Fullon Hotel Kaohsiung is conveniently located close to the KMRT Yanchengpu Station and the LRT Love Pier Station. It is surrounded by some of Kaohsiung’s top tourist attractions; cultural hot spot Pier-2 Art Center, Kaohsiung Port Warehouse No. 2 (KW2), Dagang Bridge (the longest cross-harbor revolving bridge in Asia), and the Kaohsiung Music Center at Love River Bay are all within walking distance.
The Yancheng area is great for discovering a rich cultural atmosphere. During the day, you may go on a leisurely bike ride along the Love River and take a Love River cruise boat to enjoy city scenery from different angles. At night, you may enjoy the magnificent night views of Kaohsiung Harbor right from our Superior Room with Harbor View or our Scenic Suite. Fullon Hotel Kaohsiung provides you with a tour experience where old meets new and where you may enjoy the best of Kaohsiung day and night.
Come on down south to visit big and balmy Kaohsiung, our second-largest city! Every Taiwan local knows that in the winter months our deep south still offers plenty of sun and pleasant temperatures. In this issue we explore Kaohsiung from diverse angles with a number of articles, most of our touring done in the city’s urban heart, along with forays into its rural, foothills, and mountain areas.
In our main Kaohsiung article we check in on the city’s grand, ongoing beautification campaign, savoring daring big architectural works such as the new Kaohsiung Music Center, port-warehouse clusters now cultural-creative hubs such as those of The Pier-2 Art Center, attractively imaginative sit-down food and beverage spots along the Love River promenades, and much more.
In an article on hiking it’s off plying the trails of Shoushan (“Longevity Mountain”), right on the coast above the Port of Kaohsiung, and of Tengjhih National Forest Recreation Area, in the mountains northeast of the urban core. A special piece on city accommodations presents a trio of premier hotels with great views in the port area, plus nearby tourist attractions easy to reach using the Kaohsiung Metro. And in another dedicated file it’s “a tourist’s day in Gangshan District (as well as Tianliao District),” in Kaohsiung’s north; visit a panoramic foothills-edge skybridge, a scenic reservoir, a “line of sky” gorge, a stone temple, and a “moon world,” and try Gangshan’s signature goat meat.
In 2022, Kaohsiung and the nearby city of Tainan were included in Michelin’s Taiwan Red Guide foodie bible for the first time, and in our regular Good Food file we dine out at a selection of their Bib Gourmand choices.
We’ve also got info on many other places and experiences for you. For example, in Expert Talk you’ll learn about the Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association, which is at the heart of hiker-paradise Taiwan’s long-distance trail movement, and hear about its Raknus Selu Trail, Tamsui-Kavalan Trails, and Mountains to Sea Greenway projects.
As you have likely already found out before opening this issue of Travel in Taiwan, last October we threw open our borders to international travelers once again, ending quarantine requirement for arrivals. Our tourism infrastructure is in great shape, globe-trekkers are streaming back in – and we’re just waiting for your arrival. Welcome!
MOTC, R.O.C.
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Among the main deities worshipped in Taiwan, Mazu, the Goddess of the Sea, is arguably the most important. There are hundreds of temples on the island dedicated to the goddess, and elaborate festivals are held to celebrate her birthday (23rd day of 3rd lunar month; May 12th in 2023). The biggest and best-known Mazu event is the annual Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage in central Taiwan, starting and ending at Zhenlan Temple (Jenn Lann Temple) in Taichung’s Dajia District. Before and during the pilgrimage, endless fascinating religious ceremonies and rituals can be witnessed as part of the Taichung Mazu International Festival. travel.taichung.gov.tw/en (Taichung Tourism and Travel Bureau) www.dajiamazu.org.tw (Zhenlan Temple; Chinese)
FEBRUARY 5~19 TAIPEI CITY 2
台灣燈會在台北
It’s coming home! It all started in 1990 when the Taipei Lantern Festival was staged for the first time in celebration of the Yuanxiao Festival, held each year two weeks after the Lunar New Year. The event, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau became a huge success, growing bigger and more extravagant each year. In 2001, it was decided to let a different city or county government host this event, now renamed Taiwan Lantern Festival, each year on a larger scale, in order to spread the fun and promote tourism in different locales around Taiwan. While the Taipei City Government has hosted Lantern Festival events separately since 1997 – significantly expanded in scope since 2001 – this year will mark the first time the official Taiwan Lantern Festival will be organized by the city, the extravaganza – with the slogan “Light Up the Future” –highly anticipated by local and international visitors. tw-light.taipei
Releasing traditional-style paper lanterns into the sky is a very popular activity for tourists who visit the scenic Pingxi Valley in New Taipei City. While sky lanterns are released throughout the year, during the time of the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival (two weeks after the Lunar New Year) the atmosphere is especially enchanting. Thousands of revelers gather and hundreds of lanterns are released at the same time in succession, turning the night sky into a sea of orange lights. Write your wishes on your lantern and send them to the heavens!
newtaipei.travel/en (New Taipei City Travel)
While the Pingxi Sky Lantern Festival is a very peaceful and heartwarming celebration, the Yanshui Beehive Fireworks Festival is most definitely not. And it’s not meant to be. The origin of the beehive fireworks goes back to the late 19th century, when the people of the town of Yanshui were plagued by a cholera epidemic. Turning to the gods for help, they carried a palanquin with Guan Di, the God of War, through the streets and set off firecrackers to scare away the evil spirits responsible for the plague. This approach apparently worked, and the faithful people of Yanshui have been organizing the beehive fireworks event annually ever since.
www.yanshui.com.tw/custom_76284.html
(Yanshui travel website)
Not much of tourist interest goes on in Kaohsiung’s quiet rural district of Neimen for most of the year, but there is one exception, the annual Neimen Songjiang Battle Ritual event. This week-long festival, a mix of religious rituals and sports-like competition, brings together groups of young performers from around Taiwan, who converge on Neimen to show off their troupe-array martial-arts skills and compete against each other. The festival is a fantastic spectacle, packed with exciting and at times highly acrobatic performances that are accompanied by the sound of drums and other traditional instruments. who-ha.com.tw (Chinese) www.facebook.com/kaohsiungwhoha
Beigang is an old town in central Taiwan’s Yunlin County, best known for the centrally located Beigang Chaotian Temple. The temple is the southernmost point of the annual Dajia Mazu Pilgrimage. A lesserknown event centered around the temple is the annual Lantern Festival. Unlike the big Lantern Festival events in Taipei and Kaohsiung, where innovative creations and the use of state-of-the-art lighting technology have become integral elements of the shows, the focus in Beigang is more on traditional lanterns and decorations. The temple and lanes, alleys, and parks in its vicinity are all beautifully decorated, allowing visitors to experience some oldtime Taiwan town nostalgia.
www.yunlin.gov.tw (Yunlin County Government)
The past few COVID years are something the whole world is looking forward to forgetting. Of the many negatives experienced, the spiritual and intellectual benefits of faraway travel have been largely denied to us.
During this time, the anti-epidemic efforts of Taiwan’s health authorities and its cooperative citizenry have been amongst the world’s most successful, drawing much positive attention from around the globe. This has created strong brand imagery for this country that seems to excel at everything it sets its mind to, from democracy building to high-tech development to creating international-caliber health and tourism infrastructure.
Come see for yourself! Taiwan implemented one of the world’s strictest border-restriction regimes, but on October 13, after 2.5 years, swung open its doors once again, and international travelers began to stream in. Quarantine obligations were ended, the tour group ban eliminated, and the weekly passenger quota raised to 150,000. A welcoming “0+7” formula was put in place: 0 days of quarantine after arrival, 7 days of self-monitoring.
For year after year prior to the pandemic’s emergence, Taiwan enjoyed steadily increasing visitor arrival numbers, becoming one of Asia’s premier travel destinations. This was due to systematic efforts to make its tourism infrastructure ever more inviting and easy to navigate, and to effective promotion abroad. In 2019, a record number of inbound visitors was achieved, 11,864,105, up 7.21% from 2018 – overall visitor satisfaction rate 98.33%, ratio of repeat visitors 42%, both increasing the upward trend.
In the period since, avid domestic travel has helped to soften the blow on Taiwan’s travel infrastructure, keeping it largely intact. This means that the entire sector is now able to ramp up quickly to receive the quickly increasing numbers of international travelers as the island’s schedule of international events explodes to return to its colorful pre-COVID norm. Among the first will be the spectacular 2023 Taiwan Lantern Festival in Taipei, launching February 5. Learn all about what’s coming up – what’s coming back, and what’s brand-new – through Travel in Taiwan!
With the global pandemic slowly fading into history, tourism in Taiwan is picking up speed again. Around the island, public and private entities are getting ready to welcome increasing numbers of international tourists by providing enticing services and facilities, many brand-new.
