Duxing Village sits alongside Zhongzheng Road in Magong, directly across from the Penghu County Cultural Affairs Bureau. The compound was originally built as officers’ quarters in the 1930s during the Japanese colonial period. After the Republic of China government relocated to Taiwan in 1949, the entire complex was taken over by Air Force families, eventually housing several hundred households. It is Penghu’s largest surviving military dependents’ settlement and the most contextually intact example of its kind on the island. The name “Ten Village” (十村) refers to the ten rows of quarters arranged in an orderly grid. At a time when similar settlements across Taiwan were being demolished and redeveloped, Duxing Village’s irreplaceable historical significance led Penghu County Government to register it as a cultural landscape in 2013; it was subsequently restored and opened to the public. The site draws visitors interested in Taiwan’s modern migration history, and also attracts music fans on a pilgrimage of sorts: singer Pan An-bang grew up here and drew on his childhood memories for “Grandma’s Penghu Bay” (外婆的澎湖灣); Mandopop star Zhang Yu-sheng also spent his formative years in Duxing Village, giving the site a dual identity as both a historical landmark and a place of musical heritage.
Highlights
Entering Duxing Village, the first thing you encounter is a row of low Japanese-style wooden bungalows. Fish-scale clapboard siding, wooden lattice windows, and sloping red-tile roofs are characteristic of Showa-era military housing. After 1949, the families who moved in added small kitchens along the corridors, built laundry racks, and planted bougainvillea, so the originally uniform military layout gradually acquired the layered texture of an ordinary residential neighborhood. The restoration work deliberately retained these later additions rather than stripping back to a museum-style “original state,” preserving an uncommon degree of historical authenticity.
The indoor exhibition spaces use photographs and text to reconstruct daily life in the settlement from the 1950s through the 1970s: food-ration booklets, shared stoves in communal kitchens, a neighborhood broadcast column, black-and-white photographs of Mid-Autumn Festival gatherings — all accompanied by first-person accounts that give visitors unfamiliar with military dependents’ culture a way into this distinctive chapter of Taiwan’s migration history. The Pan An-bang Memorial Hall and Zhang Yu-sheng Story Hall display childhood photographs, manuscript facsimiles, and copies of handwritten letters from both musicians, alongside their written memories of Penghu, making these the most affecting sections of the entire site. The outdoor plaza retains old banyan trees and early irrigation tanks. On weekend evenings, local residents still gather in the shade to talk — the coexistence of a historical setting and present-day life gives Duxing Village an atmosphere quite unlike a conventional exhibition hall.
Getting There and Nearby
The site is about a 3-minute walk from the Cultural Center (文化中心) bus stop, served by several Magong city routes; the journey from Magong Main Station takes around 5 minutes. The Magong Police Precinct (馬公分局) stop is also within a 3–4 minute walk and is an equally convenient alternative. Buses run every 20–30 minutes; check TDX real-time departures or the Penghu Bus app before you leave.
If you are driving or renting a scooter, the Zhongzheng Road Cultural Center public car park has ample spaces on weekdays; on weekends, aim to arrive by 9:00 AM. The interior of Duxing Village is pedestrian-only.
Nearby attractions are close enough to combine into a half-day walk through Magong’s old city. Penghu Living Museum is a 5-minute walk away, with rotating special exhibitions alongside its permanent collection. Heading east for 8–10 minutes brings you to Magong Tianhou Temple and Central Old Street, where you’ll find the Four-Eyed Well. A 12-minute walk south brings you to Magong Harbor, the departure point for ferries and tour boats to Jibei, Wang-an, Qimei, and other outer islands. Connecting Duxing Village, Tianhou Temple, Central Old Street, and Guanyin Pavilion into a single half-day loop is a recommended introduction to Magong’s historic core.