Kaohsiung

Traveling to Kaohsiung, a major city in the south of Taiwan, was such a wonderful experience.

Kaohsiung is such a beautiful city to visit and here is my experience there.

Getting to Kaohsiung

My friends and I bought high speed rail tickets from the convenience store in order to get a college student discount on tickets. Also, this would mean that we get reserved seats for this long ride. While you can just get your tickets at the station, we wanted to have seats and make sure we get the student discount. There are also other ways of getting there, but the HSR is the fastest at the best price point.

Itinerary

After arriving in Zuoying station in the late morning, we had a quick bite before heading over to Fo Guang Shan, which is a huge temple with bunch things to see. You can also leave your bags at the main reception desk for free, which was really helpful. Expect to spend a decent amount of time here as there is a lot of different halls to visit. Try to also dress more conservatively as it is a temple, even though it is hotter here than in Taipei!

Afterwards we headed to our AirBnB in Sanmin which is a pretty convenient neighborhood to live in. Then, we went to RuiFeng night market which had a bunch of good food. I thought the food was pretty good for the price point and might even be better than some of the night markets in Taipei.

The next day, we took a ferry and headed to Cijin Island. This part of our trip was hands down the best part. I loved being able to explore the island, eat fresh fish, and ride a family bike for 4. Even if you don't know how to ride a motorcycle or bike, I would highly recommend getting a motorized bike. It was the most exciting part of the day! I would recommend allocating at least half a day here. Make sure to dress for the hot weather and bring sunscreen. Afterwards, we had hotpot at JuWuTong hotpot. It was a little pricier than other places, but they gave a good amount of food.

The last day we went around lotus pond to visit the temples around the pond. You should be able to explore in half a day and I recommend renting YouBikes to go around to speed things up. Luckily, YouBikes are free for the first 30 minutes, which is really great! Next, we headed over to eat our last meal at the popular GangYuan beef noodle soup place. This is not your traditional beef noodle soup as the soup was a lot clearer and light. Pieces of meat were sizable and tender and it came with thicker noodles. I would recommend if you want a little break from the traditional beef noodle soup in your Taiwan journeys.

Other things to note...

The weather is a lot hotter than Taipei, so bring appropriate clothing. However, remember to reapply sunscreen and bug repellent throughout the day.

Kaohsiung is very cash based, so don't forget that.

Transportation is not as convenient as Taipei, so expect slightly longer waits and longer walks to get to transportation stations. However, you can still use your EasyCard to get to places.

Kaohsiung is a slower paced society, so explore with ease and peace.

For visualizations on specific locations, check out my IG for reels on Fo Guang Shan, Cijin Island, and Lotus Pond. For food specifics, check out my highlight for everything I ate while in Kaohsiung!