Visiting Taiwan: The Port City of Kaohsiung (Part 3)

Finally, on our third day in Kaohsiung, we headed to Pier 2 Art District. To get here, just take the Kaohsiung MRT and stop at the Yanchengpu station. Note that this is not a typical tourist attraction though. If you appreciate graffiti and modern art, then this is the place for you. For Taiwanese drama lovers, you will also enjoy the fact that scenes from Hi My Sweetheart (starring Show Luo and Rainie Yang) were shot here too.

There are also certain areas with temporary exhibitions. During our visit, one of the areas was cordoned off to showcase what happened behind the scenes at a Mayday (Taiwanese band) concert. We also managed to catch an exhibition related to Taiwan's aboriginal tribes.

From Pier 2, there is a bicycle and jogging path which leads towards Love Pier. The path is rather long so be prepared for a long walk, of about 20-30 minutes depending on your walking speed. As it was a weekday, there was practically no one when we reached Love Pier. Based on the signs, the cruises are only on in the evening from about 4 pm onwards till late at night. As we were hungry and tired from all the walking, we walked along the Love River (Ai He in Chinese) and stopped at a nearby restaurant for lunch.

After lunch, we headed in the opposite direction and visited the Kaohsiung Museum of History. It is not very huge and contains only a small permanent collection. However, it is an interesting stop if you are interested to learn more about Taiwan's history particularly the 228 Incident. Entrance is free as of Dec 2012. Another interesting to note is that the building was previously used as the city's City Hall.

From the museum, we then crossed over to the opposite side of the road and walked along the waterfront. About 10 to 15 minutes away is the Kaohsiung Municipal Film Archives which opens pretty late from 1.30 pm onwards so do come here only after lunch. There is a collection of books related to filmography here and you can browse through them or borrow the books if you are a member of the archive. Throughout the day, there are also movie screenings. If you are a movie buff, it would be worthwhile to check out the movies for the day.

Our final destination in Kaohsiung was Dream Mall, which is a huge shopping mall. To get there, we took the Kaohsiung MRT towards Kaisyuan station. Outside the station's exit 1, you will see an area to queue for the free shuttle bus. The bus is cutely decorated with many cartoon characters and is easy to spot. Board the bus and voila!!! you are at the mall within minutes. Before exploring the mall, head to the information counter and get a map of the mall. It is that huge! Having the map will help you narrow down the areas you want to visit. If you are starving, you can head to the food court at level B1, or the Japanese street section, or other specialty restaurants like Little Italy. Be prepared to spend a few hours here. Time really flew while we there and soon it was time to call it a day again for a good night's rest before taking the High Speed Rail again, the next morning, towards Taipei!