Turtle Island (龜山島 or gui shan dao) is a turtle-shaped volcanic island rising dramatically from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Yilan in northeastern Taiwan.
Once home to a fishing village and later an off-limits military zone, the island is now one of Taiwan’s most fascinating day trips.
Boat tours from Wushi Harbor combine whale and dolphin watching with incredible views of Turtle Island’s cliffs, sea caves, volcanic vents, and brilliantly colored waters. Some tours also let you land and explore a former village and military sites on the island.
I recently joined one of these tours and had an incredible experience watching a huge pod of dolphins before landing on Turtle Island. In this guide, I’ll explain which tour to book, what you’ll see, how to get there from Taipei, and what to expect on the island.
Turtle Island is not to be confused with Xiaoliuqiu, another of Taiwan’s offshore islands, where visitors can go snorkeling with giant sea turtles.
Turtle Island Quick Tips
- I booked my Turtle Island & Dolphin Spotting Tour on Klook. Use my code NICKTAIWAN10 for 10% off tours & activities on Klook.
- I recommend Option 3: “whale watching & island landing & surrounding island”. This combines the three top experiences in one trip, but Option 4 is the most comprehensive.
- Despite the “whale watching” name, dolphins are much more commonly spotted than whales.
- June to August is peak season. Departures are less frequent in the shoulder seasons (March to May and September to November) and tours stop running from December to February.
- All ages can join the tour. Commentary is in Mandarin, but the island has some informational panels in English.
- Bring your passport or ARC, sunscreen, and motion-sickness medication if needed.
- If you don’t spot any whales or dolphins on a trip that is supposed to include them, the tour operator offers another trip for free.
- Tours depart from Wushi Harbor (烏石港) in Toucheng, Yilan. I took bus 1877 directly from Nangang Bus Terminal in Taipei.
- After the morning tour, I caught an Uber to Kavalan Distillery before returning to Taipei.
- Alternatively, you could consider visiting Wai’ao Beach or Lanyang Museum near the harbor, or Jiaoxi for hot springs further away.
- I was using a Holafly Asia eSIM for this trip. Amazingly, I still had a connection when we were approximately 20 kilometers off the coast. They also have a Taiwan eSIM which is better if you are only visiting Taiwan. Click either link for 5% off and see my guide to using an eSIM in Taiwan.
Welcome to Turtle Island
Turtle Island is a volcanic island measuring just 3.3 kilometers from the turtle’s head in the east to the tip of its tail in the west.
The island is approximately 10 kilometers off the coast of Yilan. When viewed from certain points on the mainland, it really looks like a giant turtle floating on the sea.
The turtle shape is only obvious from certain angles. From Toucheng and when sailing towards the island, you’re looking toward its tail end, so you won’t see the turtle shape until you sail around it.
Turtle Island is Taiwan’s only active volcanic island, with four eruptions recorded over the last 7,000 years.
Volcanic activity continues today in the form of fumaroles and underwater hydrothermal vents, whose sulfur creates striking colors in the surrounding water.
Despite its small size, Turtle Island is also home to some interesting wildlife, including the endangered Taiwan flying fox, Taiwan’s largest bat, and dozens of species of birds.
The warm Kuroshio Current passes near the island, creating rich fishing grounds that attract whales and dolphins.
Up to 17 species of cetacians have been recorded in the surrounding waters, although dolphins are what visitors are most likely to see.
The first recorded settlement dates to 1853. The isolated fishing community eventually grew to 769 people at its peak in 1967, with its own school and temple.
Life here was challenging, though, and the government relocated the entire population to the Yilan mainland in 1977.
Turtle Island then became a restricted military zone, with soldiers occupying the island’s rugged terrain and sea tunnels.
The military later withdrew, and Turtle Island finally opened to tourists in 2000.
Today, the island remains protected and access is controlled. Visitors can explore it on authorized boat tours from Wushi Harbor like the one I’ll be describing, with daily landing numbers limited to protect its natural environment.
How to Book a Turtle Island Tour
A few different companies run virtually identical half-day tours from Wushi Harbor in Yilan to Turtle Island.
I recommend booking from this page on Klook, which is operated by the Huaqi 168 Tour Company (華棋168號賞鯨).
The page lists four tour options, each with different departure times. The most basic one includes whale/dolphin spotting and sailing around the island. The next one adds landing on the island but has no whale/dolphin spotting.
My most recommended one, option 3, includes whale/dolphin watching, sailing around the island, and landing on it.
