Kaohsiung

We arrived in Kaohsiung early Saturday afternoon, after checking into our hotel our first stop was the British Consulate at Takao. Designed by a British architect and built in 1865, this Renaissance-style building was the first Western-style building in Kaohsiung.

The building overlooks Kaohsiung Port and Xizhiwan Bay (hmm, that looks like two different methods of romanization).

Inside is a dungeon maze, the low ceilings prevented me from entering:

Next to the British Consulate is a temple:

From this vantage point you can see the entrance to the National Sun Yat-sen University:

Taking the road instead of the steps down:

Next we took the Cijin Ferry from the Gushan District to Cijin Island. We didn’t wait long for the ferry, and the cost of the trip was only $10 NT one-way.

In the background is the Tuntex Sky Tower, Kaohsiung’s 85-story skyscraper. Opened in 1997 it was Taiwan’s tallest building until the completion of Taipei 101 in 2004.

The Cihou Battery was built during the Qing Dynasty. Completed in 1875, the site combined Chinese and Western architecture styles and housed four Armstrong cannons to protect Takao Port:

In 1895, during an intense cannon battle between Qing forces and Japanese warships, the first two characters of the inscription “Wei Zhen Tian Nan (dominating the world)” were smashed:

A trip to a night market for dinner:

Genuine “Lation” cuisine

A few snapshots of the Love River during day and night:

The Love River has undergone an extensive cleanup in recent years:

Ouch!

A few pictures near our hotel. We stayed at the Hotel Kingdom and received an excellent discount because of their partnership with the company Cathy works for.

So the reason we were in Kaohsiung in the first place was for the wedding of one of Cathy’s classmates. The bride had to guess which out of 4 men was her husband by feeling the back of our legs blindfolded. Of course, I was called on stage: