Kaohsiung, Taiwan

On Friday we took the train to Kaohsiung, the southern port city that juxtaposes modernity and tradition. A symbol of the city is the "Dome of Light" ceiling in the Formosa Boulevard MRT station. It was installed in 2008 and is made up of 4500 glass panels.

Playful art installations can be found throughout the city -- we found some fun examples down near the waterfront. This Banana Train was at the Hamasen Railway Cultural Park, a collection of vintage train cars on the former site of the first railway in Kaohsiung.

Although Kaohsiung is Taiwan's busiest port, there were a few unused piers that had been abandoned for decades. Local artists repurposed the unsightly warehouses, turning them into art exhibition spaces, workshops, and boutique stores decorated with more whimsical art. The Pier 2 Art Center, Dayi Warehouse, and KW2 Port Warehouse No. 2 are now major tourist attractions.

Kaohsiung is a town that knows how to preserve and rehabilitate old spaces. In the Yancheng District, there was a public market that had first opened in the late 1940s selling produce, fish, meat, dry goods and all the things that previous generations used to buy at open-air markets. The modern supermarket kind of put markets like this out of business, and it declined for years. It was still hanging on by a thread about five years ago when a concerted revitalization effort renovated the space to house individual eateries and niche hipster-style vintage shops. Each little stall operates as its own mini-business. Most were selling Taiwanese or Japanese foods, although there was a Mexican (!!!) place and this adorably decorated British pub selling sausage rolls and savory pies. We tried to get a couple of burritos from the Mexican place (called MADDOG) but unfortunately they were completely sold out when we got there. So if you're craving burritos in Kaohsiung, get there early and if you're craving a British pasty you can only get it on a Saturday or Sunday after 4pm!

On another night we did sit down at the counter of Yama Ichi, a fish tempura restaurant, also in the Yancheng market. This family-run place has been in business for four generations, selling deep fried fish cakes with a tangy homemade sauce. We ordered beers but the chef was curious if we'd ever tried Kaoliang -- a sorghum based liquor so he gave Kevin a shot to try. It wasn't bad!

On Saturday morning we headed up to the northern part of town to see the famous Lotus Pond. If you are in the mood for interesting-looking temples, this is the place! The artificial lake is dotted with temple complexes and pavilions on the western shore, with a pleasant pedestrian boardwalk between each of them. Here I am in front of one called the "Spring and Autumn Pavilions". The pavilions themselves are just normal pagodas (you can just see the tip-top of the second one), but the interesting part is the walk-through dragon that is being ridden by Guanyin, the goddess of mercy.

These lakeside pavilions were all built in the 1950s and are a good representation of Taiwan's blended Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucianist belief systems. The best-known of these is the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. This pair of seven-story pagodas are accessed via the animals' gaping mouth entrances. But be careful -- the dragon represents good luck; the tiger is bad luck. So to go through these pagodas properly, you should enter through the mouth of the dragon and leave through the mouth of the tiger if you want to leave your bad luck behind you.

Once you are inside the throat of the beast, the walls are lined with decorative and terrifying ceramic reliefs depicting heaven, hell, and moral judgement -- kind of like "be good, or this will happen to you!"

The third large-scale pavilion we went to was my favorite. This one is dedicated to the Xuantian God in Beiji. This Taoist god is the "dark heavenly emperor" and has the power to protect people from the elements like dangerous storms and floods. He is a warrior god who wields a magic sword.

But what made me like this pavilion the best of the three was that just as you approach the god statue via the bridge, there is a little kiddie funfair off to the left with those little ride machines that you can put a quarter in to entertain your kid while you're at the supermarket. Like, little rocketships and horses and mini-locomotives that the kids can ride.

There were also these cute wooden prayer cards that you could buy. The idea is that you write your request on the card and tie it to the golden string in front of one of the statues along the bridge. The hope is that the god will answer your wish. Obviously most of these were in Chinese, but if you look closely at this photo, the third one begins "May the cat distribution system choose me...". Well Leila, I hope you got your wish! 

After spending the morning in the spiritual realm, we headed to the beach on Cijin Island for some sun worship. This long narrow island separates the Taiwan Strait from the Kaohsiung Harbor and serves as a breakwater for the port. We took a ten-minute ferry ride to the island and fought our way through the Saturday crowds on Old Street to get to Cijin Beach, where we had lunch and a couple of beers at the Sunset Bar.

Like many of the other Taiwanese cities we visited, Kaohsiung really seems to come alive at night. We took a stroll along the Love River to enjoy the neon reflections of some of the interesting buildings. The oddly-shaped hexagon and triangle structure on the left is the Kaohsiung Music Center, a concert hall that only recently opened in 2021.

We also took a boat cruise on the Love River which was thoroughly entertaining as we were surrounded by a huge tour group of boisterous elderly ladies from Tainan. They chattered away which made it truly impossible for us to use Google Translate to understand the Chinese-only cruise commentary. There are some colorful buildings along the waterfront.

After the cruise we headed over to the Dayi Park, which was hosting a huge craft and food fair with live entertainment. 

We passed several of these sweets vendors that seemed popular -- at first we had no idea what they were selling because the signboards weren't in English -- was it candy? Was it mochi? Flavored ice cubes? We found this vendor that had some English on the menu and discovered that they were "Fruit Jelly" so I ordered some to see what all the fuss was about. Turns out they were like big gelatin globs, each with a different flavor. They weren't very sweet -- I got coconut, lychee, sakura, and a couple of others that honestly tasted a bit like soap. Well, you don't know until you try!

On our last evening in Kaohsiung we visited the Sunfong Temple. It was a quiet Sunday night after dark and there were only a handful of worshippers. The temple is dedicated to Nezha, a god who can ward off evil and protect the neighborhood. Something you'll notice on the altar are the little red wooden blocks that look like apple slices. 

These are called moon blocks or divination blocks. They allow the person to communicate with the god. But the person can only ask yes or no questions, kind of like with those Magic 8 Balls you see in novelty stores. They ask their question, then throw a pair of these blocks to find out the god's answer. The blocks are flat on one side and curved on the other. If they land with both flat sides up that is an angry "no" from the god. If they land with both curved sides up, that is a laughing "hahaha....no" from the god (the equivalent of the Magic 8 Ball's "ask again later" answer). If one block is curved side up and the other is flat side up, this is a "yes" from the god.

I was kind of surprised that there weren't more people inside this pretty temple. It's known for the beautiful canopy of red lanterns hanging above the courtyard. You can actually climb a flight of stairs to see the canopy from above -- it looks like a floating sea of red lights.

I mentioned that there weren't many people inside the temple, but there was quite a crowd gathered outside the temple. There was some kind of song contest event going on -- there was a dayglow stage and various singers attired in their sparkliest sequined outfits singing their hearts out for a pretty lively crowd. All of the songs were in Chinese and they sounded like they might have been old standards. It was fun to watch and some of the singers were really talented. I'm not sure if this was something special, or just a typical Sunday night at the temple.

Today we took the high speed rail from Kaohsiung all the way up the coast and back to Taipei -- a distance of about 350 kms or 230 miles. If we'd driven a car it would've taken a little over four hours. Instead our journey clocked in at around two hours -- amazing! We didn't do much more sightseeing once we got to Taipei -- we grabbed a quick dinner and repacked for our early flight to Japan. We had such an enjoyable time here meeting some wonderful people and experiencing a fascinating culture so different from our own.