Kaohsiung

The main cities of Taiwan are conveniently named by location, i.e. Taipei (Tai North), Taichung (Tai Centre), Tainan (Tai South), and Taitung (Tai East). There is no Taixi (Tai West) because the west coast is where the population is concentrated, and Taitung is a minor city. However Tainan is overshadowed by Kaohsiung, a nearby port city.

I had booked a night in Tainan because it seemed to be quieter, but decided to make a afternoon trip to Qijin, a sandbar off the coast of Kaohsiung.

When I arrived at the airport, the landscape we passed on the way to Kenting was brutally industrial. We are talking square kilometres of factories, refineries, tanks, piping, etc. here. This was due to the development policies of the post-war government.

The name too is an oddity. It was originally Takou, of aboriginal origin. In Chinese this means beat dog. The Japanese rulers thought this vulgar so changed the characters to Kaohsiung (High Hero), but still pronounced Takou in Japanese.

It's still a major Asian port though trying to reinvent itself for a less industrial base and better quality of environment. There are two subway lines and some gaps in the numbering, indicating more stations to come. Ran efficiently as far as I could see.

I was there on a Sunday so it was relatively quiet, and after transacting at an ATM, I found a café across the street with good coffee and decent cakes. Obviously they knew I was coming.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. To get to Qijin one takes a short ferry ride. The terminal is located at the mouth of the Love River, a misnomer if ever there was one, given the high concentration of pollutants, though like with the Thames, the city is gradually cleaning it up.

The queue was long on a Sunday with families taking an outing, but the ferries were frequent, less than 10 minutes between, so the line moved quickly.

Qijin used to be connected to the mainland but this was cut to create a second entrance to the harbour. The northern end of the island is a recreational area for the city. There is a beach with brown sand and an adjoining park.

Of more interest to visitors is the market street where one can snack on hawker food. For lunch I had a skewer of fish cake, one of prawn cake. I spotted a stall selling oyster buns. I made the mistake of taking the offer for 3. It wasn't inedible but got boring after the second so I gave up on the third. It was mostly chopped vegies with a bit of oyster anyway. I made up for that disappointment with a lemon and kumquat drink, and peanut brittle.

This is an unusual stall. Turkish ice cream has mastic added which gives chewiness.

After the aforementioned coffee, I picked up my bag from storage at the station and caught a train to Tainan. It took just under an hour so I was glad I didn't follow the original idea of coming back for an evening; that would have been 2 hours travel.

It seems there were municipal elections coming up. Posters and banners were everywhere and loudspeaker trucks were prowling the streets.

To be continued in Tainan.