Kaohsiung is a major port city, and here is a view towards the west with the open ocean in the background.
A lot of port and industrial facilities along the waterfront. There are some parks, but not many. Hope there'll be more in this part of town in the future.
The waterfront areas shown here are more touristy. They've done a decent job making the area friendly to locals and visitors alike. Kaohsiung isn't a big skyscraper city, but its urban cityscape is quite dense with a lot of buildings packed block after block.
Simcity!
You'll see a huge expanse of development spreading north and east from the waterfront. Too bad there was smog that day. At least it was sunny. Kaohsiung was the only place where I had continuous decent weather during my Taiwan trip.
The waterfront in the backdrop is a big tourist area, being named along the lines of "Love Pier". That pier sign draws quite a lot of photographers.
Kaohsiung is Taiwan's 2nd city, and is a major seaport. In the past it used to be a very long train ride from Taipei, or a one-hour plane ride from Sungshan Airport. Now that the highpeed railway is in use, the rail trip has shortened to only an 80 minute ride.
However, the stop in Kaohsiung is somewhat far from the city centre in Zuoying district. They have free shuttle buses from there into town, but the buses are way too infrequent and small to accomodate the large crowds.
After a long standing journey of about 30 minutes, I got off at a random stop in the city. Kaohsiung isn't as congested as I thought, and there weren't that many tall buildings ...
.. except the prize ... Tuntex :
The new subway system was still UC when I was there. By now it should have opened.
Tuntex definitely defines Kaohsiung. The shape of the building resembles the Chinese character 'Kao', meaning tall, and the first character in Kaohsiung's Chinese name. Actually, the name 'Kaohsiung' itself has Japanese origins.
