Touring Taiwan Part 1 Kaohsiung
Place: Asia
Country: Taiwan
Towns/Cities: Kaohsiung
Time of Year: Nov/ Dec 2025
How we got there: Plane, High Speed Rail, MRT
Asia has been on my bucket list for a while so when our youngest son Aidan was sent to Taiwan for 6 weeks to train at TSMC, a lightbulb went off in my head! 6 weeks is a long time to be away from home and everything you are familiar with, so what if we flew over to Taiwan for a little visit to break up the time?! Sounded like a win win to me! Cesar had been to Taiwan many years before for work(Aidan and Cesar work for the same company) and his reaction was, “There is nothing to do or see there”! I had to prove him wrong and I was up to the challenge!
The hardest part of visiting Asia is the long flight! We flew from Phoenix to San Francisco and then hopped on a 14.5 hour United flight to Taipei. This was not the longest flight we’d ever endured (Australia was 18 hours!) . And just so you know, the return flight to San Francisco is only 10.5 hours! Crazy how that works!! We paid about $1250 round trip for the both of us which was a pretty good deal!
We arrived in Taipei around 8pm on Thanksgiving Eve after losing 1 complete day during travel. It cost about $5 to take a taxi from the airport to our hotel where we would spend one night. It really was nice arriving at night because we wouldn’t have to force ourselves to stay awake all day to get on local time. The next morning we took the hotel shuttle to Taipei Station where we would catch the High Speed Rail(Bullet Train) to Kaohsiung where Aidan was working. Kaohsiung is in the Southern part of the island. A little note on the HSR: you can purchase tickets in advance online but be sure to do it on the official site instead of a 3rd party ticket seller. Purchasing online insures that you get an assigned seat if you want one. If that is not your priority, you can sit in the open seating car. Since this would be a 2 hour ride and we had luggage, assigned seats were helpful. You can purchase them up to a month in advance or the day of if you just want open seating. Total cost for us both was $100 one way.
Onboard, a lady with a snack & coffee cart came by offering cheap eats!
Our train was traveling at 120mph!
We arrived at Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung which is the main station for HSR and MRT in Kaohsiung. This would be our center hub for our weekend visit. Everything revolved around this station. Our airbnb was in walking distance which was very convenient! First order of business was to purchase Easy Cards from the 7-Eleven inside Zuoying Station. This would be the card we used to ride all public transportation like MRT and busses all over Taiwan. The HSR uses a separate ticket. Not knowing how much money we needed, we started with $20 on each card. You add cash to the card when you purchase it. Turns out, $20 each was enough for our whole trip!
It took us 10 minutes to walk to the apartment we rented from the station.
Kaohsiung is not a touristy part of Taiwan. We visited because this is where Aidan was working. We were pretty much the only Westerners on the streets! I have to say though that the people of Kaohsiung were so very kind and patient with us! Very few people spoke English but were always smiling and wanting to help us. Google translate was very helpful as well!
We arrived early so we decided to take a stroll to Lotus Pond while we were waiting for Aidan to get off work. We walked from our apartment to the park where we found some amazing sites! There is a 2 mile loop around the pond but we decided to stay just on one side because we had plans to visit the other side with Aidan later that weekend. What we noticed right away were the gigantic statues and temples dotting the waters edge in the distance! The water was covered in Lotus plants hence the name Lotus Pond!
I just had to get closer to what looked like a huge warrior yielding a sword on the water’s edge. This was the colorful Zuoying Yuandi Temple which you can walk right up to and go inside!
There were many geese enjoying the pond and I’m pretty sure they were not Canadian Geese!
Humidity hung in the air as we walked and we were thankful that our visit was in the winter! I could just imagine how hot it would feel in the summer months! We found a few more intricately decorated temples on our stroll before we headed back to meet Aidan at the MRT station.
Aidan had been in Kaohsiung for 3 weeks at this point and knew his way around! He guided us through our first ride on the MRT and took us to one of his favorite spots for dinner.
The next day we had planned to visit one of the world’s biggest Buddha at the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum. From the Zuoying Station there is a bus that takes you all the way to the museum in just 45 minutes! All you need is your Easy Card! We arrived before the crowds and were able to experience this peaceful place in peace! This is an educational, cultural and religious museum.
The front hall features stone lion and elephant sculptures on the outside, gift shops and an all vegetarian Starbucks on the inside.
Once through the Front Hall, the grounds are lines with 8 pagodas, 4 on each side. Each pagoda symbolizes a Buddhist teaching or principle.
At the end of the 8 pagodas stands the Main Hall and the 4 Stupas. The Main Hall hosts the Buddha’s tooth relic as well as 3 floors of galleries with artifacts, shrines and displays.
