To be honest, my first impression of Kaohsiung wasn’t the best: walking out of the station, there was construction work going on everywhere, beggars approaching me, and the walk to the hostel being much longer and hotter than expected. When I arrived finally, the doors were locked and no one was opening when I rang the doorbell, even though I had agreed with them on my arrival time beforehand. Luckily, I met some nice Taiwanese (they are all very nice and helpful here) who called the hostel for me.
After a quick check-in, I hurried to meet up with Vicky, a girl I knew from Couchsurfing and who had offered to show me around. Together we took the ferry to Cijin island, a small island laying just in front of Kaohsiung. On the island, we walked around quite a bit in the scorching heat, visiting the beach (only for pictures), some fish market, temples and sculptures. To be honest though, the beach and the boat ride to view the skyline from the water were the best parts!
The second part of our afternoon, Vicky brought me to Pier 2 Art Center which is an old industrial area full of art, starting with some sculptures at on old railway station and then continued along the new tramway tracks along the water. There was cool graffiti and sculptures to be found everywhere you looked, and some nice galleries and shops in between. I loved it!! It was awesome to just wander around and discover something new all the time. It’s great how this old run-down area has been converted into something so cool and fun!
In the evening, I visited two different night markets: Ruifeng was more local and therefore barely any English signs or anything that looked vegetarian, Liuhe is more the tourist night market where it was a little easier for me to find something. As much as I love night markets, they are rather tricky if you can’t read Chinese AND are a picky eater.
On my second day in Kaohsiung, I took the metro and bus to Lotus Pond – a little lake a bit outside the city center with a cluster of cool temples around it. The first one I visited was the Dragon & Tiger Temple: in order to get luck in your life, you have to enter through the dragon’s mouth and exit through the tiger’s!
I then continued my walk with various stops at multiple temples around the lake, some rather kitschy, some classic. I finished off at the Confucius Temple which was a nice change!
Then I went back to the center and walked past the Love River back to Pier 2 Art Center. I wanted to explore more and take some more pics! So that’s what I did, and I still discovered so many new things I had not seen the day before.
To finish off my time in Kaohsiung, I went to 85 Sky Tower, up to the viewing platform which was a special experience after visiting Burj Khalifa… because I was pretty much by myself most of the time!! There were some cool views of the city and the harbour and since the ticket is not too expensive, I’d say it’s totally worth it! The day ended with some more night market food of course… a good way to say goodbye to an awesome city! I wish I would have had more time in Kaohsiung…
Just Booked A Trip 