The Kaohsiung Lighthouse, also named the Cihou Lighthouse, located on the northern end of Qijin (Cijin) Island in Kaohsiung City, is now open in the evening (until 9pm; daily except Monday), giving visitors the option to appreciate this photogenic structure when it’s illuminated after dark. khh.travel/en
The main highway connecting the west coast with the east coast in the far south of Taiwan, Provincial Highway No. 9 traverses some mountainous terrain with virtually no settlements along the way in this low-population part of the island. It’s therefore good to know that right by this highway, south of the coastal town of Dawu in Taitung, is the brand-new Heart of Dawu Nanhui Rest Area, easily recognized by its pyramid-shaped building top. The complex has a food court and shops selling indigenous products. On weekends a local-produce market is held as well. www.facebook.com/dawuhearttravel
Eastern Taiwan, home to world-class scenery, has a brandnew 5-star hotel. The 260-guestroom Le Meridien Hualien Resort, located in central Hualien City, has all the facitlities and services you would expect from a luxury hotel, plus a convenient location close to a popular shopping area and the Dongdamen Night Market. www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/hunmd-lemeridien-hualien-resort/overview
If you plan to visit Taipei and are looking for a posh place to stay, consider the Mandarin Oriental Taipei, recently named “Best City Hotel in Taipei” at the TTG Travel Awards. mandarinoriental.com/en/taipei/songshan
Looking for some pomp in southern Taiwan? Head to the recently opened Château de Jourdeness! There is no royal family in Taiwan, not even dukes or barons, so this spectacular complex was not created by nobility but by the multinational beauty product and services company Jourdeness Group. Apart from exploring the chateau’s striking European-style garden and palace, you can also dine, shop, and enjoy some beauty product DIY. chateau.jourdeness.com/en/
Taiwan Museum ( Taipei City )
While the two main waves of migration from China to Taiwan – settlers from the southern coastal provinces in the late 17th century and the Nationalists in the 1940s – are well known, a recent new wave of immigrants has been less visible to many people on the island. New residents from Southeast Asia and their families now outnumber members of indigenous tribes, Taiwan’s original inhabitants. With fertility rates in Taiwan low, this immigration trend is likely to continue making integration and mutual understanding all the more important. This exhibition, presenting cultural artifacts from Southeast Asian countries, is one attempt at gaining a deeper understanding of the cultural backgrounds of these new immigrants. www.ntm.gov.tw
February 9~12 National Theater ( Taipei City ) February 18~19 National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts ( Weiwuying ) ( Kaohsiung City ) February 25~26 National Taichung Theater ( Taichung City )
Mulan is one of seven shows in the repertoire of Ju Percussion Group, a percussion ensemble renowned in Taiwan and internationally. The show is a unique combination of Peking opera and percussion music. First performed in 2010, the act is produced anew every three years. The main character of the story is Hua Mulan, a female warrior during the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420-589AD) who disguises herself as a male soldier to take her father’s place in a battle against the Huns. npac-ntch.org, www.npac-weiwuying.org npac-ntt.org
history buffs will certainly cherish this exhibition, which gives you a comprehensive overview of Taiwan’s railway story from the late 19 th century to now. Island railway travel has come a long way since its beginnings. When the first West Coast Line was completed in 1908, it took about 14 hours to travel from Taipei in the north to Kaohsiung in the south. Today, the modern High Speed Rail line completes the trip in less than two hours. The exhibition presents a multitude of fascinating railway-related facts, documents, maps, and items, explaining how the rail network grew over time, what type of trains and stations were used, and how the travel experience has changed. www.nmth.gov.tw
Until February 26 Taipei Fine Arts Museum ( Taipei City )
The Taiwan Art Biennial, organized by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, is an important event for artists in Taiwan. It presents an overview of the state of development of contemporary art on the island. This year’s biennial, entitled Love and Death of Sentient Beings, features 32 groups of artists and collectives presenting over 17 all-new works, with eight works specifically made for the event. The exhibition includes works by six groups of indigenous artists and collectives, as well as several artists whose projects focus on indigeneity and post-colonialism. Over four months, 29 events and performances will take place, including artist forums, themed seminars and other educational activities. www.ntmofa.gov.tw
If you love romance, drama, and French pop songs you certainly don’t want to miss the musical Romeo & Juliette by popular French composer Gérard Presgurvic. In the leading roles are heartthrob Damien Sargue and sweetheart Cécilia Cara, who both performed the musical for the first time in 2001 (Cara only 16 years of age at the time). The show became a huge success, and has traveled all over the world since, including Taiwan, with new versions created every few years.
www.npacntt.org, tmc.taipei, www.npac-weiwuying.org
Over the past two-plus decades, your writer-cum-travel scout has visited Kaohsiung about every two years. My impression of this place I’ve wished I could live in awhile has been of the magic of a chrysalis metamorphosis. The Kaohsiung citizenry is striving – to shake off their city’s blue-collar brand and, looking in their collective mirror each day, to see a beautiful butterfly.
Kaohsiung is a big port city built on big, brawny shoulders. Its superb natural harbor was deepened and facilities expanded by the Japanese during their 1895-1945 period, with an eye on their great Southeast Asia colonial push.
As can be imagined, it was not a prime destination for tourists. However, over the past two decades a great push has been on to remake the urban center as a garden of aesthetics (and healthy outdoor exercise). Everyone’s in on the act, from government and big-capital business with grandiose architectural statements to small-cap entrepreneurs presenting attractive modern-design eateries, shops, and other ventures.
This district, the city’s smallest, is tucked in snugly between the port’s north end on its southwest, Love River east, and south tip of Shoushan (“Longevity Mountain”; see our Hiking article, page 28) northwest. “Yancheng” means “salt fields”; in Chinese imperial times the marshes here were drained for salt production. Also one of Kaohsiung’s oldest districts, it has seen a tourism renaissance, with open waterside plots used for new big-statement architectural works, long-empty warehouse clusters transformed into au courant leisure/cultural-creative hubs, young entrepreneurs sprucing up heritage retail shops.
The Kaohsiung Music Center (KMC), opened in 2021, is a monumental work that stands on the north side of the Love River mouth. It serves as a landmark for pop-music performances in south Taiwan, nurturing domestic pop talent and supporting networking within the pan-Asia industry. The center’s dynamic design has been integrated with the surrounding harbor scenery, and various free outdoor activities are held, to make it a destination tourist attraction.
The KMC won gold at the 2021 FIABCI World Prix d’Excellence Awards in the Public Infrastructure and Amenities category. In a nod to the importance of the marine environment for Kaohsiung, the bright-white exterior features towers that resemble crashing sea waves and honeycomb-look facing symbolizing coral-reef communities. The complex is surrounded by pedestrian/cycling paths giving visitors broad port & river views. The Dolphin Walkway, said to resemble a leaping dolphin, delivers visitors over the Love River mouth to other KMC facilities on the south side. One of the Kaohsiung Light Rail’s charming bus-stop-style stations, Love Pier Station, is right along the raised pathway. On the south side is the Whale Promenade and the Coral Zone – the roof looking like coral as seen from the Dolphin Walkway – used for exhibits and cultural-creative retail.
The Pier-2 Art Center special zone, portside just northwest of the KMC, is the heart of the city’s ongoing cultural-creative bloom, and one of its most popular attractions. The first of the three renovated warehouse clusters here was transformed in the 2000s. The long-abandoned structures were once used to store such treasures as fish meal and granulated sugar. Today they are cultural-creative incubator stages, venues for domestic and international exhibitions and festivals, live indoor and outdoor musical, theatrical, and busker performances, and largescale outdoor installation artworks and graffitistyle/3D murals, many wonderfully quirky and whimsical, some created by artists-in-residence. There are also cultural-creative merchandise shops, cafés/eateries, and other entrepreneurial ventures.
VR Film Lab, in warehouse C9, is a future-isnow entertainment hub opened by a team of local talents that produces original VR works. The 360 Cinema is Taiwan’s only 8K stereoscopic VR theater. The Interactive Zone is a space for standup and other interactive VR experiences.
The old former warehouses of The Pier-2 Art Center are now home to young and modern businesses
TOOLS to LIVEBY, in C6, is a lifestyle store bringing aesthetics to life’s small practical items, importing classic-brand stationeries from Europe, the US, and Japan as well as designing its own unique creations, such as calligraphy practice notebooks, scissor pins, ceramic pins, typographic postcards, etc. In C11 is a SunnyHills outlet set up like a bar, with a long bar-type service counter across one end and lines of tables before it. SunnyHills’ signature treat is pineapple cakes using 100% indigenous Taiwan pineapples grown in central Taiwan’s Mt. Bagua area. Visitors sit down here to free product samples and tea. KAOHSIUNG
Two constituent parts of this district are Shoushan and, key for our purposes in this article, its south-southeasternmost section, a large, long, rectangular pier area that runs parallel and very close to Yancheng District’s southwest side, forming a narrow inner harbor. The manmade extension runs all the way past the KMC. “Gushan” means “drum mountain,” from an old name for Shoushan, “Beat the Drum Mountain,” imperiously changed to the more pleasantsounding Longevity Mountain by the Japanese in 1923.
H olo Park is located halfway down the just-mentioned pier area, smack in the middle, with no water on either side. This is a market square-style attraction formed by two converted warehouses in an “L” shape and, finishing the horseshoe, a line of visual treats such as a bright-red English double-decker bus, merry-go-round, and superlong “BITE2GO” food truck. The splendor of 1950s Yancheng, then Kaohsiung’s most prosperous district, is recreated using the latest holographic and VR technology with the bricks-and-mortar elements.
Between park and water of the inner harbor is Kaohsiung Port Depot 410, opened in January 2022. This is a cluster of four warehouses. As elsewhere, the inner beam-and-column frameworks have been retained and are on display, original “No Fire” signs are still in place, etc. Each repurposed warehouse has its own style – no.7 is for ladies’ fashion, 8 for gatherings and dining, 9 for sports and fashion, and 10 has an illuminating exhibit of harbor-area historical photographs.
Jumping the inner harbor from these warehouses to the Yancheng mainland is the arched, sleekly shapely pristine-white Great Harbor Bridge. This 110m pedestrian/cyclist passageway is Taiwan’s first horizontally rotating landscape bridge, Asia’s longest cross-port rotating bridge (3min rotations at 3pm daily; at 7pm Fri/Sat/Sun). Its streamlined profile is in the image of a dolphin and seashell. The Kaohsiung Light Rail’s Dayi Pier-2 Station is right off the Yancheng end, making public-transport travel a breeze.
Kaohsiung Port Warehouse No. 2 , opened in its present guise in 2018, is steps north of the aforementioned long-pier area, looking into the main harbor area. Ferries leave from here for Qijin Island across the way, the long, thin barrier island that created the natural harbor. The harbor’s startlingly narrow north-exit mouth is in clear view. There are iconic Taiwan food-brand and cultural-creative outlets on the first floor, artist-exhibit spaces on the second.
The original warehouse here, built in 1914, was severely damaged in WWII Allied bombing and thereafter reconstructed with concrete support pillars and rebar. Informally called the “Banana Warehouse,” it was used for banana and sugar exports.
Chao Da Food is a well-known Kaohsiung chain selling tasty Taiwan traditional-style jerky and dried fruits. Established in a small shop by a husband-wife team over 35 years ago on the city’s famed Sanfeng Central Street, a narrow century-old covered market street that is Kaohsiung’s largest grocery goods wholesale center, it’s now second-generation run. Among its bestsellers are its honey-glaze pork jerky, pepper pork jerky, dried mango, and dried pineapple. Foods used are Kaohsiung-region sourced.
Holo Park
From the Great Harbor Bridge you can take in a panoramic view of Kaohsiung's harbor and its modern skyscrapers beyond
Kaohsiung Port Warehouse No. 2
The Love River, known as the urban center’s “spine,” divides it in two. Once heavily polluted, today locals and tourists stream to its lower section, enjoying the long promenades and greenery along both sides, public artworks, cafés and other leisure establishments, romantic-mood nighttime promenade lighting and river-bridge rainbow lighting, and boat tours.
Love River Beer Garden is a cool and refreshing alfresco oasis on the river’s right bank downriver from Zhongzheng Bridge on Zhongzheng 4th Road. It’s between the promenade and a quiet local street behind, backed by a row of tall wide-canopy trees.
The garden’s forecourt is filled with long beer hall-style tables. Forming a backdrop semi-circle are two service kiosks – cargo containers with faux Bavarian chalet-style facades –and a metal-frame sculpture in the shape of a giant beer keg, lit up with string lights. Parked out in front you’ll see the nifty resident bicycle bar, waiting for partiers to jump on and head out self-powered for riverside/neighborhood joy rides (fee).
