Table of Contents

A food-focused day in Kaohsiung: a great breakfast spot with adorable dogs, a disappointing science museum, then a long walk around the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas park with its wildlife. You finished with udon near Kaohsiung Arena, a quick ferry to Cijin Island (beachy but windy and underwhelming), and dinner at a rooftop bar with city views.

Links to the next parts

• Taiwan, day 1
• Taiwan, day 2
• Taiwan, day 3
• Taiwan, day 4
• Taiwan, day 6
• Taiwan, day 7-8

Breakfast find near the hotel

The fifth day of our trip was fully dedicated to Kaohsiung exploration. Near our hotel, my wife found an exceptionally good breakfast store, which was extremely highly rated on Google Maps. Firstly, the food at the place was fantastic: local buns, omelette with cabbage, and, lastly, differently flavoured soy milk. However, the main highlight of the shop was two extremely cute, well-behaved dogs that were free to roam on the premises. We fell in love with them.

Kaohsiung science museum

After breakfast, we took a cab to Kaohsiung’s science museum, which very much reminds me of the museum that we visited in Taichung. In general, unfortunately, the place was quite disappointing: old, dilapidated, and outdated. The museum has quite a few very interesting ideas, e.g., an exhibition dedicated to Taiwanese Nobel Prize winners, an exhibition about Taiwan’s infrastructure, and about the island’s industrialization. It was crazy to see Taiwan’s share in various electronic production, e.g., keyboards or hard drives. At a certain time, it was almost half of the world’s production! But the majority of the exhibitions and exhibits are old and rustic, so if you visited a similar museum in Taipei or Taichung, don’t waste your time here.

Dragon and Tiger pagoda and the park

The next stop for us was an iconic Dragon and Tiger pagoda. The place is located near the high-speed rail station, where we originally arrived. At the pagoda, we quickly realised that it was not a single building, but a huge park. Obviously, firstly, we went to see the pagoda! The place is fantastic - a traditional Chinese pagoda, with a brightly painted tiger and dragon that has various scenes from Buddhist hell inside.

The place reminds me of a similar pagoda in Malaysia that we visited a while ago. In addition, from the top of the pagoda, it’s possible to enjoy a breathtaking view of the whole park!

Wildlife walk and Kaohsiung Arena mall

After the pagoda, we decided to walk around and enjoy different pagodas, dedicated to different deities.

The park is really nice and both bicycle and pedestrian-friendly. In addition to the nice greenery, it has a plethora of wildlife: big, fat, furry squirrels and ‘aggressive’ geese, who truly consider themselves owners of this public space. After the long walk, we went to a shopping mall near the Kaohsiung Arena. I had a bowl of tasty, flavorful udon with a couple of toppings.

Cijin Island ferry, beach, and lighthouse

The next stop for us was the famous Cijin Island, which is famous for its beach, old streets, and a lighthouse. Surprisingly, we realised that the ferry, which was supposed to bring us to the island, was located near Pier 2, which we visited just a day ago. Thus, we are literally just going through more or less the same destinations as yesterday. The ferry took only about 10 minutes to reach the island. I expected a similar experience we had in Hong Kong: a remote, isolated, secluded place with its own unique lifestyle. But Cijin was completely different. It’s just literally an extension of the main island. I didn’t get the appeal of the old streets, as they also really are not much different from regular streets. There is one dedicated semi-pedestrian food street, and that’s it. The beach was nice, but I think we arrived at the wrong time of the year, in winter. Firstly, a big part of it was fences for some uplifting kind of work. Secondly, the weather wasn’t that great - a strong, biting wind. There is a very nice beach bar with a fantastic view, and I’m pretty sure it’s a perfect place to watch the sunset, but we weren’t hungry or thirsty at that time. Lastly, the island has a fantastic viewpoint - a hill with a lighthouse! Unfortunately, my knee pain was back, so we decided to get back to the main island.

Rooftop dinner with a view

By the time we got back to the mainland, it was already about 6 P.M. Consequently, we decided to return to our hotel for dinner at the rooftop bar with a fantastic view of the town.