and colonization posed by the Qing Empire's refusal to take responsibility for the actions of Taiwan's aborigines, the viceroy of Liangjiang Shen Baozhen toured Taiwan in 1875 in preparation for reform of the island's administration. He ordered attacks against the still restive tribes and began a building program in the southern half of the island which included the fortified lighthouse at Eluanbi. He memorialized on behalf of building a new city in Longkiau (which he gave the more propitious Chinese name "Hengchun") to accommodate and protect foreign sailors. This request was granted: the portion of Fengshan County south of Fangliao's river became the new Hengchun County and its officials fortified a village south of the old Longkiau as their new county seat. The old location continued to be known as Longkiau. Taiwan Prefecture originally covered the entire island as part of Fujian Province. When the island became its own province in 1887, Hengchun County formed part of Tainan Prefecture. Japanese rule Under Japanese rule, the town was known as Kōshun. It received a local office (, chō) in November 1901 and became the seat of its own district in Takao Prefecture in 1920. Commercial whaling began in the area from 1913 to 1915, and was revived from 1920 to 1943. Post-war The Republic of China (ROC) took over Taiwan after World War II. Hengchun's whaling industry was restored in 1955 and formally banned in 1981. On December 26, 2006, a 7.0–7.2 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter off the southwest coast of Taiwan occurred (approximately 22.8 km southwest of Hengchun). It caused damage to many houses in Hengchun, including fifteen historical buildings in the historic center of the township. Two casualties were reported, with many more injured. It was the strongest earthquake to hit Hengchun in one hundred years. Geography Hengchun is the southernmost administrative division of the island. It is bordered to the northwest by Checheng Township and to the northeast by Manzhou Township. Climate Hengchun is well known for its tropical monsoon climate with warm temperatures year round, as befits its name. It usually has neither a cool winter nor an extremely hot summer, with average monthly mean temperatures ranging between 21 and 28 degrees Celsius. The climate is generally divided into two seasons, the cooler and drier season and the warmer and wetter season. During the cool and dry season from early December to late March of the