- Where
- Lanyu Township, Taitung County
off south-east Taiwan - Coordinates
- 22.046° N
121.548° E - Size
- 45 km²
(Wikipedia) - People
- 5,036, about 4,200 of them Tao
(Wikipedia) - Highest point
- Hongtou Shan, 552 m
- Flying-fish season
- Rayon, February to May
(Wikipedia) - Advisory
- Taiwan Level 1
The little plane bounced in under a green mountain. Along the shore, boats painted red, white and black lay drawn up on the pebbles, bow and stern curled high, a round eye on each prow watching the sea. In a yard, small fish with winged fins were laid out to dry. I admired all of it from the road, which was close enough to be looked back at.
The short answer
Lanyu, also called Orchid Island, is a volcanic island of 45 square kilometres off the south-eastern coast of Taiwan, governed with the uninhabited Lesser Orchid Island as Lanyu Township in Taitung County. To the south, the Bashi Channel separates it from the Batanes Islands of the Philippines. Wikipedia gives its population as 5,036, of whom about 4,200 are Tao, the island’s Indigenous people, and the rest mainly Han Chinese. The Tao name for it is Pongso no Tao, “island of human beings”; the Chinese name, meaning orchid islet, was fixed in 1947 after the island’s Phalaenopsis orchids. The Tao are also recorded as the Yami, a name coined by a Japanese anthropologist in 1897; Taiwan’s Council of Indigenous Peoples uses both. The island’s highest point, Hongtou Shan, is 552 metres.
Why it's worth knowing
The Tao are, in Wikipedia’s words, the only Taiwanese Indigenous people with a maritime culture, and they divide their year by the flying fish. Rayon, from February to May, is the flying-fish season, when the men catch fish for ceremonial use; teyteyka, from June to October, marks the end of surface fishing for them; amyan, from November to January, is the time of waiting for them to return. Their language belongs to the Batanic group with the Ivatan and Itbayat languages of the Philippines, and for centuries the two islands traded and intermarried. In June 2026 a Tao plank boat, the Ovayan, set out with 20 rowers to retrace the old sea route to the Batanes, Focus Taiwan reported; after rough seas forced it to be towed part of the way, Tao rowers brought it to shore to a welcome from about 300 Batanes residents.
The culture survived in part because the island was closed. Under Japanese rule Lanyu was declared an ethnological research area, off limits to outsiders, and the restrictions stayed in force after 1945 until tourism was opened in 1967. Wikipedia records that as a result the Tao have kept their traditions better than any other Indigenous people of Taiwan. Visitors are welcome; they are also asked to learn the rules.
The field notes
The boats
Tao boats are built from many wooden planks shaped with an axe and joined with dowels and rattan, Wikipedia records, which is why they are not strictly canoes: they are not cut from a single log. The bow and stern rise in steep arcs. The builders carve the sides and paint them in red, white and black with three main patterns: a human figure, for the first Tao man; waves; and the eye of the boat, concentric circles edged with triangles like the rays of the sun, which wards off evil spirits at sea. Boats are built to seat from one to ten people, and the Taipei Times uses the Tao name tatala for them. A finished boat is launched with a ceremony at which its owner offers meat and taro to the families of the community and the men lift the boat into the air before it goes into the water. Wikipedia records that the Tao consider a boat an extension of a man’s body, and its building a sacred task.
What visitors are asked
The island’s people have been plain about the rules. In 2019 the Taipei Times reported Lanyu residents warning that the most common mistakes tourists make are touching and photographing the fishing boats, and walking into private gardens to look at fish laid out to dry, all of which are taboo and believed to bring bad luck to the fishermen; tourists should not enter or photograph homes without asking. In 2023 the same paper reported further advice from the island: do not give oranges as gifts, do not ask fishermen about their fishing before they go to sea, and do not walk under the racks where flying fish hang to dry. A local foundation, the Lan An Cultural and Educational Foundation, has made a video and pamphlets about the island’s customs for visitors.
The waste store
In 1982 Taiwan began storing low-level radioactive waste at Longmen, on the south-eastern tip of Lanyu, in a facility now run by the state utility Taipower. Wikipedia records that it was built without consulting the island’s people, that it took in 97,672 drums before it stopped accepting waste in 1996, and that the Tao have protested for its removal since the early 1990s, with large demonstrations in 2002 and 2012. On 1 August 2016 President Tsai Ing-wen, apologising on behalf of the government to Taiwan’s Indigenous peoples, apologised to the Tao for the decision to store the waste on their island and promised an investigation. In November 2019 the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced NT$2.55 billion in compensation, the Taipei Times reported, after an inquiry found that premiers in the 1970s had approved the site without the residents’ consent. The Taipei Times’ reporting in 2025 and 2026 describes the question of where the waste should finally go as still unresolved.
Badai Bay on Lanyu, home of the Tao, looking south towards Lesser Orchid Island.
