Sightseeing and Night Markets in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

HDR shot of Kaohsiung (高雄) from our hostel

I’m back to write a travel post! After leaving one of the best stinky tofus in Taitung behind, we took a train down to Kaohsiung (高雄), the second largest and second most populated city in Taiwan.

Kaohsiung was originally a small fishing village name Takao (打狗), which has the aboriginal name meaning “bamboo forest”. Literally, it actually meant “beating the dog”. It was changed by the Japanese (during the Japanese occupation in World War II) to Kaohsiung in 1895 as they found the name Takao to be vulgar.

Our minsu was located on the 40th floor (if I didn’t remember wrongly), which gave us one of the best views in Kaohsiung. It’s really nice to be waking up to such a beautiful city view.

Dream Mall (夢時代購物中心)

Dream Mall is the largest shopping mall in Taiwan with a Hello Kitty Ferris Wheel on the roof. The Ferris Wheel would probably be good for kids, but we weren’t Hello Kitty Fans so we gave the ride a pass.

Dream Mall (夢時代購物中心)

No.789, Zhonghua 5th Road, Qianzhen District, Kaohsiung City (高雄市前鎮區中華五路789號)
Take the MRT to Kaisyuan station, transfer Shuttle Bus to the Dream Mall

Dragon and Tiger pagodas (龍虎塔)

After lounging for the whole afternoon away, we headed to the Dragon and Tiger pagodas (龍虎塔), located at the Lotus Lake (蓮花池). Built in 1976, the pagoda are 7 storeys tall and is a popular tourist attraction. As the pagodas are closed by the time we reached there, we didn’t climb up, but X stayed and took some photos.

(If you are visiting the pagoda, it is considered auspicious to enter from the dragon’s mouth and exit from the tiger’s mouth – said to bring good luck!)

Bridge near Spring and Autumn Pavilions

There are other pavilions nearby the pagoda, and this bridge near the Spring and Autumn Pavilions is probably one of the best spot for photos in the evening. Though some of the lanterns didn’t lit up, I still found it a pretty sight, contrasting against the city landscape in the background.

Lotus Lake (蓮花池)

Liantan Road, Zuoying District (高雄市左營區翠華路1435號)
Take MRT Red Line to Zuoying station then take bus R16 to reach Lotus Lake （搭乘捷運紅線至左營站(R16)即可到達蓮池潭）
The pagodas open from 8am to 5pm daily.

After a day of sightseeing, it’s time for food! We first head to Ruifeng Night Market (瑞豐夜市) (we took a cab as we were pretty lazy), one of the most popular night markets in Kaohsiung, to satisfy our food cravings.

Ruifeng Night Market is a large public square filled with little tents and stalls, so navigating around the market can get pretty confusing, and with the truckload of people who went to night market on weekends and Friday nights, it can get really hard to walk around the night market.

The food in Ruifeng Night Market is pretty standard, all the oyster omelettes, stinky tofus etc are common everywhere. The more unique food would probably be this deep-fried squid. The humongous squid is battered, deep-fried and the seasoned to your liking. It is an extremely sinful but delicious treat!

Addictive games!

But it’s not the food that I love most about Ruifeng Night Market. It’s actually the games! There are many stalls of mini games which bring back tons of childhood memories. I remember as a child I would be begging my parents to let me play the games (but often to no avail haha). So since we were there and the games were relatively cheap, we decided to play and the games can get really addictive! The prizes weren’t very grand as they are prizes for kids but it sure satisfy the inner child in me 😉

Wonder how’s my marksmanship?

Won a cute teddy bear (!) and a very weird tasting drink…

Ruifeng Night Market (瑞豐夜市)

No fixed address
Take MRT to Kaohsiung Arena MRT and take Exit 1 (高雄捷運的巨蛋站下車(1號出口)，步行至瑞豐夜市)
Closed on Mondays and Wednesdays; open from 5.30pm till late

Love River Bridge (愛河之心)

After our fill of snacks, we headed to the Love River Bridge (愛河之心), a place that X wanted to take photos of when he researched on the places to visit in Kaohsiung.

Love River originates from Kaohsiung city and flows 12km! It plays an important role in the economy and tourism as somewhere along the river, there are ferry boats ferrying people up and down the river.

This bridge costs NT$170 million (US$5.7 million; S$7.2 million) to build and apparently it is supposed to form a heart shape (though I couldn’t really tell). It is probably a more popular spot for sports enthusiasts in the evening, at night, this place is pretty quiet, with only a few couples and some photographers trying to get a shot of this beautifully-lit bridge.

Love the reflection of the bridge in the river (I think X took a long time before getting the shot right…)

Love River Bridge (爱河之心)

Tongmeng 1st and 2nd Rd., and Bo’ai 1st Rd., Sanmin District, Kaohsiung City (高雄市三民區博愛一路和同盟一路、二路)
Take MRT to Houyi Station and walk for 10 minutes along Bo’ai 1st Rd (後驛站下(1號出口)→沿博愛一路步行約10分鐘)

Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市)

After a short rest at the Love River Bridge, we then headed for Liuhe Night Market (六合夜市), another famous night market and one of the more touristy ones in Taiwan. What I love about this night market is the huge street it is situated at. There is plenty of space to walk and less likely to bump into people. However, I feel that the food and games are a little more pricier than those in Ruifeng Night Market (maybe that’s why all the locals preferred Ruifeng Night Market to Liuhe Night Market).

The most popular stall will definitely have to be this Papaya Milk store. See all the “scribbles” all over the stall? They are actually signatures signed by popular artists and singers! This just shows how popular and how good this drink stall is. Unfortunately, I dislike drinking milk, so I didn’t give the drink a try, but for those who love papaya milk, do not miss this!

Zheng Lao Pai Papaya Milk (鄭老牌木瓜牛奶)

Liùhé 2nd Rd, Xinxing District, Liuhe Night Market, Kaohsiung City (高雄市新興區六合二路 1 號前)
Alight at Formosa Boulevard Station. Take Exit 11 walk to the night market (高雄捷運的美麗島站下車(11號出口)，步行至六合夜市)

The Dome of Light (光之穹頂)

Can you believe this is actually a MRT station? Before we head back for the night, we stopped by the Dome of Light, situated at one of the MRT transfer station in Kaohsiung – and I must say, it was an amazing sight. This art piece is the world’s largest public art installation made from individual pieces of coloured glass. Created by Narcissus Quagliata, this art piece took about 4 years to complete and represents four symbols – water, earth, light and fire. It is definitely a very beautiful sight and since it was already pretty late, there was hardly anyone in the station, making it perfect to take photos of the place.

The Dome of Light (光之穹頂)

Kaohsiung MRT Formosa Boulevard Station (美麗島站為捷運紅)
Zhongzheng 3rd Rd. & Zhongshan 1st Rd. intersection, Xinxing Dist., Kaohsiung City (橘線的交會站位於中正三路及中山一路口)

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A bit on a hiatus for baking as my previous bakes weren’t very successful so I didn’t want to post about it. I’m going to try it again this weekend and hopefully I’ll be back soon with more recipe posts! 😉 Hope you all are having a great week, take care!

For the rest of the posts on Taiwan, see our Taiwan travel itinerary here!