On the liquids side of the menu are German Erdinger and Hofbräuhaus beers, Buckskin (Taiwan) beers, cocktails, soft drinks, and hot drinks (coffee and various teas). On the solids side are German-style pork knuckle, BBQ German sausage, chicken wings, and varied skewers, etc. (assorted platters available).
While the beer garden is “backed” by trees, the cross-river White Lover Container House is “in” trees. The “house” is made of four white-painted containers. Two are end-to-end conjoined at ground level back from the promenade, open-faced service counter running the entire length. Between these and the promenade is a spacious low-rise wood-board deck with varied-style seating, tree trunks rising up from deck openings, foliage above providing much-appreciated shade during intense-sun days. Against the promenade’s waterside railing is a seating line constituted of whitepainted barrels with round wood-plank tops and high chairs.
The second level, reached by metal stairs, is right up in the tree canopies, treehouse-style. Two open-side cargo containers (with seating) jut out at slants, stopping just at the promenade’s edge. More seating is available on a deck built atop the ground-level containers and a long, wide metal-frame catwalk with boardwalk bed that runs between the containers’ promenade ends. At night a festive feel warms the place when the glowing-white string lights hung everywhere come on.
On the almost-endless menu’s chewy side are “DIY Toast Sets,” teppanyaki/fried rice/burrito/sandwich/roll/noodle soup options, deep-fried snacks, and sweet things (waffles/honey toast). On the non-chewy side are color-filled fruit and milk-based drinks, soft drinks, yogurts, coffees, teas, and myriad alcoholic drinks.
A Love River boat cruise is a veritable rite of passage for international travelers visiting Kaohsiung. Rides on quiet electricpowered, open-sided Love Boats and on gondolas are offered. Two launch points are located just upriver and downriver from Zhongzheng Bridge, on the left bank, the latter right beside White Lover Container House.
The experience is soothingly peaceful, especially in the evenings, with the promenade and bridge light reflections rippling on the water, the music of the leisure establishments wafting through the air, and the air of romance enhanced by the afterglow of the setting sun or perhaps the glow of an overhanging moon.
Cruises are weekdays 6pm~10pm and weekends/holidays 3pm~10pm. Check details in person at the ticket booths beside the cruise-outing locations.
In this section we revisit Yancheng District, exploring how new blood is being infused into the older commercial/ residential neighborhoods.
Yancheng First Public Retail Market is a heritage market, established in 1949, rebuilt in 1975, and reborn in 2022, with old stands and bricks-and-mortar shops beautied up and newer, hipper ventures setting up. It takes up almost the whole block formed by Xinle Street, Qixian 3rd Road, Lainan Street, and Wufu 4 th Road. You enter a labyrinth of narrow alleyways, almost all artery sections roof-covered, immersed in a tight-knit neighborhood world unto itself. There’s small clothing shops and shaved-ice shops and all manner of other shops, even a tiny mom-and-pop neighborhood grocery store, a hardware store, a couple of old-time barber shops – and fronts with no shop at all within; you look in at residents sitting in their cozy little living rooms, just feet away.
The market’s heart is a section in the middle sporting a new high gabled wood-plank roof with exposed wood trusses
and numerous skylights. The artery sections immediately surrounding now have translucent roofing. In the wooden-roof warren is a beehive of open stalls. You’ll find unusual photo opps aplenty here: a smart pizza stall across from an old-style butcher’s stall, a dapper sit-down beer-on-tap stand beside a fish seller. (Note: the leisure/entertainment-type spots tend to open later in the day.)
Yama Ichi Tempura is a cozy, stylish eatery of attractive Japanese trappings that has swordfish as a specialty. The business was started by the owner’s great-grandfather about 70 years ago, selling swordfish meat to Taiwanese/Japanese restaurants, later expanding into tempura products. The eatery serves stewed, steamed, and fried selections, with assortedplatter options.
Dachi Coffee is a cutesy, cubbyhole retro café brimming with furnishings and merchandise from 1970s/1980s Japan (some Taiwanese too) – vinyl records, record player, alarm clock, etc.
The café logo, adorning the door and elsewhere, is the head of a cartoon cat. There’s varied coffees (honey + nutmeg latte especially interesting), cane sugar or cocoa milk, and handmade bagels.
Milk Tea Street is a three-block-long (short blocks) section of Xinle Street bubbling with milk tea shops, stretching from Dayong Road to Dazhi Road. You may know beloved “milk tea” by one of its many other names: bubble (milk) tea, pearl milk tea, boba tea, and so on. Hot Kaohsiung seems to have a special passion for this cold drink, and now celebrates it each autumn with the Yancheng Milk Tea Festival, launched in 2020, centered on Milk Tea Street.
The festival celebrates many things, among these the glories and stories and delicious foods of old Yancheng. and how young folk are returning to Kaohsiung to renovate old shops and open new businesses. Milk Tea Street was long known as “Gold Street,” filled with jewelry shops.
Hwa Da Milk Tea is today an island-wide chain. The Xinle Street location, opened in 1982, is the progenitor of both chain
DACHI
No. 213-46, Xinle St., Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市鹽埕區新樂街 213-46 號 ) www.facebook.com/dachicoffee www.instagram.com/_dachicoffee_
SUNGYI MILK TEA ( 松藝奶茶 )
(07) 533-3567
No. 106, Xinle St., Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市鹽埕區新樂街 106 號 ) www.facebook.com/sungyi.tw
and Xinle’s milk tea bloom. The façade and interior have been elegantly modernized by the younger generation, the former now featuring slabs of polished black marble. Mounted on one arcade column is an unmissable human-sized mockup of the iconic Hwa Da paper cup, deep-black distinctive calligraphy on a pure-white background. Black tea is the standard for milk tea, but Hwa Da like other Kaohsiung sellers also uses Pu’er tea, as well as Oolong.
It would be easy to mistake Sungyi Milk Tea for an art gallery rather than a milk tea purveyor. The open-front façade looks like a work of installation art. Black, Pu’er, and Iron Goddess tea are used here. Free fresh-made “bubbles” (tapioca-starch balls) are offered until sold out daily, starting 11am.
On an intersection, wide wraparound saloon-style boardwalk (with seating) out front, Ou Jia has an exterior festooned with loud, inviting signage. A specialty here is use of lotus root, in both the liquid and hand-made bubbles, and of kumquat.
HWA
(07) 551-2151
No. 101, Xinle St., Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市鹽埕區新樂街 101 號 ) www.facebook.com/HWADAmilktea
OU JIA ( 藕家 )
(07) 521-1388
No. 195-1, Xinle St., Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市鹽埕區新樂街 195 之 1 號 ) www.facebook.com/long5211388
not only impresses with
This large district is east/northeast of the districts we’ve been visiting so far, on the east side of Kaohsiung’s main urban agglomeration. Its north is served by the Kaohsiung Metro’s Orange Line, which terminates in the west just off the port in Gushan District. The attractions we intro below are along this line.
The word “humongous” and the title National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) pair easily together in a sentence. This facility has become a destination for its almost indescribable from-the-future exterior appearance as much as for the artistry displayed within at its Opera House, Concert Hall, Playhouse, and Recital Hall, and in the fancifully designed amphitheater for outdoor performances, which is ensconced in a purpose-constructed depression in the sloping roof. The center’s superlatives are many, among these: world’s largest performance arts center under one roof and home of Asia’s largest pipe organ.
The site of the arts center and adjoining, gracefully landscaped Weiwuying Metropolitan Park was used as a military base from way back in the Qing Dynasty to late last century. The center’s open structure is designed to cooperate with Taiwan’s subtropical climate, cooling breezes flowing through the center-piercing tunnels like compressed winds rushing through canyons.
Close by the arts center is the entertaining Weiwuying Street Art Village, a residential neighborhood where over 100 low-rise building façades have been used as giant canvases for wonderfully whimsical murals by local and international talent, and offbeat groundlevel installation works dot the landscape. Of Taiwan’s cities, Kaohsiung has most eagerly embraced street art, with this community following in the footsteps of the Jiuru Street Art Factory and The Pier-2 Art Center last decade. Sample mural subjects:
massive coralfish-surrounded stag at ocean’s bottom, intricate antler rack become spreading coral; massive owl staring intently back at you; massive sun shooting curly flames in all directions.
Dadong Wetlands Park is a large, tranquil park of tall mature trees and rest pavilions and benches aplenty that is bracketed by the narrow Fengshan River on the east and, on its north, an irrigation canal branching off it dating to the Qing Dynasty. The park dates to 1981. In recent decades Mother Nature has been made a partner “renovating” the picture-postcard small lake at its core, vestige of a manmade irrigation lake from imperial times, resulting in abundant waterfowl, turtles, and fish life.
Directly facing the park is another big and proud Kaohsiung architectural statement, the young, green, magnificent membrane-roof Dadong Arts Center
The Kaohsiung City Govt. officially uses the Tongyong Pinyin romanization system while the central government uses Hanyu Pinyin. Since this magazine is published by the central government’s Taiwan Tourism Bureau, Hanyu Pinyin is used for place names throughout this article. Example: Qijin Island (Hanyu Pinyin) instead of Cijin Island (Tongyong Pinyin).
ENGLISH AND CHINESE
Chao Da Food 超大食品果乾
Dadong Arts Center 大東文化藝術中心
Dadong Wetlands Park 大東濕地公園
Fengshan District 鳳山區
Fengshan River 鳳山溪
Jiuru Street Art Factory 九如鐵道藝廠
Kaohsiung Port Depot 410 大港倉 410
Great Harbor Bridge 大港橋
Gushan District 鼓山區
Love River 愛河
Milk Tea Street 奶茶一條街
Qijin Island 旗津島
Shoushan 壽山
SunnyHills 微熱山丘
TOOLS to LIVEBY 禮拜文房具
VR Film Lab VR 體感劇院
Weiwuying Metropolitan Park 衛武營都會公園
Weiwuying Street Art Village 衛武迷迷村
Xinle Street 新樂街
Yancheng District 鹽埕區
Yancheng First Public Retail Market 鹽埕第一公有零售市場
Zhongzheng Bridge 中正橋
Included in a full and fulfilling Gangshan District day touring: a sweeping skybridge panorama, countryside reservoir-pathway hike, goat meat specialty eatery dining, shaved-ice and minced-pork pie sweet and savory foodie experiences, “line of sky” gorge traverse, and magical visits to a peculiar stone temple and abnormal moon-like world.
