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Theme Week Taiwan – Kaohsiung

Friday, 25 January 2019 - 12:00 pm (CET/MEZ) Berlin | Author/Destination: Asia / Asien
Category/Kategorie: General Reading Time:  7 minutes

🔊 Listen to this Post Kaohsiung is a special municipality located in southern-western Taiwan and facing the Taiwan Strait. Kaohsiung has a population of approximately 2.77 million people and has been officially ranked as Taiwan’s third most populous city since July 2017. It is Taiwan’s largest municipality by area at 2,951.85 km² (1,139.72 sq mi), stretching from Mount Yu to Taiping Island. Since its start in the 17th century, Kaohsiung has grown from a small trading village into the political, economic, transportation, manufacturing, refining, shipbuilding, and industrial center of southern Taiwan.

The Kaohsiung International Airport is the second largest airport in Taiwan. The Port of Kaohsiung is the largest harbor in Taiwan, but not officially part of Kaohsiung City. The southern terminal of Freeway 1 is in Kaohsiung. The city is served by the TRA Western and Pingtung railway lines. The Taiwan High Speed Rail also provides fast and frequent railway connection to Taipei. The Kaohsiung Rapid Transit, the city’s subway system, was launched in early 2008. Kaohsiung was the host city of the World Games 2009, a multi-sport event primarily composed of sports not featured in the Olympic Games. The city is also home to the Republic of China Navy fleet headquarters and academy.

Main landmarks of Kaohsiung city include the 85 Sky Tower, the ferris wheel of the Kaohsiung Dream Mall, the Kaohsiung Arena and Kaohsiung harbor. The newly developed city is also known for having a large number of shopping streets, organized night markets and newly developed leisure parks such as the Pier-2 Art Center, E-DA Theme Park, Metropolitan Park, the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts and Taroko Park. Natural attractions of the city include Shoushan (Monkey mountain), the Love River, Qijin Island, the bay of Sizihwan, the Dapingding Tropical Botanical Garden and Yushan National Park at the northeastern tip of the city. The city also features various historical attractions such as the Old City of Zuoying, a historical town built during the early 17th century, the Former British Consulate at Takao built during the late 19th century and various sugar and crop factories built during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. Kaohsiung city includes a wide range of different natural attractions due to its large size and geographical variation, as it is bordered by the Central Mountain Range in the northeast and the warm South China Sea to the west and southwest. The year-round warm climate allows coral reefs to grow along the coasts around Kaohsiung harbor, with Shoushan mountain being a small mountain completely made up of coral reefs and calcium carbonate, while the mountainous districts in the northeast include one of the highest peaks in East Asia, Mount Yushan. Other notable natural attractions include the Mount Banping, Lotus Lake, and the Dongsha Atoll National Park, which is currently inaccessible by the public due to military occupation.

A large number of historical sites and monuments were left in the city after the colonization of the Dutch in the 17th century, the Qing dynasty during the 18th and 19th century and the Japanese empire from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century. The city government has protected various sites and monuments from further damage and many have been opened to the public since the early 1980s. Notable historical sites include the Cemetery of Zhenghaijun, Former British Consulate at Takao, Former Dinglinzihbian Police Station, Meinong Cultural and Creative Center, Former Sanhe Bank, and the Kaohsiung Lighthouse, one of the oldest lighthouses of the city.

As most of its development took place during the comparatively recent era of Japanese occupation, Kaohsiung city is endowed with some of the widest roads in the country and the most organized usage of space. The available space enabled the new government to build museums of all sorts, from astronomy to history, art, science and technology. Museums in the city include Chung Li-he Museum, Cijin Shell Museum, Jiaxian Fossil Museum, Kaohsiung Astronomical Museum, Kaohsiung Hakka Cultural Museum, Kaohsiung Harbor Museum, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Kaohsiung Museum of History, Kaohsiung Museum of Labor, Kaohsiung Vision Museum, Meinong Hakka Culture Museum, National Science and Technology Museum, Republic of China Air Force Museum, Soya-Mixed Meat Museum, Taiwan Sugar Museum, Takao Railway Museum and YM Museum of Marine Exploration Kaohsiung.

As the largest municipality in Taiwan, Kaohsiung has a number of mostly newly built leisure areas/parks. These include parks, zoos, pavilions and a number of wharfs and piers. Notable parks or pavilions in the city include the Central Park, Siaogangshan Skywalk Park, Fo Guang Shan, the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, the Love Pier, Singuang Ferry Wharf and Kaohsiung Fisherman’s Wharf.

Kaohsiung is well known for having numerous large and organized night markets, such as Jin-Zuan Night Market, Liuhe Night Market Ruifeng Night Market and Zhonghua Street Night Market, as well as having the biggest night market in Taiwan, the Kaisyuan Night Market, which opened in late 2013. Other attractions include the Dome of Light of Kaohsiung MRT’s Formosa Boulevard Station, the Kaohsiung Mosque and the Tower of Light of Sanmin District.

Here you can find the complete Overview of all Theme Weeks.

Read more on Kaohsiung City Government, Taiwan Tourism – Kaohsiung, LonelyPlanet.com – Kaohsiung, Wikitravel Kaohsiung, Wikivoyage Kaohsiung and Wikipedia Kaohsiung. Learn more about the use of photos. To inform you about latest news most of the city, town or tourism websites offer a newsletter service and/or operate Facebook pages/Twitter accounts. In addition more and more destinations, tourist organizations and cultural institutions offer Apps for your Smart Phone or Tablet, to provide you with a mobile tourist guide (Smart Traveler App by U.S. Department of State - Weather report by weather.com - Global Passport Power Rank - Travel Risk Map - Democracy Index - GDP according to IMF, UN, and World Bank - Global Competitiveness Report - Corruption Perceptions Index - Press Freedom Index - World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index - UN Human Development Index - Global Peace Index - Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Index). If you have a suggestion, critique, review or comment to this blog entry, we are looking forward to receive your e-mail at comment@wingsch.net. Please name the headline of the blog post to which your e-mail refers to in the subject line.

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