<<回台湾走走2011>> - Kaohsiung City

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Wednesday, 18th May 2011

Start >> Central Park >> Kaohsiung 85 >> Kaohsiung History Museum >> Kaohsiung Film Archives >> Love River >> Love River Jetty >> Cijin Island >> Old Sze Chuan Restaurant >>End

We started Day 5 of our > at Central Park, which was about 10 minutes walk from where we stayed. Effectively, this was a huge open space in the heart of downtown Kaohsiung where the urban spotlight is located. Central Park station was itself an attraction of its own flanked by tastefully decorated sunflowers at the entrances of the station.

From the ticket office, we purchased our MRT Pass which gave us 2 days of unlimited travel on the Kaohsiung Metro. Opened in March 2008 to much fanfare, the slick system currently operated on 2 burgeoning lines with major interchange stations at Formosa Boulevard and Zuoying (for HSR & TRA connections). While the system had not revolutionised railroad travels (read: low passenger loads), this was certainly a great start in urban transport planning for the 1.3 million inhabitants.

Very soon, the metro brought us straight to Sanduo Station where the city’s landmark, the Kaohsiung 85 was situated. We probably spent less than 5 minutes loitering around as we were contented with admiring the mammoth structure from afar.

Hopping onto the Metro again, we were soon on our way to Yanchenpu station where the Love River and the Kaohsiung Film Archives were situated. Apparently, both sites were a disappointment as the Love River was filthy with a terrible stench and the Film Archives would only open its doors in the afternoon. Love River Jetty added to our wounds as it had certainly seen better days. An extensive refurbishment should now be high on the priority to-do list for the city council.

There was some comfort though as the Kaohsiung History Museum was an amazing piece of architecture. Not to mention, a nice serving of pork chop for lunch that far exceeded our initial expectations at a local beef noodles shop.

All in all, it was a hit and miss affair during our morning rounds in the city. We were pleasantly surprised that at the many places we visited this morning, there were no crowds. This took quite a bit of getting used to though.

Where had all the people gone to?

"Hmm... probably I know where!"

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