"Revisiting Kaohsiung" Top 5 Page for this destination Kaohsiung by IreneMcKay

Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan and one of its major ports. It is on the coast and its main sights include a river, lakes and an island, so it really is a city on the water. We first visited around ten years ago and I think in many ways Kaohsiung has improved since then. It is now easier to get around due to the new metro and some areas of the city have been beautified.

View over Love River from our hotel room

Kaohsiung is not a spectacular city, but it is a city that makes the most of what it has got. For example, its main river - Love River- which was once majorly polluted has been cleaned up; walkways and cycle tracks line its banks and several pleasant cafes and bars are situated next to it. Kaohsiung's new metro system is brightened up by art work, for example, The Dome of Light at Formosa Boulevard Station, rows of daffodil-like windmills and a waterfall at Central Park Station.

People in Kaohsiung are friendly and generally try hard to be helpful even when they don't know a lot of English.

Our overall stay was very laid back and relaxing. There were lots of great places to eat and drink and enough to keep us occupied for a few days.

Clean up time after heavy rains

We were very lucky to get to Kaohsiung at all as there was a powerful typhoon bearing down on Hong Kong up until the day before our departure. It was expected to make a direct hit on Hong Kong and was expected to cause lots of damage. Then it veered away from Hong Kong and more or less burned itself out before hitting mainland China. It did cause large amounts of rainfall in Taiwan which luckily for us ended more or less on our arrival day.

• Pros:Relaxing, a few sights, a base to explore southern Taiwan, good restaurants, friendly people