The Liuqiu township's tourism department ascribes the island's former name "Golden Lion Island" to Vase Rock's supposed resemblance to a lion's head, although the name actually honors the slaughtered crew of the Dutch ship Gouden Leeuw, the punitivereprisals for whichparticularly the Liuqiu Island Massacredepopulated the island in the 1630s and 1640s.