Day 11 - Kaohsiung
Cijin District 旗津
Great Harbor Bridge & Pier 2 Art District 大港橋&駁二藝術特區
Weiwuying Center for the Arts & MiMi Village 衛武營國家藝術文化中心 & 迷迷村
Love River, Love Boat 愛河愛之船
Liouhe Night Market 六合觀光夜市
Kaohsiung is the third largest city in Taiwan, yet I rarely hear about it as a travel destination. We didn’t expect much from the visit but ended up loving the city! The city has a modern and fun vibe, Cijin has beautiful beaches and a lively daytime street market. The Great Harbor Bridge is an engineering marvel, the Arts Center is beautifully modern, and the Love Boat was an enjoyable river cruise. The night market is massive and has tons of food options. What’s not to love?
Voyagers tips: Many hotels near city center don’t have on-site parking and you need to walk a few blocks to a parking lot where they have contracts with, or you can try your luck finding street parking. Pay special attention to parking arrangements when booking hotels.
Qijin District 旗津
Qijin is a peninsula in Kaohsiung with fun spots to visit. There are a few parks by the ocean, including the Windmill Park, Qijin Coastal Park and Cijin Beach, all are very popular in warmer weather and are pretty quite on New Years Day (1/1) when we visited. We visited the Coastal Park and got the black-sand beach to ourselves. There are bikes for rent to ride along the coast, but they require an app to rent the bikes, and each account requires one local phone number and can only rent one bike at a time so that didn’t work for us. It was still a nice stroll along the beach. The Cijin Old Street (旗津老街) daytime street market was super busy since it was a holiday, with lots of street food and street vendors. There is a harbor at the end of Old Street where you can take boat rides back to the city side but we didn’t try it. Not sure how busy it is at other times of the year but definitely a fun place to visit!
Voyagers tip: The official parking lot there was packed and there was a long line of cars waiting to get in. There are lots of people waving at us to go park with them, we decided to go with one of the old ladies, she led us by bike to go park in front of her house and charged us $6 for three hours. Money well spent, as we didn’t want to waste our time waiting 30min in the car for a parking spot in the parking lot!
Great Harbor Bridge & Pier 2 Art District 大港橋&駁二藝術特區
Pier 2 is a nice walk with some street shops and wall murals. It’s quite a pleasant walk to the Harbor Bridge where there are even more shops and restaurants. We got there just before 3pm and walked across the bridge to find a sitting spot, then set up our tripod and waited for the bridge to open. Once the bridge closed again, we walked around the shop next to it and the open plaza area behind the shop. The girls had fun driving the dinosaur carts. :) We also had some yummy street vendor food like chocolate dinosaur waffles before heading back.
Voyagers tips: (1) Find a parking lot near Pier 2 and just park and walk. It’s a short and easy walk to get to Harbor Bridge. (2) Get there before 2:30 so you have time to find parking and walk to the harbor bridge. The guards will start clearing the bridge of pedestrians at around 2:50. (3) Once you cross the bridge, there is a small area next to a ramp by the water that was empty and was the perfect spot to set up our tripod for the bridge opening, with a place to sit by the ramp fences. It was a perfect spot that was overlooked by everyone else. (4) Set your phone to “Time-lapse” for a cool video of the bridge opening and closing. (5) There is a nice shop once you cross the bridge, and a nice shopping area behind it. Be sure to walk around and check out the area before heading back!
Weiwuying Center for the Arts & MiMi Village 衛武營國家藝術文化中心 & 迷迷村
The exterior of the arts center is very open and green, a very nice outdoor space to relax and chill. We visited on New Years Day (1/1) and there was a huge food festival here as well as a free outdoor concert, it was a very happening place! The lively vibe was awesome! From the arts center, you can walk across the covered area and past the water fountains on the other side to get to Mi Mi Village for some nice pictures of the wall mural. Don’t follow Google Maps here, the location on the app not accurate. The big famous “closet” mural is on Jianjun 建軍路 Road right next to the 建軍站 Jianjun station, across the street from the Arts Center. There are some smaller wall murals on Shangyong Rd if you go down a bit farther. We didn’t get a chance to go inside the Arts Center, but I’m sure they have some really cool collections.
Love River, Love Boat 愛河愛之船
The city lights are quite pretty at night, and the best way to appreciate them is on the Love Boat. The departing point is easily found on Google Map by looking for “Love River, Love Boat”. It was a very nice boat ride on the river, with open view of the cool buildings like the concert hall, as well as the famous Great Harbor Bridge. If you’re lucky and go on a weekend evening, you may even be able to catch the bridge opening at 7pm!
Voyagers tips: It takes off every 30 minutes, we went on the evening of January 1st and did not need to make reservations. There were quite a few folks on the boat but we were able to buy tickets for the next boat ride. The ride itself is pretty and not too long, probably around 15-20 minutes. It includes an informative explanation of the history of the river and the nearby buildings, and our tour guide was energetic and super nice! There is also a gondola option for those looking for a more romantic experience.
Liouhe Night Market 六合觀光夜市
Of all the night markets we visited, and we visited a lot, Liouhe Night Market was the most visitor-friendly. There is a clean public restroom near the entrance, which I haven’t seen anywhere else. There are even some common dining tables near the entrance that’s not shop-specific so you can buy food from different stands and eat there together. Very thoughtful! There is even a big parking lot just a block away, also very rare. Lots of food options here, so be sure to come with a big appetite! In an unfortunate event, a street fight between two guys broke out right next to us, and one of the guys got beaten badly, which was traumatic for our girls to see. It ruined our mood and cut our visit short. We’ll have to come back again!