Kaohsiung 高雄
Kaohsiung, located in the southwestern part of Taiwan, has a population of approximately 2.73 million people and is Taiwan’s third most populous city after Taipei 台北 and Taichung 台中. Kaohsiung is a port city handling around 66% of Taiwan’s total container volume and is the world’s 15th busiest container port in 2023.
Kaohsiung has two metro train lines (North-South and East-West Lines) and a light rail circle line, making visiting many of Kaohsiung’s tourist attractions very easy.
Taiwan High Speed Rail 高铁 (HSR) has made Taiwan 台湾 smaller. Tainan 台南, Taiwan’s fourth largest city, is just a 15-minute HSR train ride from Kaohsiung. Taipei, Taiwan’s largest city, is only 2 hours away on HSR from Kaohsiung.
Remarkably, Taiwan has a very high motorcycle ownership. There are 15 million motorcycles in Taiwan, and that is more than half of Taiwan’s population of around 24 million.
Kaohsiung’s popular tourist destination, Cijin Island 旗津岛, is a short 5-minute ferry ride from Gushan Ferry Pier Station 鼓山轮渡站. The island is also connected by an underwater tunnel.
Outside Kaohsiung, popular tourist destinations such as Kenting National Park 墾丁國家公園 and Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum 佛光山佛陀紀念館 can be easily reached by public buses from Kaohsiung.
The Walk – Cijin Beach 旗津海水浴場, Cijin Island 旗津岛
If you take a 5-minute ferry from Gushan Ferry Pier Station 鼓山轮渡站, you will arrive at Cijin Island at Cijin Ferry Station 旗津轮渡站.
Cijin Beach, on the northern part of Cijin Island, is a 10-minute walk from Cijin Ferry through the Cijin Old Street 旗津老街. Cijin Old Street is where you find a very busy morning fresh vegetable and fruit market for the local residents and by the late morning, the same street is changed to stalls and shops selling a wide variety of Taiwanese snacks, seafood, drinks, sweets, and desserts that are very popular with many visitors and tourists.
At the end, Cijin Old Street is Cijin Beach 旗津海水浴場, a black sand beach. Walk on the beach in the northern direction or take the boardwalk alongside the beach to visit Cijin Star Tunnel 旗津星空隧道. The tunnel, originally built to transport military material supply to the Cihou Fort 旗后炮台 above the tunnel, has been transformed into a popular tourist attraction with interesting LED lighting and murals. On the other side of the tunnel is a lookout with stunning sea views.
The one-way distance between Cijin Ferry Station and Cijin Star Tunnel, through Cijin Old Street and Cijin Beach boardwalk, is approximately 2 km.
Want to discover more great walking locations? Check out the “By the Waters” blogs.
If you take a 5-minute ferry from Gushan Ferry Pier Station 鼓山轮渡站, you will arrive at Cijin Island at Cijin Ferry Station 旗津轮渡站.
Cijin Beach 旗津海水浴場, on the northern part of Cijin Island, is a 10-minute walk from Cijin Ferry through the Cijin Old Street 旗津老街.