Gangshan is a suburban district north/ northeast of Kaohsiung’s city center. It is primarily flat, with a central mountains foothills section in the east. The flat area, which straddles the north-south National Freeway 1 and Provincial Highway 1, is heavily populated and is home to a concentration of light industry. The highway runs right through the urban heart. The district is also served by the Kaohsiung Metro’s Gangshan South Station (Red Line) and the regular-railway system’s Gangshan Railway Station. Following, we’re taking you on a twotheme tour – scenic tourist attractions in the rural east, beloved foodie spots in the urban heart.
The artistically bold Gangshan Eye (entry fee) stands high up near the tip of a peninsula-like foothills section that juts out into the Gangshan flatlands, the foothills’ westernmost point. This is a long, gleaming-white skybridge with a music theme. It is 88m long and soars 40m above the ground, held by suspension cables (“violin strings”) extending from a giant violin-sculpture central pylon. Speakers provide soft jazz music. The long A Gong Dian Reservoir is spread out below just to the east, and on clear days Kaohsiung’s space-rocketlike 85 Sky Tower can be seen far to the south.
The reservoir has an easy-grade hiking path/ bikeway, 2.38km in length, that is lined with indigenous Taiwan plants, the most splashily colorful being flowering bushes and trees. Bike rentals (Youbike) are available. During your jaunt you’ll pass by waterside viewing platforms, jump the water on two comely suspension bridges, and on the eastern foothills side meander through forest and by hoary small-plot fruit farms.
The “Gangshan three (culinary) treasures” are goat meat, spicy soybean paste, and honey. Goat raising was brought to the area in the 1920s because of the poor suitability of Gangshan soil for crop cultivation.
One of the busiest local spots for finding goat meat is the “Zhengzong Goat Meat Restaurant.” The spic-and-span interior here is long and thin, with large windows facing the street along one wall. The most in-demand menu options are hot pots and soups, which feature rich, savory stocks and come with both meat and offal options. While goat meat has a reputation for being tough and gamey, here it is tender and piquantly aromatic.
The Chinese hot-snack food called xian bing is translated many ways. Here we’ll use “Chinese minced-pork and scallion pies” (minced beef is also used). These are mini-pies that fit in your palm, featuring a crispy deep-fried shell made with dough containing a super-hot juicy pork filling. Bite in carefully!
The very popular “Longji Pie” is a large, old-looking openfaced stand that is only open three hours daily. Lineups are constant. It sells just two items, pork xian bing and another traditional hot savory treat, fried leek dumplings. Longji’s pies come with an extra-generous filling and unusually thick shell, the skin extra-crispy outside, soft inside.
The Kaohsiung region produces such fresh-fromthe-field goodies as mango, sugarcane (i.e., cane sugar), and pineapple. It’s darned hot, too. Add these ingredients up and you get the popularity of shavedice shops.
A Little Ice is a cozy hole-in-the-wall with an exterior combo of gleaming-white and much glass, and an interior equally gleaming-white with modernchic minimalist furnishings. Its signature creation is the “Classic Brown Cane Sugar Shaved Ice,” for which you pick five sweet or sweetened (such as adzuki bean) toppings. House-made tofu pudding treats are also served.
Note: The three spots introduced here are within a few blocks of each other, making for an easy multi-hour town-center culinary tour.
The Jurassic Park-like Panlong Gorge is on the east side at the base of small Dagang Mountain, located not far north of the Gangshan Eye/A Gong Dian Reservoir. The mountain, just 312m high, is one of Taiwan’s “Small 100 Peaks,” which are easy-access “suburban mountains” with entry-level hiking trails. The mountain is home to a number of trails and numerous picturesque-setting temples.
The 247m-long gorge was created in 1682 – so says an on-site Chinese-language signboard – when a massive section of coral limestone cliff 40~50 meters high split away from the mountain, caused by a fault line shift. One section of the fissure created, called “A Line of Sky,” is so narrow that there is just a slit at the top, and an adult with outstretched arms can almost touch both walls in some bottom sections. This is about 100m long, and looks as though a giant cleaver came down from the heavens and sliced the mountain clean open.
The word panlong is from the Chinese term for Burny vines, which creep down thickly from the gorge’s top. Seeping water has eroded the coral limestone to form ghoulish clusters of wall-clinging stalactites. Just outside A Line of Sky, a small Buddhist temple has been built against the outside wall of the slicedoff cliff mass; check out how the monks/ nuns have cleverly “tapped” the cliff-face stalactites here, connecting funnels upsidedown to their tips to run the mineral-rich water drops through hoses to the temple.
To get to the gorge, walk the small road up (15~20 minutes) from 300-plus-yearold Chaoyuan Temple, located beside the county highway that moves along beside Dagang Mountain’s east side. Along the way you’ll pass by a number of deep caves in the coral limestone bluffs. These were air-raid shelters dug during WWII; Gangshan’s heavy Japanese military presence brought severe Allied bombing.
The marvelously quirky Stone Temple is located not far northeast of the Gangshan Eye/A Gong Dian Reservoir. Your initial impression will be that long ago Gaudi must have journeyed to Taiwan and was given carte blanche on this complex, constructed of bleached coral rock and seashells (i.e., covering the concrete base). Or perhaps that a magical undersea palace was raised high into the dry mortal realm by tectonic activity.
The backstory is unique. In the mid-1990s about 500 Southeast Asian migrant workers, hired for nearby freeway construction, were stranded after the contractor went belly up. To thank the local temple that took them in and housed/ fed them during their protracted Taiwan stay, they built this new temple – and were obviously given carte blanche to craft their own “Chinese temple” interpretation.
Across the plaza from the temple is a small museum, façade also crafted of coral rock and seashells, that houses displays on old-days local craftworks and household objects.
The entrance of the otherworldly Moon World attraction is deeper in the foothills north of the Stone Temple. This is a large badlands/mud volcano landscape, the most touristdeveloped of its kind on Taiwan. A long, well-done pathway takes visitors from the scenic area’s entrance complex deep into one of the barren desert-like valleys and then up onto the ridges above, where there are viewing pavilions and scintillating vistas across the top of the badlands. Signboards with English along the way explain what you’re looking at.
At the entrance area’s visitor center is a large convenience store and vendor stands selling local produce and specialty agri-products. Don’t miss the ice-cream vendor who has created a yummy grayish “mud” ice cream using locally grown beans – the texture is true “grainy/creamy mud.” Note as well that this area is known for excellent free-range chicken, which is served at a number of simple, inexpensive, quality restaurants outside the Moon World entrance.
ENGLISH AND CHINESE
85 Sky Tower 高雄 85 大樓
A Gong Dian Reservoir 阿公店水庫
"A Line of Sky" 一線天
Chaoyuan Temple 朝元寺
"Classic Brown Cane Sugar Shaved Ice" 經典黑糖刨冰
Dagang Mountain 大崗山 fried leek dumplings 韭菜盒
Gangshan District 岡山區
Gangshan Eye 崗山之眼
"Gangshan three treasures" 岡山三寶 Moon World 月世界
"mud" ice cream 泥土冰淇淋 Panlong Gorge 盤龍峽谷 Stone Temple 石頭廟 xian bing 餡餅
"Mud" ice cream
TEXT STEVEN CROOK PHOTOS RAY CHANG, VISION
Flying into Kaohsiung, it’s the city’s vast harbor and the glitzy buildings adorning the waterfront that’ll catch your eye. Yet, on the west and north sides of the urban core, there are rugged green hills equally deserving of attention.
These tree- and bamboo-covered ridges are but a teaser for the topographic glories that lie in the city’s hinterland. Far from Kaohsiung’s airport, beyond quaint towns like Meinong, long rivers run between steep mountains. In fact, the northeasternmost point of Kaohsiung abuts Mt. Jade, the highest peak in Northeast Asia.
Over the past century, the upland that separates the north section of Kaohsiung’s urban core from the Taiwan Strait has had various names attached to it, (“Longevity Mountain”) and Chaishan (“Firewood Mountain”). It’s a midget compared to the mountains that dominate the interior of Taiwan – the highest point is a mere 349m above sea level – but it’s possible to explore here from morning to dusk
Visitors should come prepared for a serious hike. That means proper footwear, water, and snacks, and, from March through October, protection against the sun. There’s no need to carry a map, as all major trail junctions have
Some trails are stretches of boardwalk with lots of steps. In other places, you’ll be walking on an uneven mix of stone and dirt. There are several pavilions where you can sit down and, even on weekdays, be sure to meet amiable local hikers.
Wherever you start, you’ll soon find yourself amid soothing stands of bamboo and the beguilingly ornate branch and root systems of banyan trees. Highlights include the sudden cliffs and deep defiles around Taiguo (Thailand) Valley and the view over the city as you approach Xiaoping Pavilion. But it’s the strangely pitted rocks that lend Shoushan its special character, as well as its distinctive natural history.
Like nearby Banpingshan and Qijin Island’s Qihoushan – both of which are part of Shoushan National Nature Park – Shoushan came into being when tectonic activity pushed layers of coral limestone above sea level. The 485ha park was established in 2011 to preserve the area’s environment and develop it as a leisure destination. Admission is free, and no permits are required for the main trails.
The way in which coral limestone weathers and breaks apart, influencing soil depth and chemistry, is key to the park’s biodiversity. Including trees and ferns, 917 plant species thrive here, along with 137 bird species. Information panels beside the trails tell visitors to look out for freshwater crabs and Reeves’s muntjacs. The latter are about the size of a dog. Thanks to their canine yap, they’re nicknamed “barking deer.”
And, of course, there are lots of monkeys. Shoushan is synonymous with Formosan rock macaques, so much so that English-speaking Kaohsiung residents often refer to the area as “Monkey Mountain.” Some of Shoushan’s macaques have gained a reputation for snatching food out of visitors’ hands or otherwise behaving aggressively. Bilingual signs near the trailheads advise visitors how to avoid trouble. In short, don’t tempt them, and stay calm if one tries to open your backpack.
Among Shoushan’s biggest fans is Mark Roche, who’s lived in Kaohsiung for 31 years. “Even on a short visit to the city, it’d be a mistake to bypass it. For outdoor types, it’s an adventure playground, such is the variety of activities that can be done there,” says the Irishman, who – when he’s not leading bicycle tours or high-mountain treks – visits the area at least three times a week for triathlon training.
In addition to hiking and mountain biking, it’s now possible to go caving in the area as well. Four of Shoushan’s 150-plus caves can be visited if arrangements are made in advance through the National Nature Park website (nnp.cpami.gov.tw; Chinese).