Photograph: Ken Marshall · View along Badai Bay towards Lesser Orchid Island · CC BY 2.0 · cropped
Goats on the volcanic rocks of Lanyu's east shore, the Tao island.
Photograph: Wenhsuanlee · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
A Tao ipanitika, a large plank boat, on display at a museum in Keelung: red, white and black, with the "eye of the boat" on its prow.
- Book the little plane and the boat back as a pair, and keep a spare day between them for the sea to change its mind.
- Leave the boats on the beach alone: no hands and no lens, unless whoever owns them says yes.
- Keep out of the yards where fish are drying, however lovely the light, and do not walk underneath the racks.
- Wish a fisherman a good evening, and leave his fishing out of the conversation.
- Ride round the island slowly in the late afternoon, and stop wherever the view asks you to.
The list blew off the sea wall and landed beside a goat, who read the first item with great attention and declined the rest.
A tatala, a Tao plank boat. Built by hand from planks shaped with an axe and joined with wooden dowels and rattan, rather than hollowed from a single log, with a bow and stern that sweep steeply up. Its sides are carved and painted red, white and black: a human figure, the waves, and the eye of the boat, rings edged with points like the rays of the sun, to keep evil away at sea. Each is launched by its owner with a ceremony. Visitors are asked not to touch it.
Tally, in the marginFrom the road the eyes looked fierce. By evening, with the light gone gold and the boats pulled up in a row, they looked more like the eyes of somebody waiting up, and the whole beach seemed to be keeping a lamp lit.
Getting there
How to get there. By air, Daily Air flies small planes from Taitung Airport to Lanyu Airport; Wikipedia gives the flight as about half an hour, with the number of flights dependent on the weather, and the airport does not handle night flights. By sea, ferries run from Fugang Fishery Harbour near Taitung City. The East Coast National Scenic Area gives the crossing as two to three hours and says the ferries do not run from October to March; Wikipedia describes the Fugang ferry as year-round, with an extra summer ferry from Houbihu in Kenting. Check the season before you plan around the boat.
When to go. Spring and summer, when the East Coast National Scenic Area’s ferry season is running and the flying-fish season is under way. Bad weather stops the planes as well as the boats, so leave slack in the plan.
What to arrange ahead. Flights in both directions, booked early, with a spare day in case the weather keeps the planes or the boats in port; a bed on the island; and cash.
Safety. The State Department has Taiwan at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level, with a note on the risk of natural disasters: earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, flooding and extreme heat.
Mark this place
Common questions
Where is Lanyu (Orchid Island)?
Lanyu, or Orchid Island, is a 45 square kilometre volcanic island in the Pacific off the south-eastern coast of Taiwan, governed as Lanyu Township in Taitung County. The Bashi Channel separates it from the Batanes Islands of the Philippines to the south. Its Indigenous name, Pongso no Tao, means island of human beings.
Who are the Tao people?
The Tao, also recorded as the Yami, are the Austronesian Indigenous people of Lanyu, about 4,200 of the island’s 5,036 residents by Wikipedia’s figures. They are the only Indigenous people of Taiwan with a maritime culture, and their language is closely related to those of the Ivatan of the Batanes Islands in the Philippines.
What is a tatala?
A tatala is a Tao fishing boat from Lanyu, built by hand from wooden planks shaped with an axe and joined with dowels and rattan. It is carved and painted red, white and black with a human figure, waves and an “eye of the boat”, which by Tao tradition wards off evil spirits at sea.
What should visitors avoid on Orchid Island?
Lanyu residents quoted by the Taipei Times in 2019 said the commonest mistakes are touching or photographing the Tao fishing boats and walking into private gardens to see fish drying, both taboo and believed to bring bad luck. Later advice adds: do not give oranges, do not ask fishermen about fishing before they go out, and do not walk under drying fish.
When is flying fish season on Lanyu?
The Tao of Lanyu call the flying-fish season rayon; it runs from February to May, according to Wikipedia, when men catch flying fish for ceremonial use. Teyteyka, from June to October, ends surface fishing for them, and amyan, from November to January, is the season of waiting for them to return.
Why is Lanyu called Orchid Island?
Lanyu’s Chinese name, meaning orchid islet and rendered in English as Orchid Island, was fixed by the Republic of China government in 1947 after the island’s Phalaenopsis orchids, according to Wikipedia. Its Indigenous Tao name is Pongso no Tao, island of human beings, and the older name Botel Tobago, once used in English, is still used in the Philippines.
How do you get to Orchid Island?
Daily Air flies from Taitung Airport to Lanyu in about half an hour, weather permitting, and ferries sail from Fugang Fishery Harbour near Taitung City. The East Coast National Scenic Area gives the ferry crossing as two to three hours and says ferries do not run from October to March; Wikipedia calls the service year-round.
Is Taiwan safe to visit?
The U.S. State Department has Taiwan at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level (advisory dated 25 November 2025). It notes the risk of natural disasters, including earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, flooding and extreme heat, which on Lanyu can also stop flights and ferries.