The Daily Bubble Tea

After breakfast on our second day in Kaohsiung we hopped on the KMRT and got off at Sanduo Shopping District Station [三多商圈站].  We had two things in mind: 1) buy new shoes for my wife because the pair she was wearing was not cut out for the walking we were doing and 2) visit the Tunix Sky Tower [高雄85大樓].

Since we arrived early and the shopping malls were still closed, we decided to head to the Tunix Sky Building.  It was a hot day, so the walk felt much further than it really was [even more so for Cathy who was stuck in uncomfortable sandals].  Luckily, I heroically carried her the final few meters to a shaded area of the Singuang Ferry Wharf [新光碼頭].

The Singuang Ferry Wharf is located at the end of Singuang Road is a great place to enjoy a walk or bike ride.

The Tunix Sky Tower is located beside the ferry wharf.  After its completion in 1997, the 85-floor Tunix Sky Tower surpassed Taipei’s Shin Kong Life Tower as Taiwan’s tallest skyscraper.  It wasn’t long before it was dethroned by the completion of Taipei 101 in 2004.  The unusual “prong” design of the Tunix Sky Tower was inspired by the Chinese character for “tall” [gao 高], which is also the first character of the city’s name.

The whole area was pretty much deserted when we went.  Perhaps Kaohsiung residents spent most of their time indoors on days like this.  Maybe the city will get a lot of international guests when the World Games starts in less than a month, hopefully by then someone will put English-language tourist brochures in the KMRT stations.