The trailhead behind Longquan Temple provides around-the-clock access to what’s probably the most unspoiled part of the national nature park. Buses plying a couple of routes will get you within 200m of the temple, including the frequent #R32 service from Aozihdi Station on the Kaohsiung Metro’s Red Line. Near the stone steps at the start of the trail you’ll find vendors selling drinks, snacks, hats, and hiking poles.
If you’re driving a car, Qianguang Temple, about 500m further south, may be a more convenient starting point. It has a sizable parking lot, as well as bathrooms.
There’s also the Shoushan Hiking Area South Entrance, which is closer to major urban-core tourist attractions such as The Pier2 Art Center. From the final stop on the #56 bus route (hourly from Kaohsiung Main Station), it’s a short walk through 228 Peace Memorial Park to the entrance.
On the same side of the ridge, Kaohsiung Martyrs’ Shrine commemorates those who died fighting for the Chinese Nationalist (Kuomintang) cause. However, most people come here for a different reason: In clear weather, the superb view fully justifies the 20min walk from Sizihwan Station on the Kaohsiung Metro’s Yellow Line or Hamasen Station on the Circular Light Rail. Posing by the “LOVE” sign on the viewing platform in front of the shrine is a must-do for both young couples and those who’ve just graduated from college.
Rather than chilling out at the Martyrs’ Shrine, travelers with young children might prefer to spend a couple of hours at the recently reopened Shoushan Zoo. Taiwan’s very own Formosan black bears and Formosan sambars, plus many other animals, can be seen here.
Kaohsiung’s taxi drivers are intimately familiar with all of these urban-core places. However, to get to our next destination, your best option is to rent a car.
The Tengjhih National Forest Recreation Area (admission NT$120 per person) is a two-hour drive from central Kaohsiung. Located around 1,500m above sea level, it lies within the territory of the indigenous Bunun tribe.
To protect the pristine environment, the number of outsiders allowed into the forest area each day is strictly limited. It’s possible to book visitor slots up to 14 days in advance through tj.forest.gov.tw (Chinese). Applications for weekdays have a much higher chance of success than those for a Saturday, Sunday, or public holiday.
In recent years, Tengjhih – or, rather, the road that links it to the lowlands – has suffered severe and repeated typhoon damage. For this reason, before setting out, tourists are advised to check if their visit can go ahead, and to have a backup plan ready.
Fortunately, the mountainous northeastern half of Kaohsiung is jam-packed with scenic alternatives, among them the tribal villages of mountainous Maolin District and the multiethnic mountain valley known as Namasia.
It’s worth getting to Tengjhih National Forest Recreation Area early in the day (opening times are 8am to 5pm), as there’s a lot to see. In addition to expanses of old-growth forest and
impressive stands of conifer and broadleaf trees, there are giant ferns and rhododendrons which bloom in springtime.
Tengjhih’s marked trails total 7.25km in length – more than enough for a good workout, if that’s what you’ve come for. Those who prefer flat saunters to uphill marches can aim for the Cryptomeria Observation Deck and its picnic tables. Cryptomeria (Japanese cedar) were planted in Tengjhih during the 1895-1945 period of Japanese rule for their economic value. These days, they’re cherished for their beauty.
History buffs will also find something to their liking. The forest area preserves remnants of the trails and police stations that were established by the colonial authorities as they tried to exert control over the highland forests and Taiwan’s recalcitrant indigenous tribes.
If you get to Tengjhih, or another high-altitude spot nearby, and find yourself enjoying moments of utter serenity, you’ll understand this: The people who told you Kaohsiung City is an industrial hub were only half right, and that Kaohsiung’s other half is awash with wondrous nature.
You travel to Taiwan, you travel to our far south, you want to treat yourself to the top accommodations with Kaohsiung’s most iconic city center views – i.e., a grand Kaohsiung Port sweep. Just for you, a Travel in Taiwan team recently tested some of the premier places to stay and visited a number of tourist attractions close by.
TEXT RICK CHARETTE PHOTOS RAY CHANG, ALAN WEN
The sumptuous, just-opened TAI Urban Resort, Kaohsiung’s newest big 5-star hotel complex, stands overlooking Kaohsiung Port with a number of the city’s most striking architectural statements as its district neighbors: the even taller 85 Sky Tower, which looks like a giant spaceship set to launch; the massive wave-roof Kaohsiung Exhibition Center; the Kaohsiung Port Cruise Terminal, which from the hotel’s perspective looks like an approaching baleen whale; and next-door (connected by skybridge) the Kaohsiung Main Public Library, a celebrated green-sustainability showcase.
The Kaohsiung Exhibition Center Station on the city metro’s Kaohsiung Light Rail line is just 1.5 blocks away, and the Sanduo Shopping District Station on the Red Line about three blocks.
The best way to imagine this hotel is as a “castle in the sky.” As you enter the deep, sunlight-drenched two-story-high lobby on the 25th floor, you’re met with tremendous views streaming in from around the city through floor-to-ceiling windows. This brings the sensation that the hotel has been built atop a cloud.
TAI Urban Resort is the latest and largest hotel project undertaken by Taiwan’s Chan Yee Group, whose goal in the accommodation realm is to make each of its facilities a travel destination, with each a celebration of the unique cultural characteristics of its location. It has operations around the island, both transforming existing hotel/office buildings and building all-new facilities. TAI is in the latter category; in the former is the lovely lakeside Hotel Day+ Sun Moon Lake, opened in late 2021, which Travel in Taiwan visited late last spring.
There are 208 cultivated, spacious rooms in six categories, which can be described as Scandinavian modernist in styling, sporting a harmonious combination of quiet and soothing earth tones – white, grays/beiges, browns, blacks, and blonde woods. Because the rooms are all up so high, views in all directions are first-class, though of course rooms with port views are most in demand.
The restaurant/bar and other amenities provided are far too extensive to fully list here. Some of the key ones:
On the lobby level is a “tea saloon,” a large reading area, a cigar lounge, and a branch of a local Kaohsiung bakery.
The 26F main restaurant is open three meals a day. Your complimentary breakfast is taken here. Lunch and dinner are semi-buffet. The cuisine is international.
On the 24F is an infinity pool (looking at 85 Sky Tower and the north section of Kaohsiung Port). The outermost section has a transparent bottom. Expansive deck-style seating is available. Opening onto this is a stylish bar, “the only cyberpunk bar in a Taiwan 5-star hotel.”
Way back down, the building can be described as standing on two outer legs; the center area has been left open a few stories high to form a large covered plaza. At ground-level in one leg is the hotel’s ritzy glass-walled café, facing the plaza. On the B1 level is a shopping complex showcasing Kaohsiung businesses (such as the aforementioned bakery group) and cultural-creative talent.
TAI URBAN RESORT ( 承億酒店 ) (07) 333-3999 No. 189, Linsen 4th Rd., Qianzhen District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市前鎮區林森四路 189 號 ) www.taiurbanresort.com.tw
Fullon Hotels & Resorts is a Taiwan-owned chain launched in 2002. It runs many facilities around the main island, including the Fullon Hotel Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf, where the Tamsui River empties into the ocean north of Taipei at famed Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Fullon Hotel Fulong, on the northeast coast at the famed beach resort of Fulong.
The Fullon Hotel Kaohsiung is just off another touristoriented port area in one of the city’s oldest and most heritage-rich residential/commercial neighborhoods (Yancheng District), and just one block from the Love River’s lower section. It’s about three blocks from the metro’s Yanchengpu Station (Orange Line), two blocks from the Dayi Pier-2 Station (Kaohsiung Light Rail line).
Book a rear-facing room – i.e., overlooking the port. In close you’ll enjoy an unfettered overview of the Great Harbor Bridge and, off its far (west) end, the four renovated warehouses of the cultural-creative hub Port Depot 410 (both visited in this issue’s main article). Beyond you’ll see the full north end of the port laid out before you, including the exceedingly narrow north-end mouth and the protecting Kaohsiung Lighthouse at the tip of long Qijin (Cijin) Island, which forms the port’s protective sea-side perimeter.
The hotel has 250 good-sized guestrooms, in eight categories. The interior design is European contemporary, with a genteel, understated color scheme – generally white, browns/beiges, and occasionally sea-blue (for carpeting).
There are three dining options. Take your gratis wide-selection Chinese buffet-style breakfast in the 2F Happy Garden Chinese restaurant. The 1F lobby-area Arcadia Café, colorful with wall-mounted 1950s/1960s-style Americana, has coffees, teas, juices, bagels sandwiches, waffles, Western-style desserts, and a number of appetizing, iconic Chinese hot dishes: Braised Beef Rice, Braised Beef Noodles, Taiwanese-style Chicken Rice, Milkfish Rice with Ginger & Spring Onion Sauce. As one would expect, the by-reservation-only 25F Premier Lounge, open for lunch and dinner, has a 5-star 360-degree view; the restaurant serves à-la-carte Chinese classics.
Among the hotel’s other high-quality amenities are an outdoor Bali-theme pool area, sauna complex, and gym.
FULLON HOTEL KAOHSIUNG ( 福容大飯店 高雄 ) (07) 551-1188 No. 45, Wufu 4th Rd., Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市鹽埕區五福四路 45 號 ) www.fullon-hotels.com.tw/kh
The spanking-new Brio Hotel, one of the city’s top boutique hotels, is steps from Central Park and about a block from the metro’s Central Park Station (Red Line). The park, opened in 1976, completely changed character in the 1990s when most of the built-up areas were removed and replaced with grassy and wooded landscapes.
Brio is an artsy designer hotel with contemporary-chic artistic flourishes everywhere you look, in the public spaces and in each guestroom, each of the latter designed as in individual work of art. Artists from around Taiwan were brought in to craft the highly eclectic decorative works.
The rooms come in six categories. All feature moderndécor, aesthetically bold designs, with such artistic splashes as a school of pastel-blue/green stingray sculptures swimming up a wall, a horned goat-like creature mosaic-created with ceramic pieces flying across a blue-wall sky, and a wall serving as canvas for a dynamic black-and-white Chinese ink wash painting.
The Lookout Bistro and Bar, which provides excellent views across the city in different directions, is open for breakfast, for dinner, and from 10pm to midnight for bar service only, with hot snack foods served. The breakfast menu features Western, Asian, and vegetarian set-meal choices. The dinner menu is Western a la carte, with a pasta/risotto section and main course section with straw-smoked lamb and duck breast among the chef’s recommendations.
HOTEL ( 比歐緻居 ) (07) 281-7900 No. 14-26, Zhongshan 1st Rd., Xinxing District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市新興區中山一路 14-26 號 ) www.briohotel.com
BRIOThe Kaohsiung Museum of History (free entry), beside the Love River’s lower section, is about a blockand-a-half from the Yanchengpu Station (Orange Line) and about three blocks along the Love River from the Fullon Hotel.