And beyond the Main Hall stands the 40 meter tall Buddha! As you walk around the building, the golden Buddha rises above and it is even larger than expected!
There are so many practices to participate in and appreciate here so take your time and enjoy this quiet, peaceful place. Even if you are not religious or have other beliefs, there is a lot to be gained from a visit.
After our visit to the Big Buddha, the bus dropped us back off at the Zuoying Station where we then walked back over to Lotus Pond to visit the Dragon & Tiger Pagodas! These colorful pagodas were at the top of our list of things to see in Kaohsiung. Entering through the dragon’s throat and exiting through the tiger’s mouth is said to turn bad luck into good luck! It was worth a try! The pagodas were located on the opposite side of the pond than we visited the day before.
Climbing the winding stairs to the top of the pagodas give you another perspective.
There were several other statues to visit around the pond as well as a waterski park. I loved this tree with its roots growing under the boardwalk toward the water!
Our last stop of the day was the Ruifeng Night Market! Night markets are a must do when visiting Taiwan and Aidan had already visited this one a few times so he was able to give us a tour! First we walked through the rows and scoped out each stall to see what we might want to try! There is nothing like the smells that engulf you as you venture from one vendor to the next!
So many good things to eat like sweet potato balls, octopus takoyaki, chicken shawarma, crepes and dumplings!
If you go right at 5pm when they open, there will be less people and less waiting time at each stand. Night markets do not have a lot of places to sit and it is not the custom to eat and walk at the same time so you may have to stand off to the side while enjoying your tasty treats before moving on or you can collect several items and find a wall outside the market to sit and enjoy them like we did!
Our last day in Kaohsiung was also Cesar’s 56th birthday! Today’s activities would include a hike up Monkey Mountain in Shoushan National Park. This hike was to be all about Macaque monkeys and turned out to be about so much more!! We decided to take a taxi to the trailhead to get there early (and it only cost $6). Shoushan National Park sits right in the middle of the city and the trailhead doesn’t look like a trailhead at all! Tucked between some old buildings and homes are a set of stairs leading to the wooden boardwalk.
As soon a we hit the boardwalk, the climbing began and it never let up! Before long we spotted out first monkey family! Grooming and laying around was their favorite pastime it seems! A few decided to join us on our hike up!
The higher we climbed, the more humid it became! Before long we were sweating like crazy! November/December hosts mild temperatures and low humidity however when you are working hard making your way up a mountain, the humidity seems stifling! Our skin and clothing were dripping wet by the time we reached the halfway point! From here we got a great view of the city below.
At the peak, we were surprised to find a covered pavilion with a crowd of people. As we got closer we noticed that someone was handing out fresh sliced watermelon unlike any watermelon I had seen before. It was orange/yellow in color and was the juiciest, sweetest watermelon I have ever tasted!!
We were asked to enjoy our watermelon under the pavilion because once you step out, it was free game for the Formosan Rock Macaques who were lying in wait!
All the rinds were collected in a bucket and handed out to our hungry little friends waiting in the trees surrounding the area! From the top we got a nice view of the ocean!
Our hike down was a little trickier! You can choose to backtrack the boardwalk the way we came up or take an unpaved route down the other side. Backtracking is not my favorite (you might miss something!) so we took the steep downhill trail over large rocks and roots and other obstacles! It started off on boardwalk, but quickly turned ! Aidan was not too impressed with this choice and has now dubbed our hike a “death march”. I have been known to lead us on many death marches and Cesar is well accustomed to it however Aidan hasn’t joined us on one since he grew up and moved out!
We ended right back where we started and purchased some Gatorades from a local vendor then called a Taxi to take us back to our Airbnb for a shower! There was no way we could continue the day smelling like that!
After a nice cool shower we were ready to celebrate Cesar’s birthday at Din Tai Fung (our favorite restaurant at home). Din Tai Fung originated in Taiwan and the original location is in Taipei which we planned to visit once there. You will find most Din Tai Fung’s located in a mall and this one was not exception. The wait was about 2 hours so we had some time to explore the high end, multistory mall. We found that our favorite shops in the mall were similarly priced as back home. No deals on Lululemon here!!
Once seated at our table the dumplings started to arrive! This was Aidan’s first time and we did not hold back on ordering all our tasty favorites including chocolate dumplings for dessert.
Stuffed and barely about to move, we boarded the MRT and got off at the Formosa station for a look at the famous Dome of Light before saying goodbye to Aidan.
The next morning we would be traveling to Taipei via the HSR(High Speed Rail) aka Bullet train for more adventures. Here is the link if you want to keep reading! https://dawntillduskaz.com/touring-taiwan-part-2-taipei/. But for now, We hope you too will get the opportunity to tour Taiwan and please remember to travel responsibly!