The most comprehensive package also adds hiking up 401 Highland (401高地) on the island, but I decided to skip this in the heat of summer.
Outside of peak summer, and if you can handle a steep hike, then go for it! Just please note that there is a daily limit of 100 people to 401 Highland, so this tour may sell out faster.
It’s best to book these tours in summer (June to August), when tours are most likely to run. In the slack season (September to November and March to May), tours will only run if they reach the minimum number of participants – try weekends, when more locals go.
The odds of spotting dolphins (or, if you’re very lucky, whales) are highest from April to September.
Getting to Wushi Harbor
Bus 1877 (Monday to Thursday) or 1877B (Friday to Sunday) departs from Nangang West Bus Station near Nangang MRT station (exit 1A) and Nangang HSR station. You can swipe EasyCard for the ride.
The bus is supposed to take 50 minutes to Wushi Harbor Bus Station, but mine arrived a little late and took a bit longer to get there.
I had signed up for the 9 AM tour and was supposed to arrive 40 minutes early. I caught the first bus of the day, scheduled to depart at 7:34 AM, but I didn’t arrive at Wushi Harbor until 8:42 – almost 20 minutes late.
I was one of the last people to check in at the Huaqi 168 office and join the line to board the boat. It was still fine, but just barely.
Just keep this in mind when choosing which bus to catch.
When the tour finished at 1 PM, I ordered an Uber (15 minutes’ wait) to Kavalan Distillery (40 min, TWD 800). After visiting it, I took an Uber to Yilan Station and rode the train back to Taipei.
My Turtle Island Tour
I’ll now cover each part of the half-day tour I took to Turtle Island.
Departing Wushi Harbor and Sailing Past Turtle Island
Because I had arrived a little late, representatives from Huaqi 168 were waiting for me in front of the Wushi Harbor Information Center when I got off the bus.
I showed them my passport to check in, then joined a line of around 60 people (virtually all Taiwanese) waiting to get on the boat.
We boarded the boat, each person was given a bottle of water and a life jacket to wear, and we sailed off!
The sea on the day I sailed was not particularly rough. I didn’t notice any locals getting sick (which usually happens on ferry rides to other offshore islands like Green Island, Orchid Island, or Penghu), this could vary by day.
But I do recommend taking some seasickness medication (暈船藥, available at most pharmacies in Taiwan) if you are prone to it.
As we sailed toward Turtle Island, the mainland of Taiwan shrunk behind us. One of the guides gave us a brief introduction of the day to come (all in Mandarin). A few other boats from other tour companies were sailing at the same time as us.
Most passengers stayed inside, while a few of the most eager ones headed to the bow as we got closer to Turtle Island.
Around 20 minutes after departing, we passed the tail of Turtle Island and sailed along the cliffs of the island’s south side.
The guide pointed out several sea caves and military tunnel openings in the cliffs. Later in the tour, we would be looking out from the left side opening in the below image – you can even see its fun pointing out.
The cliffs became even more impressive around the middle of the south side of the island.
Here, huge exposed rock faces rise almost vertically from the sea, streaked with different colors and patches of vegetation.
As we sailed towards the eastern end of the island, the turtle’s unmistakable head came into view.
This was the first point on the boat trip when the island really started to look like a turtle.
At the end of the towering head, a boat which had been sailing next to us turned to navigate its way around it. We instead kept sailing straight out to sea. We were off to find dolphins!
Dolphin Spotting
We sailed a surprisingly long way out to sea – around the same distance that we had sailed from the mainland to Turtle Island.
About an hour after departing from the mainland, and just when I was beginning to think we might not see anything, we finally found a pod of dolphins!
The interaction started out with a pair of dolphins swimming in front of the boat’s bow, as if they were guiding us.
More dolphins appeared all around us, revealing the sheer size of the pod – a couple dozen of them by my estimate.
The dolphins proceeded to put on a performance for us, leaping into the air, doing wild twists and spins. Groups of them would swim under our boat from side-to-side.
There were even some baby ones – how cute!
This incredible interaction went on for around 15 minutes. I shot hundreds of photos with my zoom lens, but only around 10% of them were keepers.
I never knew where in the water a dolphin was going to jump out from. By the time I aimed at that point and clicked the shutter, the dolphin was usually already back in the water – a lot of my photos were of splashes, not dolphins.
Another boat pulled up and we got to watch the dolphins perform again for them.
Returning to Turtle Island and Landing
Once our time with the dolphins was up, we sailed back towards the towering head of Turtle Island.
