Live cameras in Chaozhou, Taiwan

Chaozhou is an urban township in western Pingtung County, on the flat, fertile Pingtung Plain in the far south of Taiwan. It covers about forty-two square kilometers and had about 53,000 residents in early 2024. Local accounts say settlers from Chaozhou in Guangdong arrived around 1724 and named the place after their homeland, although the Teochew speech they brought has long since faded. The township is the hometown of film director Ang Lee, and visitors come for the Museum of Traditional Theater in the restored old town hall, the Chaolin Temple and the forest parks on its edge, Linhousilin and Bada Forest Paradise, which were planted on former sugarcane land.

Freeway views on the Pingtung Plain

Taiwan's transport ministry shares these roadside feeds on TDX, an open data service that pools freeway and highway CCTV from across the island. They show roads, interchanges and traffic flow as frequently refreshed images. National Freeway 3 passes through the area on its way south to Linbian, and Provincial Highway 88, the east-west expressway from Kaohsiung, connects to it at the Zhutian system interchange nearby, so many of the views here watch those two routes and their ramps. The cameras are linked to the nearest place on the map, which means some sit just across the boundary in neighboring townships.

Clocks in Pingtung stay eight hours ahead of UTC all year, because Taiwan does not change its clocks for summer. The climate is tropical: winters are dry and sunny, and the rainy season starts with the plum rains of May and June, followed by summer afternoon thunderstorms and the typhoon season, which peaks from July to September. Lying just south of the Tropic of Cancer, the township sees little swing in day length: summer light fades around seven, and even midwinter afternoons last until about half past five. Holiday weekends, especially Lunar New Year and the Qingming tomb-sweeping festival, bring heavy traffic toward Kenting.

Pingtung city lies a short drive north, the coastal fishing town of Donggang is to the west, and the foothills of the Central Mountain Range rise to the east.

Sources: Chaozhou, Pingtung - Wikipedia · National Freeway 3 - Wikipedia · TDX Transport Data eXchange (MOTC).