if you’re a couple or friends, and each partition has its privacy screen. The rooms, which could hold up to eight single beds, come with a/c.

The toilets and shower rooms on level one were spotless, and as with all dive schools, endless hot water is a requisite. The premise was kept shoe-free, which explains the cleanliness.

I like the construct of this school very much – it may even surpass this dive school in Tioman Island of Malaysia.

Unlike other dive schools, however, most of us travelled to the dive spots – if it is a shore dive – ourselves via e-bike or scooter from the school. Those without their own transport could board the school’s truck that carries the cylinders, BCD and miscellaneous diving items.

A pre-briefing was made in the school before each of my shore dives, and we returned to the school after each dive.

---

My Dive Trip

As only five of us signed up as leisure divers that day – the woes of off-season diving – our numbers did not make up for the min needed for boat dives. 

Dafu West 大福西

Our first dive spot was a shore dive that was a bit of a drive away from the shop.

Visibility was ok at 8 – 10 m, and we saw many urchins, blue stars, anemones and clownfish. The turnaround point was a Taiwan flag.

My partner found the 23 – 24 dC tolerable, but not for me – I was involuntarily shivering like mad throughout the dive, which explained the higher-than-normal air consumption. I was down to 50 bars for a 50 mins dive.

We surfaced and rode back to the school, taking our interval rest time for toilet and hydration, and a briefing for the next dive.

Lobster Cave 龍蝦洞

For my next dive, I put on an additional singlet underneath my wetsuit, and that dramatically improved my comfort level.

The entry into the water was tough as waves kept pushing us in. We were also surrounded by those protruding wave barricades.

I didn’t see any lobster for a cave named as such, but I did see three turtles, some more nudis, and a banded pipefish. There were considerably more urchins half exposed around the corals; my partner may have accidentally grazed into one or some poisonous grass as he had itchy bumps covering his hands after the dive.

We maximised an hour out of our cylinders for this dive. I was down to 100 bars by the time we resurfaced.

---

Ending

And that is all for my dives in Liuqiu Island.

Post-dives, we washed up and caught a 2 pm ferry leaving the island for Donggang, and then Kaohsiung City.

Liuqiu Island has a lot more to offer apart from the dive spots. Both of us went on a hurricane visit the day we arrived and cleared all the attractions. We dived on Day 2. I’ll be writing a post about the sights soon!

Apart from Liuqiu Island, Taiwan has five more notable dive locations: Kenting, Green Island, Orchid Island, Penghu, and the Northeast Coast. Who knows when I’ll be back in Taiwan? But one thing is for sure, I’ll definitely be checking out the other dive spots!