Its home is a striking colonial-architecture building from Taiwan’s Japanese occupation period, built in 1938, purpose-constructed to house the city administration. It continued in this role after WWII, the municipal government moving out in 1992, the museum opening in 1998. The structure was built in what is called the Japanese Imperial Crown style, meaning Japanese-style roofing atop Neoclassical-style buildings, often with a centrally elevated structure capped with a pyramidal dome.
Its exhibits cover a varied range of topics, from the national, including the infamous 228 Incident of 1947 and educational development in Taiwan, to the local, including Kaohsiung’s Han Chinese pioneer settlement and its port development.
The Alien Art Centre (entry fee) is one block from the Shoushan Park Station (Kaohsiung Light Rail line).
KAOHSIUNG MUSEUM OF HISTORY
( 高雄歷史博物館 ) (07) 531-2560 No. 99, Hexi Rd., Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市鹽埕區河西路 99 號 ) khm.org.tw
ALIEN ART CENTRE ( 金馬賓館當代美術館 ) (07) 286-5858 No. 111, Gushan 1st Rd., Gushan District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市鼓山區鼓山一路 111 號 ) www.alien.com.tw
KAOHSIUNG MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS ( 高雄市立美術館 ) (07) 555-0331 No. 80, Meishuguan Rd., Gushan District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市鼓山區美術館路 80 號 ) www.kmfa.gov.tw
SHOYOEN JAPANESE GARDEN ( 逍遙園 ) (07) 222-5136 No. 15, Lane 55,
Dedicated to the display of contemporary art by both Taiwanese and overseas talent, the home of the center is a former military hostel built in 1967 to handle navy/ army personnel transitioning to and from the Kinmen and Matsu archipelagoes just off the China coast, held by the Republic of China (Taiwan) since the end of the Chinese Civil War. The complex had been abandoned for a time before Alien Art, a multi-discipline art team dedicated to integrating artistic experiences with unique works of architecture, was entrusted with renovation and operation of the space. The museum was opened in 2018. There is also a special display on the building’s unusual history, with period photos and military vets’ oral histories.
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (entry fee) is four blocks from the Aozihdi Station (Red Line).
This facility is in the 40ha Neiweipi Cultural Park, once the site of a large wetland and irrigation ponds. Among the park’s other attractions are the Children’s Art Museum, Sculpture Park, Ecology Park, and Austronesian Cultural Area. Walk the beautifully landscaped grounds, along the large, tranquil lake and pathways lined with Madagascar Almond trees, inspecting some of the 37 large-scale installation sculptures, which have English introductions.
The large four-story museum primarily showcases contemporary works by Taiwanese artists, with a strong focus on creations by talents from the south, including indigenous artists. At the museum’s core is the Sculpture Hall, entered from the spacious first-floor lobby, which soars four stories high and is topped with a large skylight, draping the artworks in natural lighting.
Shoyoen Japanese Garden (free entry) is a block-plus from the Sinyi Elementary School Station (Orange Line).
The complex dates to 1940, built as a villa residence and grounds for a patriarch of Japanese Buddhism’s Jodo Shinshu branch who called Taiwan a jewel of the Japanese empire and decided to resettle here. He used the site as an education base for Taiwan agricultural development. The complex survived the intense Allied bombing of Kaohsiung in WWII and in 2017 was launched on a 3-year historical renovation project by the city government, opened again to the public in 2020.
The villa itself is a two-story structure with an appealing harmonious blend of classical Mediterraneanand Japanese-style architectural and interior design elements. Guided tours in Chinese are available.
Michelin, publishers of the world’s best-known restaurant guides, included the south of Taiwan for the first time when researching the latest edition of their Red Guide gourmet bible.
Of the 321 eating establishments featured in the Michelin Guide Taipei 2022, Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, some 44 are in the historic former capital of Taiwan, Tainan, while 39 are in the seaside metropolis of Kaohsiung. Of the remainder, 170 are in Taipei and 68 are in Taichung.
Always looking for an excuse to stuff ourselves, Travel in Taiwan has recently tried out several of the southern eateries that received a “Bib Gourmand” accolade in the 2022 guide. This category was created to recognize places which, in the words of Michelin’s website, offer “exceptionally good food at moderate prices.”
Many Bib Gourmand honorees are family businesses that have never given a thought to expansion. Beef Chief, by contrast, has grown into an island-wide operation. It has six branches, including two in Taipei, but it was the original location, an outpost close to Kaohsiung’s Central Park, that caught the eye –and tickled the tastebuds – of the Michelin team.
If you’re here in a group of three or more people, do what most customers do and order a hot pot. What’s a hot pot? It’s a brothfilled pot in the center of your dining table, heated on an easyto-control gas hub, in which you cook to your own satisfaction a range of delectables, including meat, seafood, vegetables, and processed items known as huo guo liao (lit., “hot pot ingredients”).
What with the leafy greens, the tofu, and the chunks of sweetcorn on the cob bobbing in the soup base, the initial reaction of hot-pot aficionados is likely to be “so far, so standard.” And they’d be right. But the thin slices of marbled beef, if simmered for three to five seconds (the timing advised by the staff – don’t forget to swirl the meat with a chopstick to ensure it cooks evenly), are, quite simply, to die for.
Beef Chief’s insistence on using only the most freshly slaughtered beef is key to its enduring success. At other hot-pot establishments, there’s a more-than-even chance the meat has sat in a freezer for a spell, especially if it’s beef.
For those who’d rather not have a hot pot, the restaurant’s bilingual menu offers a wide range of stir-fried bovine delicacies, including brisket, heart, liver, tendon, tripe (most priced around NT$200 per serving). Beef fried rice is NT$130. These can be washed down with soda, tea, or beer.
The dish that’s elevated this modern-looking, comfortably furnished eatery to renown beyond its neighborhood is a blue-collar favorite. Every day, hundreds of thousands of portions of what Hung Chi’s bilingual menu calls Minced Pork Rice (NT$35) are wolfed down by Taiwanese truck drivers and construction workers around the country.
Done well, as it is here, minced pork rice, aka braised pork rice, is a profoundly satisfying blend of protein and carbs, almost always accompanied by a soup (options here include clam, fish ball, and wonton, NT$45 to NT$65), and sometimes by a portion of vegetables. For the latter, a truly local choice would be water spinach or sweet-potato leaves (both NT$40).
Going beyond the merely traditional, Hung Chi also offers Spicy Minced Pork Rice (NT$45) – the hotness of which shouldn’t be underestimated – and over-easy eggs (NT$15, great for mixing into the rice), in addition to the usual braised eggs (NT$15) and braised tofu (NT$15).
Located a stone’s throw from the Love River, Bei Gang Tsai Rice Tube – now operated by the founder’s grandchildren – specializes in migao, a snack that’s two-thirds glutinous rice, one-third highly savory protein. Here, small pieces of pork, along with some of the gravy the meat was braised in, are placed in a coffee mug-sized metal container. This cylinder (or “rice tube”) is then filled with precooked rice and placed in a steamer.
Each time a customer orders a Rice Tube (NT$45), one is pulled from the steamer and emptied upsidedown in a bowl. Your food arrives with the meat and sauce at the top, shaped, some say, like a traditional Hakka roundhouse. (This treat, however, has no particular connection to Taiwan’s Hakka minority.)
Like several other items described in this article, one serving of an eatery’s signature attraction doesn’t make a meal. Travel in Taiwan also unreservedly recommends the unique-in-our-experience Steamed Egg Soup (NT$45), which contains sliced mushrooms and slivers of pork. Other especially tasty options include the Swordfish-Ball Soup (NT$45) and Bitter Gourd Pork Ribs (NT$55).
Being a vegetarian doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy traditional Taiwanese snacks, thanks to places like Caizong Li. This shop –and it certainly looks more like a shop than a restaurant, though it has tables for eat-in customers – offers just two items. The first, from which it takes its name, is a fist-sized pyramid-shaped Vegetarian Glutinous Rice Dumpling (NT$35), aka zongzi. The other is Kelp Miso Soup (NT$12), a bowl of which is a perfect complement to a dumpling.
Whereas conventional zongzi are packed with fatty pork, egg yolk, peanuts, and – it has to be said – a fair bit of oil, those that keep Caizong Li’s customers coming back are altogether lighter and healthier. Apart from peanuts, it’s 100-percent rice, steamed in a way that seems to retain the subtle fragrance of the grain.
Glutinous-rice dumplings are best eaten hot with a dash of soysauce paste and a teaspoon of ground peanuts. But they’re fine cold, and they make great hiking snacks. Consider buying one or two if you’re setting out for Shoushan National Nature Park (see page 28).
There’s no prize for guessing which protein plays a starring role at this eatery, now in its seventh decade. A 10-minute walk from Pier-2 Art Center, Duck Zhen continues to pull in foodies in impressive numbers.
Some of those who’ve visited Duck Zhen attribute its success to the way they marinate the meat, which is done for four hours. It emerges neither greasy (a complaint often made by those who other duckmeat restaurants have failed to win over) nor fishy. Be prepared for quite a few bones – in Taiwan, duck meat is commonly served without bones being removed – but also for deliciously tender flesh.
If here by yourself, you’re best off ordering a small portion of Duck Rice (NT$60), which includes finely chopped braised pork as well as slices of mouthwatering waterfowl. Adventurous gourmands might want to try the Combination Soup (NT$60), a bit-of-everything dish that includes duck heart, duck liver, duck gizzard, and duck intestine. Vegetables and pork-gravy rice (NT$25/35) are also available.
HUNG CHI RICE SHOP ( 弘記肉燥飯舖 )
(07) 558-3777 No. 96, Liwen Rd., Zuoying District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市左營區立文路 96 號 ) 11:30am~2:30pm, 5pm~8:30pm www.facebook.com/HungChiRiceShop guide.michelin.com/tw/en/kaohsiung-region/ kaohsiung/restaurant/hung-chi-rice-shop
BEI GANG TSAI RICE TUBE ( 北港蔡筒仔米糕 ) (07) 551-7443 No. 167, Hexi Rd., Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市鹽埕區河西路 167 號 ) 2:30pm~9:30pm (closed on Wednesday) www.facebook.com/hungchiriceshop guide.michelin.com/tw/en/kaohsiung-region/kaohsiung/ restaurant/bei-gang-tsai-rice-tube-yancheng
DUCK ZHEN ( 鴨肉珍 )
(07) 521-5018 No. 256/258, Wufu 4th Rd., Yancheng District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市鹽埕區五福四路 256/258 號 ) 10am~8pm (closed on Tuesday) www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100046519766105 guide.michelin.com/tw/en/kaohsiung-region/ kaohsiung/restaurant/duck-zhen
CAIZONG LI ( 菜粽李粽店 )
(07) 331-3087 No. 159, Chenggong 1st Rd., Lingya District, Kaohsiung City ( 高雄市苓雅區成功一路 159 號 ) 6:30am~6:15pm (closed on Tuesday) guide.michelin.com/tw/en/kaohsiung-region/ kaohsiung/restaurant/caizong-li
Located on one of Tainan’s busiest food streets – you could eat three squares here per day for the better part of a week without finding yourself back at the same place – the family that runs A-Ming has spent seven decades perfecting their culinary techniques.
