The rock was formed by the rising of the coastal coral reef.

Its lower part has been eroded by the sea thus forming a vase-shaped structure.

[1][2] Its highest point stands at a height of 9 meters (30 ft).

[3] 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,[4] although the name actually honors the slaughtered crew of the Dutch ship Gouden Leeuw, the punitive reprisals for which—particularly the Liuqiu Island Massacre—depopulated the island in the 1630s and 1640s.

This article about a location in Taiwan is a stub.