The PVC-pipe boats of Linyuan

detail of Kaohsiung county map, showing the Gao-Ping Xi

Finding decent maps has always been a problem here. Forget about the wonderfully detailed U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) or British Ordnance Survey (OS) maps that are easily available in the U.S. or Britain. Even those maps that are available for sale in Taiwan often concentrate on the urban centers, so here out beyond the fringes of Kaohsiung, in the "countryside", local places of interest are usually beyond the edge of the map. My local geographic info comes from a pastiche of locally-bought planimetric maps and internet map databases, including Google Earth! The local maps are all in Chinese of course, which is ok because the county highways (gong1 lu4) and county roads (xian4 dao4) are assigned Arabic numerals.
As long as the map I need is small-scale enough, I can usually find a route number that gets me where I want to go, and this approach is supplemented by a lot of backtracking. I'm mostly illiterate here, though the characters for the major cities and some of the towns in my area are familiar now. I often come home wondering what town I was in, so to locate myself I either mark a waypoint on the GPS or take a picture of a road sign, to have my wife read to me later. Often I get frustrated and simply have to return to search for my destination another day.
Finding the harbors and dockyards in Linyuan was, as usual, the result of intuition and a lucky turn. It was the low-res satellite photo from Google Earth, in fact, that alerted me to the existence of the two harbors in Linyuan in the first place.


Colorful fiberglass-hulled fishing boats in Linyuan Harbor

The fleet here is split between more conventional types of boats, and what I've been calling PVC-pipe boats.


Quayside in linyuan



PVC-pipe boats at Dong Gang

They are essentially rafts, constructed of PVC pipes lashed together with polyester strapping, onto which a wood framework, a deck, a pilothouse/engine compartment, and steering gear is fitted. The larger version of this particular craft is about 30-40 feet long and powered by a shaft-drive diesel.


A fishing boat under construction quayside in Dong Gang, PingTung County



Detail of the teak framework which supports the deck and net gantries


The steering gear housing and rudder post (aft)


Engine, engine bed stringers and propeller shaft.


Another boat with its deck removed. Note the stainless steel
net gantry in the foreground.


There's a considerably larger plant on board this one!

I can only speculate what these boats are used for, probably inshore fishing in the Gao-Ping Xi, or for day trips in the Taiwan Strait. Many fishermen set up fish weirs in the Gao-Ping Xi, and use their boats to tend the weirs and get the fish to market. Many of the larger boats I saw were fitted with fine mesh nets, and I presume were engaged in shrimping.


Nets and net booms with pvc-pipe floats on working boats at Linyuan. The refinery complex can be seen in the background

Other boats are engaged in fishing estuaries where fish weirs are set up.


Anchored in place, a boat uses prop-power to drive fish into a weir.

fish weir in the foreground, boats return to their moorings on the Linyuan side of
the Gao-Ping Xi at nightfall.

I've also seen a smaller, outboard powered variant of this type of craft. Here is one that I saw under construction at a village near Dong Gang, on the East side of the Gao-Ping Xi, in Pingtung County.


Profile view of an outboard-powered PVC boat under construction


Access for an outboard motor

Bow detail, showing teak frame and nylon cord lashings

Here is a photo of some completed and working outboard boats at the fishing harbor in Linyuan. The construction is slightly different, probably reflecting local building preferences. Note the upswept stern tubes on the the center boats.



This boat has a tender made from what looks like scrap pvc. I've seen several of the larger boats having damaged sections of pvc removed, and new sections installed. There's a lot of scrap lying around unwanted for projects like this.