Undiscovered Peach Blossom Island

Starting from 2004, the Jin Yong Martial Arts (Wuxia) Culture Festival is held here every other year around summer. It offers dazzling martial arts performances and competitions, all thrilling for Cha's fans.

However, for those who enjoy natural beauty, Taohua Island is also a must. It has the highest peak in the archipelago. Anqi Peak, 540 meters high, is named after the ancient hermit who spilled the ink that left the patterns. You can climb the peak for a magnificent view of the East Sea and surrounding islands.

The peak is also closely related to local dragon culture. You can hear legends (in Chinese) of the Dragon King and especially the little Dragon Maid who practiced her magic skills for the good of the people. The little Dragon Maid, who was really a dragon, prayed for rain during a drought, and the rains came; she calmed the seas and helped the fishermen. Her good deeds touched the people and so they built a palace for her.

Every year, fishermen and other islanders go to worship the little Dragon Maid in the palace, praying that she will bring them good luck and happiness.

Climbing the Jinlin Pagoda at the foot of the mountain is a worthwhile challenge: it is 38 meters high, with seven floors.

Another beautiful natural site lies on the east coast where there is both a golden, virtually unspoiled beach and a rocky coastline of boulders and Buddhist legends.

Walking on the plank pathway down near the sea, you can enjoy great views of a bay with the clearest water in the area and fanciful rock formations, such as the lion and sea turtle -at low tide you can see both the turtle's head and its shell, at high tide, just the head. There is a cave with a Guan Yin legend and if you use your imagination you just glimpse her slim shape, her palms together. The legend goes that when Guan Yin was a mortal (Princess Miaoshan) she was bathing in the sea and was seen by a young man. She was so ashamed that she fled into the nearby cave and hid.

Not far away is a smooth, naturally formed rock ball, churned by the waves and sand over millions of years. It is called the "East Sea Pearl"- dragons are usually depicted chasing a flaming pearl. Four red characters label the stone pearl. Most visitors touch it for luck and to experience the power of nature.

Just a stone's throw from these geological wonders is a holiday camp named Peach Blossom Village, where you can dine in a renovated Leisure Hamlet and spend the night in well-made wooden cottages, set back among the trees, facing a lawn.

You can read one of Cha's novels in a cottage named after one of his heroes, smell the sweet timber and the sea, listening to the bells from nearby Baique Convent, said to be the place where Guan Yin first became a nun. This makes for an enchanting experience.