Waiting is inevitable on weekends. On a midweek evening, however, Travel in Taiwan got a table straightaway, and a serving of the signature Pig’s Heart Glass Noodles (NT$60) appeared within minutes. The owners realize that few people nowadays want to fill up on carbohydrates; the bowl was three-quarters filled with meat.
The offal-averse should note that pig’s heart is muscle meat, and that it’s lower in fat and richer in iron than conventional pork. It doesn’t have a strong flavor (at least, the way A-Ming prepares it), the ginger in the clear broth being the most potent ingredient. We suggest first trying the meat without any condiments, then mixing some sauces to use as a dip.
The Chinese-only menu lists almost 40 items, including soup and non-soup dishes featuring pig’s lung and brain, as well as duck’s feet. Local bloggers especially praise the Garlic Pig’s Feet (NT$130).
Tainan, as most Taiwanese know, has a distinctive beef dish of its own. Ultra-thin slices of raw beef, from an animal slaughtered just hours earlier, are dropped into a scalding-hot clear soup seconds before delivery to the table. Some say it’s like Vietnamese pho, but without the noodles or bean sprouts.
The best-known beef soup specialist in Tainan’s downtown is Kangle Street Beef Soup, just around the corner from tourist-magnet Shennong Street.
The eatery’s signature beef soup comes in small and large portions (NT$110/NT$160). When accompanied by a bowl of white rice (NT$10) or rice with braised beef gravy (NT$30), a small portion is more than enough for a solo diner. And like the best things in life, it grants uncomplicated satisfaction.
Groups wanting a full meal can order fried beef (NT$130), fried cow’s heart (NT$130), or fried cow’s liver (NT$130). On the menu, all of these are prefixed by the Chinese character sheng to emphasize the meat’s freshness.
There’s no better way to start a day of sightseeing in Tainan than with a wholesome breakfast at A Hsing Congee. If you don’t read Chinese, one way of knowing you’re at the right place is to look for a sign with the date “1965.” In this sense, A Hsing and many other much-loved eateries in Taiwan are like fine whiskies. They carry age statements, because a long history implies the product is top-notch.
If you’re eating in, pick up a green menu. Monolingual travelers eager to sample this 58-year-old shop’s signature dish should tick the item at the top of the list: “Milkfish Rice Gruel” (NT$75).
Milkfish has a very mild, ever-so-slightly-sweet taste which makes it acceptable even to people who don’t usually like fish. A Hsing’s savory porridge contains a generous quantity of deboned milkfish, a few oysters, plus chopped spring onion, cilantro, and a handful of flavoring ingredients. There’s enough rice to satisfy, but not so much you’ll bloat.
In Taiwan, migao comes in two basic forms. The first, associated with the north of the island, is the “tube” version served by places like Bei Gang Tsai Rice Tube (see Kaohsiung section above). For the other, the meat component is cooked slowly in a braising pot, then served atop steamed glutinous rice. Sliced cucumber is sometimes added, but when Travel in Taiwan sat down at Lo Cheng Migao shredded daikon and a few peanuts accompanied a generous amount of fish floss.
Fish on top of small chunks of pork? Westerners might say that’s a crime of culinary dissonance, yet it works. The flavors don’t clash, and the texture and fragrance of the floss contrast nicely with the braised meat.
Unless you’re ravenous, a small migao (NT$40) is enough to satisfy. To go full old-school, wash it down with a bowl of Four-Herbal Pig’s Intestine Soup (NT$30). The braised items (duck’s egg NT$15, fish ball NT$5) are also droolsome.
A-MING PIG'S HEART GLASS NOODLES (A MING ZHU XING ON MICHELIN'S WEBSITE) ( 阿明豬心 ) (06) 223-3741 No. 72, Bao'an Rd., Central West District, Tainan City ( 台南市中西區保安路 72 號 )
5pm~12 midnight (closed on Tuesday) www.facebook.com/AMingZhuXing guide.michelin.com/tw/en/tainan-region/tainan/ restaurant/a-ming-zhu-xing-baoan-road
KANGLE STREET BEEF SOUP ( 康樂街牛肉湯 ) (06) 227-0579 No. 325, Kangle St., Central West District, Tainan City ( 台南市中西區康樂街 325 號 ) 4:30am~1:30pm, 4:30pm~11pm guide.michelin.com/tw/en/tainan-region/tainan/ restaurant/kangle-street-beef-soup
A HSING CONGEE ( 阿星鹹粥 ) (06) 220-0941 No. 289, Sec. 3, Minzu Rd., Central West District, Tainan City ( 台南市中西區民族路三段 289 號 ) 5am~1pm (closed on Monday) guide.michelin.com/tw/en/tainan-region/tainan/ restaurant/a-hsing-congee
LO CHENG MIGAO ( 落成米糕 ) (06) 228-0874 No. 241, Sec. 2, Minzu Rd., Central West District, Tainan City ( 台南市中西區民族路二段 241 號 ) 11am~7pm www.facebook.com/profile. php?id=100057108143489 guide.michelin.com/tw/en/tainan-region/tainan/ restaurant/lo-cheng-migao
ENGLISH AND CHINESE
Bitter Gourd Pork Ribs 苦瓜排骨
Central Park 中央公園
Combination Soup 綜合下水湯 Duck Rice 鴨肉飯
Four-Herbal Pig's Intestine Soup 四神豬腸湯
Garlic Pig's Feet 蒜頭豬腳 huo guo liao 火鍋料
Kelp Miso Soup 海帶味噌湯
Love River 愛河 migao 米糕
Milkfish Rice Gruel 虱目魚粥
Minced Pork Rice 肉燥飯
Pig's Heart Glass Noodles 豬心冬粉
Pork-gravy Rice 肉燥飯
Rice Tube 筒仔米糕 sheng 生
Shennong Street 神農街
soy-sauce paste 醬油膏
Spicy Minced Pork Rice 麻辣肉燥飯
Steamed Egg Soup 蒸蛋湯
sweet-potato leaves 地瓜葉
Swordfish-Ball Soup 旗魚環湯
Vegetarian Glutinous Rice Dumpling 菜粽 water spinach 空心菜 zongzi 粽子
Cute mascots representing countries, cities, sports teams, events, etc. are used worldwide to create loveable images of whoever or whatever they are used to represent. Taiwan is no exception, and you will surely come across a variety of adorable figures on your visit to the island, perhaps even before you arrive, in tourism brochures and ads.
Every mascot has a story, and most often much thought goes into choosing the right mix for the task. Cutesiness is a must, flexibility of use is important, and connection to the place it represents is essential. Let’s look at the backstories of some of the most prominent mascots in Taiwan, running, jumping, and frolicking about to promote tourism internationally and domestically.
There are three bears you will most likely encounter, whenever you are looking at tourismpromotion material published by the Taiwan Tourism Bureau and the tourism departments of Taipei City and Kaohsiung City or when attending tourism events held by these entities: OhBear (Tourism Bureau), Bravo (Taipei), and Hero (Kaohsiung). Their similarity is not by accident. All three are black and have a distinct V-shaped white spot on their chests. What kind of bear is this? Answer: Ursus thibetanus formonsanus, better known as the Formosan black bear. This animal species is considered endangered, with only 200~600 living in remote mountainous regions
on the island. By choosing the bear as mascot, or “tourism ambassador,” the governments have not only selected an animal that is endemic and hence representative of the island but have also picked an endangered species to stress the importance of nature preservation and sustainable tourism.
However, these three are not the only Formosan black bears serving as mascots. There’s also a pair of bears representing the Taiwan Railways Administration’s catering service, Teru and his sister Hana . You’re likely to run into these two when buying a traditional railway lunch box (tielu biandang) and when taking special tourist trains; the bears often depicted on the outside of railway cars.
OhBear
Hero
Cute as it is, not everyone has been picking the Formosan black bear as mascot. For the Taichung Flora Expo in 2018, the Taichung City Government chose the leopard cat as representative, a leopard cat family named Yoyo to be exact, consisting of father, mother, son, and daughter, plus a neighbor aunty leopard cat. Looking like an extra-large house cat to the untrained eye, the leopard cat is an endangered species living in mountainous areas (below 800m in altitude) of central Taiwan. The total number is estimated to be less than 700.
Hsinchu County’s mascot, Pipi Lion , might make you wonder, “are there any wild lions in Hsinchu?” The answer is of course, “No!” But there is a scenic area named Lion’s Head Mountain (Shitoushan), which is part of the TriMountain National Scenic Area (www. trimt-nsa.gov.tw). Originally the mascot for the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle’s Lion’s Head Mountain Route, Pipi Lion is now widely used to promote tourism around the county.
The challenge of using a fish as a mascot is quite obviously the lack of legs. How does it walk and not look silly? Tainan City took up the challenge and created Sababoy. “Saba” is the Japanese word for milkfish, a fish cultivated and consumed in great number in Tainan. Does Sababoy look silly? It certainly looks funny, especially because it’s not even the whole fish, just the head!
It’s no secret that Taiwan is a veritable hiker’s playground. Boasting a staggering density of high mountains, as well as a seemingly endless network of lower-elevation trails, the nation’s hikers are never short of options. And as if that weren’t enough, the past decade has witnessed the proliferation of long-distance routes thanks to the hard work of one organization.
Ajourney of a thousand miles, as the saying goes, begins with a single step. But the folks at Taiwan Thousand Miles Trail Association (TMI Trail; www.tmitrail.org.tw) would probably disagree. For them, the journey begins not with that first step, but with some careful planning, a little community building, and a lot of very strenuous trail construction.
The non-profit organization has been around since 2006, when a trio of eco-minded thinkers committed to forging a round-island trail network. While doing so, their hope was to generate community engagement with local environmental issues and preserve Taiwan’s beauty. From that initial goal blossomed a broad vision that centers interconnected longdistance walking and cycling routes at the heart of a mission to revitalize local economies, promote environmentally friendly travel, and kindle an appreciation of Taiwan’s diverse cultural and ecological wealth.
