Where does the Kenting name originate from? Who was the first calling this place – 墾丁 Kěndīng?
The name ‘Kenting‘ dates back to the third year of the Guangxu reign in the Qing Dynasty (1877 AD). The Qing government recruited many laborers from the Chaozhou region in Guangdong to cultivate and develop this land.
To commemorate these hardworking individuals who opened up the mountains and forests, the name ‘Kenting’ was given, combining the characters for ‘cultivate’ (墾) and ‘laborer’ (丁).
The “Hengchun County Annals (恆春縣志)” also documented Kenting as a village where Hakka people coexisted with the indigenous inhabitants.
There is also a theory that Kenting was developed during the Tongzhi era. The former site of Kenting Village was at the foot of the Dajian Mountain, originally just a small geographical name.
Today, it refers to the Kenting Road Night Market (still beneath Dajian Mountain), and it has the status of the village. Since it later became the name of a national park, it is often used to refer broadly to the entire tourism area of the Hengchun Peninsula.