On the approach, the island looked the most turtle-like that we’d seen all day, as you can see in the image above.
This time, we sailed around the island’s north side. This side has less dramatic cliffs, but we enjoyed an impressive view of the verdant 401 Highland, the highest point on the island.
While the most comprehensive tour option includes hiking up 401 Highland, I did not choose that one, so I wouldn’t be hiking up there today.
After rounding the northernmost point on the island, we sailed into Honeymoon Bay (蜜月灣) on the west coast, just before the turtle’s tail, and docked at Beian Pier (北岸碼頭).
As we disembarked from the boat, the guide made an announcement in Mandarin that we should not linger on the dock or take any photos of the pier, which is considered a restricted military/coastal area.
From the pier, we followed a path to the small Guishan Island Visitor Center (龜山島遊客服務中心), which is located at the base of the turtle’s tail, where we took a short break in the air conditioned room.
The center includes restrooms and a small shop with Turtle Island-themed souvenirs, cold drinks, popsicles, tea eggs, and a few other snacks.
Turtle Island Walking Tour
After our break, the guides rounded up our group to start a short guided tour of the area.
I had to pay careful attention to which guides were ours, as there were a few other large groups in the center at the same time as us, each with their own guides doing the same tour. I didn’t want to end up with the wrong group!
The tour started at Putuoyan Temple (普陀巖廟), the only temple on the island. The temple dates to 1890, when a small fishing village was located here, but the current building dates to 1952.
The fishermen started out by worshipping a small sachet of incense here, but eventually a statue of Matsu, goddess of fishermen and the sea, was added to the altar.
When the residents were relocated in 1977, they took their Matsu statue with them. Soldiers stationed here later worshipped Guanyin instead.
From the temple, we enjoyed a view across Turtle Tail Lake (龜尾湖), which formed when waves and currents piled up pebbles to create the island’s long “tail,” trapping a small lagoon behind it.
The lagoon’s sheltered waters provided a natural harbor for fishing boats, so the island’s small village grew up beside it.
Directly opposite our vantage point, we could see a white statue of the goddess Guanyin (觀音) at the base of the cliffs across the lagoon.
As we set out on a clockwise walk around the lagoon, we spotted several fish, turtles and even a sizeable eel in the water.
There was also some old military equipment on display along the trail.
Around halfway around the lagoon, we reached the statue we’d seen from the other side. The dragon-riding Guanyin statue was installed during the island’s military period for the soldiers stationed here.
Shortly after the statue, we reached a vantage point with a view across the lagoon to the turtle’s tail, or spit of pebbles sticking out into the sea, with the mainland of Taiwan visible beyond.
Military Tunnel and Former Village
Then we arrived at the site of an old army camp (軍事設施遺址), with the words Guishan Island (龜山島) written across it.
From there we entered the Guishan Island Military Tunnel (龜山島軍事坑道), an old military tunnel carved into the mountain.
The tunnel network is around 800 meters long and once connected several gun positions.
We were able to walk around 200 meters to an old coastal defense position, where a U.S.-made M1A1 90 mm anti-aircraft gun still points out toward the sea.
Originally designed for air defense, guns like this were later repurposed to defend Taiwan’s coast from attacks by sea.
After exiting the tunnel, we descended onto the turtle’s tail and completed the final portion of the round-lagoon walk.
This portion featured some nice views looking back on the lagoon and military camp we’d just come from.
The walk finished in the former fishing village-turned-military site, with relics and structures from both periods still visible.
A school operated here during the Japanese colonial period, when children were taught in Japanese. Guishan Elementary School (龜山國民小學) was later established after the war and remained open until the residents left in 1977.
One building here contains some information panels (English and Mandarin) detailing the island’s geology and history. Several pieces of military equipment are also strewn about.
From there, we passed the temple again, returned to the Visitor Center, and awaited the return of all the guests in our group before returning to the boat and sailing back to the mainland.
The return trip was uneventful. After spending a few hours under the intense summer sun, most guests quietly relaxed or nodded off on the ride.
Final Thoughts
On a personal note, Turtle Island was even more impressive than I had expected.
The stunning island views from the boat and huge pod of dolphins were the highlights for me, but I was surprised by how much I also enjoyed exploring the island itself – before going, I thought the tour might be a little boring.
Having finally visited Kinmen a few weeks prior, Turtle Island was the last of Taiwan’s offshore islands or archipelagos that I hadn’t yet visited, completing a personal milestone.