TMI Trail’s holistic, wide-ranging approach makes its efforts hard to summarize. It gets involved at every stage, from the nitty-gritty granular level of planning and constructing routes right the way through to pushing for legislative change and forming exchanges with international trail organizations. It also publishes maps and other information about the trails it champions. And for every location physically connected to the web of long-distance trails via a footpath, it puts equal amounts of effort into establishing human connections that will ensure the trail network’s longevity. Eco-trail-building workshops spread awareness, bringing city-dwellers closer to the earth, while communities, like the villagers who now guide walkers along Alangyi Historic Trail in the far southeast of Taiwan, are supported in setting up ecotourism initiatives. These endeavors may seem disparate at first, but each strand contributes to the overarching goal.
Of TMI Trail’s three long-distance projects, the Raknus Selu Trail is the newest. Meandering its way from Taoyuan City through indigenous ancestral lands and Hakka farmsteads, it crosses Hsinchu and Miaoli counties before arriving in Taichung City 220 kilometers later. The region’s dual ethnic heritage is mirrored in the trail’s name, with “Raknus” meaning “camphor” in the languages of the Atayal and Saisiyat, while “Selu” is a Hakka word meaning “small road”. The precise route was chosen after consulting maps from the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945), and is stitched together from old camphor-trading trails and the footpaths that once connected locality residents with their neighbors and relatives.
The land it passes through is not exactly the breadbasket of Taiwan, but it’s certainly one of the fruit bowls. In cooler weather, the air is scented with the fragrance of ripening mandarins and hordes of tourists swarm the tourist-farm strawberry fields, depositing the fattest berries into their punnets. At other times you might see farmers harvesting tender bamboo shoots, or armies of tea pickers tending bushes under the blazing sun.
Much of it is easy to walk, and as you go, you can collect stamps in your very own Raknus Selu Trail Passport. These can be picked up from one of the six workstations located at Shimen Bao’en Temple in Taoyuan’s Longtan District, Shishan Kiln in Hsinchu’s Guanxi Township, Nanwai Community Activity Center in Hsinchu’s Beipu Township, Little Blue House in Miaoli’s Shitan Township, and Jiangmayuan Tourist Service Center and Shimen Leisure Farm in Miaoli’s Dahu Township.
(Here is a Google map showing the entire trail and workstations along the way: bit. ly/3GBRYJQ [Chinese])
Closer to Taipei, hikers can explore the 274km-long Tamsui-Kavalan Trails. Crisscrossing the hills of northern Taiwan, this 200-year-old trail network connects the greater Taipei area with Yilan County, and much like the Raknus Selu Trail, it follows historic paths that were used by tea traders, camphor extractors, and government officials. It is dotted with wayside temples, often hews close to sparkling streams, and offers the curious traveler a unique insight into Taiwan’s multi-layered history.
(Here is a Google map showing the trail network: bit.ly/3TQT4nO [Chinese])
The third and southernmost long-distance trail is the Mountains to Sea Greenway, which in its 177km entirety carries travelers from the coast of Tainan City right up to the summit of Mt. Jade, Taiwan’s highest peak.
(Here is a map showing the entire trail: bit.ly/3i04sR2 [Chinese])
Caoshan Historic Trail, part of the Tamsui-Kavalan Trails
Trail marker
Bringing a sprawling venture such as the Raknus Selu Trail to fruition requires input from many dedicated individuals. One of the people coordinating these efforts is TMI Trail’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Hsu Ming-chien . Hsu has a calm demeanor, and gives the impression of being someone who is very much at home on the trails. When asked to speak on her specialist subject, she does so with genuine passion and a clear-eyed understanding of both the challenges presented by these kind of projects as well as the breadth of the positive impact they could precipitate if they successfully take root.
Unsurprisingly, Hsu herself enjoys hitting the trails, although she struggles to find words that she feels will convey the precise intangible state of reflection that walking brings. “When I’m walking, I can think,” she states simply. Written out, the sentiment seems almost so simplistic as to not merit repeating, but fellow walkers will know the truth of it in their bones. The trail, she says, is a place for curiosity and discovery, a place for thinking and for being in a way that’s hard to achieve while being bombarded by the multitudinous distractions of city life. And ultimately, this sense of quiet discovery is what Hsu hopes people will take away from time spent on the Raknus Selu Trail. “When you walk through a place, you hear stories. You see things – things that you would miss entirely if you visited by car.”
Talking about the others involved in this group effort, Hsu says “it’s like zongzi,” employing the traditional Dragon Boat Festival glutinous-rice snack as a metaphor for how she sees the trail working. In her telling, the volunteer heads of the six Raknus Selu Trail workstations are akin to dense knots holding together a dozen or so zongzi – each one connected to a web of community members who stand in for the actual ricebased treats in this analogy. Through these connections, she hopes that word will spread. A neighbor might be persuaded to take on the role of maintaining the trail where it passes her property, a leisure farm owner might open his doors to hikers in need of rest and sustenance. As more locals get involved, more hikers will be attracted, and the Raknus Selu Trail will organically mature into a self-sustaining enterprise that enriches the community.
It is a grand plan, for sure, and one that will no doubt take years to grow into itself. But if their vision prevails, TMI Trail’s long-distance trail network could become Taiwan’s version of the Camino de Santiago routes in Europe, or Japan’s Kumano Kodo. Personally, I can’t wait to strap on my boots and get out there.
Situated on Mt. Jiantan in Taipei, the Grand Hotel is a 14-story palace-style building constructed in 1970. There are two underground tunnels, under its east wing and west wing, respectively, which were designed as emergency escape routes for President Chiang Kai-shek. After opening the West Secret Tunnel earlier, receiving enthusiastic response by visitors, now, the 50-year-old East Secret Tunnel has been opened to the public as well. It has a length of 67 meters with a curvy design meant to prevent chasing soldiers from shooting at the fleeing parties, and walls with an uneven surface to enhance sound absorption. Since only a limited number of visitors can be accommodated, the East Secret Tunnel is only open to guests who come on corporate trips, attend state banquets, or opt for a special East Secret Tunnel Room Package.
No. 1, Sec. 4, Zhongshan N. Rd., Zhongshan District, Taipei City ( 台北市中山區中山北路四段一號)
Tel: (02) 2886-1818 ext. 1818 [guided-tour department] www.grand-hotel.org
Siraya National Scenic Area is located in the eastern foothills of Tainan City. It includes well-known scenic areas such as Wushantou Reservoir Scenic Area, Guanziling Scenic Area, and Zengwen Reservoir Scenic Area. The Siraya National Scenic Area administration has set up e-powered bicycle rental stations a Guantian Visitor Center and Yoichi Hatta Memorial Park. It is possible to rent a bike at one station and return it at the other, making it convenient for tourists to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Wushantou Reservoir and Zengwen River, and gain a deeper understanding of the cultural history and development of the Jianan irrigation channel network.
No. 99, Futian Rd., Guantian District, Tainan City (台南市官田區福田路99號) Tel: (06) 690-0399 www.siraya-nsa.gov.tw
Longtian Cha Cha Cultural Heritage Area, located close to Longtian Railway Station in Tainan City, is divided into three exhibition areas. The immersive landscape theater, inspired by a painting of the Jianan irrigation channel system, and interactive multimedia game devices allow visitors to have fun while learning about history. The area integrates the original Longtian Archeology Exhibition Room and the cultural relics collection space. It also preserves industrial relics, such as rails of the sugar factory railway, relics of a weighbridge room, the historical building of the Tai Sugar Longtian Storage and Transportation Station, and warehouses. This is great place to learn about railway history, archaeology, and irrigation system culture.
No. 43, Xinsheng St., Guantian District, Tainan City (台南市官田區新生街43號)
Tel: (06) 579-1377 chacha.tainan.gov.tw
No. of rooms: 257
Room rates: City View Rooms from NT$7,800; Japanese/ Western Rooms from NT$16,800 (room rates are subject to 10% service charge)
Desk personnel speak: Chinese, English Restaurants: Happy Garden (Chinese, Cantonese), Arcadia Café (Western style)
The hotel is located close to Hualien Harbor, allowing you to enjoy the most beautiful sunrise over the Pacific Ocean, the water’s color ranging from deep azure to light blue, the sun’s palette ranging from pale yellow to golden. Take in the marvelous views of the sun beautifully reflected by the sparkling sea from the infinity pool or one of the sea-view guestrooms. Staying at the hotel gives you easy access to the world-class scenic wonder that is Taroko Gorge as well as the bucolic East Rift Valley. Travel with friends and family and explore the mountains and the coast. Hualien will surely give you unforgettable memories!
No. 51, Minsheng Rd., Hualien City, Hualien County (花蓮縣花蓮市民生路51號) Tel: (03) 823-9988 Fax: (03) 823-0077 www.fullon-hotels.com.tw/hl/en/
Daqi Village Creative Base is located close to Wushantou Reservoir and Tainan National University of the Arts. Through the renovation of old houses and the revitalization of land, the base’s operation team has been stimulating creativity in the local community. DIY activities for parents and children are held regularly on weekends. and children's camps during summer and winter vacations are organized as well. The base’s mission is to create a countryside experience village where visitors can have fun learning art. A disused rice mill has been turned into a shop for local agricultural products and handicrafts. Fruit ice is available as well. The shop serves as first stop for tourists to take a rest and get to know the area.
No. 10, Daqi Village, Guantian District, Tainan City (台南市官田區大崎里10號) Tel: 0984-353-161 da7artgrower.boostime.me
Recently opened, M.Taipei Hotel is perfect for business travelers with high aspirations. Featuring a light industrial interior design the hotel provides quality accommodation (Woodiness Co-living) with shared office space (Ucommune). Taipei’s Xinyi District is the perfect location for getting work done and meeting other young entrepreneurs from around the world. The hotel is conveniently located, close to MRT City Hall Station, Exit 1 (2 min. walk), Taipei 101, Xinyi Breeze Plaza, Shinkong Mitsukoshi, and Uni-President Department Store. Raohe Tourist Night Market, one of Taipei’s most popular night markets, is a 15-min. walk away, and it’s a 5-min. drive to Tonghua Night Market. Whether you are traveling for leisure or business, M.Taipei Hotel is your perfect choice!
2F, No. 155, Sec. 1, Keelung Rd., Xinyi District, Taipei City (台北市信義區基隆路一段155號2樓) Tel: (02) 2749-4698 www.mtaipeihotel.com
In this port city, where mountains, ocean, and river converge, a new style of travel, with changing attractions day and night, unfolds.
TAi Urban Resort has the most stunning high-altitude sunset viewing platform you can imagine.
Take in the beautiful views of the harbor, the change of lights and shadows, and the ridgeline of Mt. Chai in the west and Mt. Dawu in the east.
This marvelous panorama is exclusively enjoyed by our traveling guests.