VIS-À-VIS the more popular capital of Taipei in the north, Kaohsiung in the south makes Taiwan’s no-less-significant other.
Aye, the more significant one. A quick jaunt to the Republic of China’s foremost Harbour City this weekend past – ease, comfort, and pleasure courtesy of Philippines AirAsia on flight, the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau on land – more than enough to convince this one who’s had a surfeit of Taipei. Or, maybe it’s just the rose-colored glasses of first impressions.
Still, Kaohsiung impresses, and how!
A fixture in just about every Asian city, the night market is taken to an impossible high at Kaohsiung’s Ruifeng. Food, glorious food, in all its delectable varieties draw in an undulating tide of humanity through its aisles, nooks, and crannies. No other night market in all the Asian cities I’ve been to can compare to Ruifeng. Don’t believe me, come and feel it for yourself.
Temples and shrines, another Asian constant, don’t simply impress but impact their sacred presence around Lotus Pond – a lake, for its sheer breadth – that, to me, easily makes Kaohsiung’s most popular destination.
Confucius Temple, reputedly the largest of its kind in the whole of Taiwan, lies serenely at one corner of the pond. A tree-canopied path along the banks leads to a series of temples – the Pei Chi Pavilion lorded over by Daoist deity Xuan Wu, the Spring and Autumn Pavilion with the goddess of mercy Guanyin riding a dragon at its entrance, and the most interesting twin-towered Dragon and Tiger Pagodas where it is said to be good luck to enter through the first and exit through the second. Instant recall here of that Bruce Lee starrer deemed as one of the greatest martial arts films of all time.
Across the road stands in subdued majesty Chi Ming Palace, arguably the most spectacular temple by Lotus Pond. Aye, why lotus? The sacred plant with its mystical flower abounds there, duh.
Far from the pond but richer in spiritual ambiance is Fo Guang Shan Monastery, the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan and home too to one of the largest charity organizations in ROC.
A welcoming hall – replete with restaurants and shops, a Starbucks too – opens up to an expansive square flanked on either side by eight Chinese pagodas – representing the Eightfold Path? – and statues of Buddha’s loved ones and foremost disciples leading to a memorial hall which houses several shrines, premier among them the Jade Buddha Shrines where enshrined reputedly tooth relics of Gautama Buddha. Om mani padme hum…
Atop the memorial hall is what is said to be the highest seated bronze Buddha in the world, looking benignly at all who comes hither.
A trip back in time to schooling in the olden days in China is Fongyi Academy of old red brick construction, complete with classrooms and a square where student and teachers are depicted in animated statues (dolls?), plus a small shrine, and a kiosk serving Taiwan’s wonderful milk tea.
A short trip down history is provided by the Cihou Fort that once guarded the harbor topped by a lighthouse whence a panoramic view of the city unfolds.
Then, there’s the Dashu Old Railway Bridge, Asia’s longest at the time of its completion in 1913, now a hot spot for photography.
Art’s sake
As in culture, Kaohsiung is a veritable art trove too. Nowhere is this most manifest than, most aptly, in the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts – an artwork in itself: its roof inspired by the flowing canopy of banyan trees in the area but at this time evoking a manta ray or even a space ship. Completed in 2018, the center houses an opera house, a concert hall, a playhouse, a recital hall and an outdoor theater seamlessly linking the building to a park.
Art alive, up and about! pervades Pier 2 – the row of old unused warehouses repurposed to art galleries, boutique shops, diners and bars, with Kaohsiung Warehouse 2 as flagship. Interactive exhibitions and records of its historic past are housed at the Hamasen Museum of Taiwan Railway, even as its top draw is
Hamasen Pier 2 line railway ride – on a mini-train!
Kaohsiung’s penchant for repurposing disused things found expression too in the Ten-Drum Ciaotou Creative Park. Once a sugar central – not unlike our Pasudeco in the City of San Fernando – the place is now a center of culture and the arts where performs a Grammy Award-winning drum and percussion band. A drumming workshop is offered to visitors before they are ushered in to a concert hall.
One for the Guinness record or maybe Ripley’s is 1300 Only Porcelain – a fine-dining restaurant entirely interiored and decorated with porcelain down to its plates and platters, bowls, cups and glasses. Adjacent to it is a showroom of porcelain art with price tags running to millions in NT$.
Art has permeated the hotel industry too. Cutesy, whimsy is Legend Hotel Liu-he with its explosion of colors in cartooned animal, ice cream, cakes and what-nots straight from nursery books and Alice in Wonderland splashed all over, from its façade to the lobby, to the elevator, the restaurant, the corridors and the rooms themselves. It’s what sweet dreams of little girls and boys are made of.
At luxurious E-Da Royal Hotel, the top draws are the themed-rooms – debutante, Jurassic, pirate. In some way extensions of the eponymous amusement park adjacent to the hotel.
Amusement turns to exhilaration at the i-Ride Experience Center of Brogent Technologies. Strapped on a moving, tilting bench, feet dangling in mid-air one is taken on a bird’s eye tour of Kaohsiung via a panoramic spherical screen with special effects.
At the Suzuka Circuit Park, the adrenaline rush of speed and spin with karting, bump cars, spinning rides, and Ferris wheel and a trolley too.
Long in adventure, steeped in culture and the arts, Kaohsiung is not, by any measure, wanting in romance too.
Central to Kaohsiung, in geography as well as in sentimentality, is the Love River. A daytime cruise on board a solar-powered boat only stirred the imagination to a nighttime ride on gondolas, passed the twinkling lights on trees, the sound of music and the smell of coffee and wine of the cafes along the banks. With the one you love.
Aye, more than enough reason to come back.
(AirAsia flies Clark-Kaohsiung every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday)
