To Spear One Billfish, You Stand on the Waves for Three Hours

Every year from around October, once the northeast monsoon sets in, the billfish come back to Chenggong's Xingang harbour.

Out toward the line of the horizon, the Kuroshio is running north, and the billfish are following it back to the East Coast.

Spearing Billfish Is Work You Do Standing on the Waves

Harpoon-billfishing is the most famous traditional fishing method in eastern Taiwan, born in the Japanese colonial era.

Unlike the longlines or trawl nets of the modern fleet, harpooning comes down to one man, one harpoon, one swell:

1. The fisherman stands on the harpoon platform at the bow (a wooden deck jutting out over the prow)
2. The boat creeps forward at low speed through the swell
3. The harpooner scans the surface with his own eyes, watching for the instant a dorsal fin breaks the water
4. He reads the boat's speed, the run of the waves, the fish's heading — then raises the harpoon, takes aim, and throws

A single throw lands less than three times in ten. If you miss three times for every one that strikes, you are already counted among the best.

Spearing billfish isn't work for strength, it's work for patience. You stand for three hours, four hours, soaked through by the spray — all of it for that one second.

In Chenggong — whose harbour is still called Xingang (新港), its Japanese-era name — it is a traditional method fewer and fewer fishermen still practise. Here there is the Kuroshio, there are hidden reefs, and there are still people willing to spend a whole morning waiting on a single fish.

Three Fish, Three Seasons

Season	Main Catch	Character
From around October (once the northeast monsoon sets in)	black marlin / striped marlin	the peak of billfish season, the height of the harpoon fishery
Spring	mahi-mahi (鬼頭刀)	a regional specialty of the east, sweet and tender
mid-April to mid-June (ECNSA)	flying fish	the spring catch

So "the best season to visit Chenggong Fishing Port" depends on what you want to eat — to watch billfish landed off the harpoon boats, come from around October; for mahi-mahi, come in spring.

How a Billfish Reaches the Table

The boats come back one after another to unload, and in the afternoon the catch is auctioned out loud at the fish market by the harbour. What time the bidding starts, and what fish there are, depends on the day's boats. There are no information boards — you just stand to one side and watch. It isn't a show put on for anyone.

One ECNSA page (〈成功漫遊〉) says the market is closed on Sundays — call the Xingang fishermen's association fish market (+886-89-851008) before you go.

Why does the billfish taste different here? It isn't any secret recipe. It's that the sea is that close. The fish speared today is cut open the same day in the shops in town — no freezer, no truck, no changing hands in between.

In Chenggong, fresh isn't an adjective. It's a distance.

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One strike of the harpoon is paid for with a whole morning of waiting.

」

How to Eat Chenggong's Seafood

The Local Way to Order

1. Seafood restaurants (across from the market, several of them): the classic trio of billfish sashimi + mahi-mahi soup + flying-fish-roe sausage
2. Harbour breakfast: billfish rice-noodle soup
3. Buying fresh at the market: at the fish market you can buy whole fish straight off the boat, sold by the catty
4. Cut to order: some stalls offer a fresh-sliced sashimi service — buy a whole fish and have the vendor slice it into sashimi right there

A One-Day Itinerary

Time	Plan
Morning	Sunrise at Sanxiantai (三仙台) (summer), then on to Chenggong's Xingang harbour
Breakfast	billfish rice-noodle soup
Late morning	wander the harbour, pick up gifts (dried flying fish, sea salt)
Lunch	seafood restaurant: freshly sliced billfish sashimi
Afternoon	the auction at the fish market — start time depends on the boats; call ahead (see above)
After that	continue north along Provincial Highway 11 (Baxiandong Caves, Changbin) or head back south to Dulan

Corners That Are Easy to Miss

• Pisirian PaWuPawu Village (比西里岸): less than ten minutes south of Chenggong, with the goat-horn-creature land-art installation
• Chenggong Elementary School: the loveliest school along this stretch of coast, its playground facing straight out onto the Pacific
• Xingang Tianhou Temple (新港天后宮): a century-old temple beside the harbour, where the old fishermen come before they head out to sea
• Chenggong Old Street: streetscapes left from the fishery's heyday in the 1950s, and rarely a tourist in sight

How to Get to Chenggong

• By car: about one hour north from central Taitung along Provincial Highway 11 (45 km)
• By private hire: recommended. Sunrise at Sanxiantai plus a Chenggong harbour breakfast is a classic pairing
• By bus: the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle East Coast Line (daytime departures)

A Closing Word

What Chenggong taught me is this — the freshness of food cannot be faked.

From the harpooner putting to sea, to the auction at the market, to the slicing in the kitchen, to the dish set down on the table — a freshness that never leaves town is something no cold chain, no transport, no packaging can imitate.

Next time you crave billfish sashimi, come to Chenggong, and come ashore with the Kuroshio.

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Correction (2026-10-29): the auction time, the billfish-season months and the flying-fish season have been rewritten to follow the original wording of the East Coast National Scenic Area Administration (ECNSA) and the Ministry of Agriculture. The earlier "September to March" rested on a single 2016 source, and the morning timeline had no source at all.

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Further reading:

• To pair with the Sanxiantai sunrise: Across Eight Arches, to the Island the Three Immortals Left Behind
• To travel the whole East Coast: East Coast Tribes, 3 Days