[Taiwan 2023] 3 Days 2 Nights in Kaohsiung - Cijin Island [Summer]
Overall, Kaohsiung is a nice, tourist-friendly city with a high level of convenience - so far having great experience with the public transport (bus+subway) and their night market has trash cans everywhere (not common in elsewhere in Taiwan you know!!).
Just that there is really not much to do to be honest haha...okay, it's not that there is nothing, it's just nothing that motivates me enough to go burn myself under the scorching sun...
It's a good place for a relaxing weekend getaway though - if the flight is cheap I'm down to just fly here on a Friday night.
There are a few nice sunset spots near the sea, grab some nice and cheap street snacks at one of the most tourist-friendly night markets, and spend the afternoon at the outlet/mall/theme park. I regret not putting more time into the outlet park in my trip this time...not for the shopping of course but for something else - which I will tell you later!
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The first thing arriving in Kaohsiung station at 4pm - get the railway bento for late lunch! Yum!
Checked in our Airbnb that is located at a shady building...the room itself seems fine though.
Feels like it's built for long term living with the working desk, washing machine and lots of storage space. I guess it makes sense when I realise the owner is a property rental agent.
Recommend this AirBnB for someone who is looking for an affordable, clean room.
HK$855 for 2 nights
Rating: ★★★★
After a quick shower we decided to head to Love River for sunset view / gondola ride...then we realised Love River is very long and the side we went to was not where the pier is...
In case you wonder...I just googled Love River and google map brought me here - which is not where I wanted to go for the gondola ride.
Heart of Love River
Then we walked to the nearest subway station to get to the famous Formosa Boulevard Station.
The station itself is gorgeous, and also super convenient with lots of shops, restaurants and plenty of seating area, not to mention that it's just 3-min walk away from the Liouhe Tourist Night Market. These two attractions can be visited together.
There was a show at 8pm I think - it was okay.
Liouhe Tourist Night Market in Kaohsiung
I must say this is my best experience with the night market in Taiwan - not because of the food though, just purely of how the local government organises/regulate it well - I can find trash cans in every few steps, it's super clean and convenient!
It was also spacious and the crowd wasn't too bad (the Tainan Garden Night Market was traumatic...but that's also because we went it during the public holiday so no one is to blame...)
Was curious why everyone is buying drink from this stall so we queued for it (pretty quick) and got this huge ice tea with only 20 or 30 TWD.....
Tried the Tainan famous Ta-a noodle aka 擔仔麵 here - soooo good! We ordered the second bowl (also because it was small...and don't ask why we didn't try it in Tainan...)
After dinner at the night market, we headed to Dream Mall, which is located slightly far away from the city centre but was known for its Ferris wheel.
Kaohsiung Eye Ferris wheel @ Dream Mall
The big wheel is located on the rooftop of the huge mall. I noticed a few malls here in Kaohsiung came with a mini theme park...the kids here must be having lots of fun here lol.
The view OF the wheel is fantastic, a good photo backdrop :)
Meanwhile, the view from the wheel is...just okay. The window is not clean enough. It costs 150 TWD (approx. HK$35) - not expensive but not too cheap too. The wheel in HK costs only HK$20 with a much better view.
Nevertheless, it's still the classic romantic date idea~
Apparently it's a dinasour theme park aha.
I must admit we enjoyed this more than the wheel hahaha.
Pretty illuminated tunnel that made us miss our last train lol.
That's all for our first day in Kaohsiung!
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Our breakfast in Kaohsiung for the second day started from a misunderstanding.
Originally, we wanted to try the famous michelin-stared Fu Hang Soy Milk and we thought it had a branch in Kaohsiung.
And it DOES NOT. What a surprise.
But of course we had to fulfill our craving - Soymilk! Yau char kawai! 豆浆油条!
So we ended up at the local favourite - Xing Long Ju in Kaohsiung.
Breakfast @ Xing Long Ju
Tried salty soymilk for the first time and...we both didn't like it. We couldn't finish it. It just tasted like something gone sour gone bad...sorry for wasting the food :x
The gua bao, shaobing with yau char kwai as the filling and char siu bao are quite nice though!
Environment-wise - it's actually quite dirty. Leftover everywhere, you have to be careful not to step on some rubbish/food debris. The queue was long but a quick one - the efficiency of the staff kinda reminds me of Hong Kong haha.
After breakfast we kind just dara dara (chill and did nothing) for the whole morning...because IT WAS TOOOOOOOO HOT. SO HOT OUTSIDE.
And I think another reason we were being lazy (i swear I'm not finding excuses) is that the attractions in Kaohsiung other than Cijin Island are just not interesting enough to motivate us...but to be fair we didn't really go to any of them so this is not a fair speculation.
So what did we do for the rest of morning/early noon?
We went into an old-fashioned department mall that remind me of The Store in Malaysia...to play Maimai in the arcade.
We got some coffee at a random cafe @ Coffee Alley
We walked around some mall that I don't remember the name, ate some pasta and drank more coffee.
And finally, at 1pm, we headed to Cijin Island via ferry.
We first got a Mango shaved ice - which is quite popular here. I mean, it's summer and we are on an island! 😎🍧
I overheard the tempura was nice when we were queueing so I went to get one - it's super huge! And the chewy texture was unexpected - quite like it!
The vibe here is super chill - it's super windy and there are a lot of seating areas under the trees near the sea. With this weather when you sat down under the shade you wouldn't want to move again...until we finally got bored and started moving our ass to the beach...
Cijin Beach @ Cijin Island
A sign of our unwavering relationships <3
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The wave/tide here is quite interesting - they clash in a mid point.
I was thinking really hard. Why am I here...getting sunburnt?
Around the golden hours, it's time to hike up to the watchtower & fort area!
Before we left the beach - passed by these sand statues for an FGO event or something, they were huge! The sand kept blowing into our eyes though....
Cijin Star Tunnel @ Cijin Island
On the way we passed by the Star...I would prefer calling it Rainbow tunnel though!
Cihou Lighthouse @ Cijin Island
You get a bird-eye view of the town after a lot of steps.
There is a cafe with really nice surroundings but it was too late for coffee ><
Got some really nice Japanese-vibe photos on the way to the fort area uwu
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Cihou Fort @ Cijin Island
I like this place. You can get there on a relatively easy/short hike but the sunset/night view is very rewarding. In one photo below - you can see the sky and the sea beneath which you can tell how far away it is with how humans look like ants...
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After getting off the ferry back to Gushan, we got our dinner at a small Japanese eatery/izakaya nearby @ Nine Days Parity Japanese Skewers (九日平價日式串燒). It's a random choice but a good one with affordable and tasty food. The skewers, ochazuke and croquette were nice but udon is definitely the MVP - really really good!
And there was kid labour...just kidding >:)
The kids are so mature - they almost did everything! The little boys introduced us the menu, took the order, gave us utensil, served us dishes, and I think he even collected the bill... but the kids kept being scolded by their parents (the owner) for some small mistakes -_- please praise them!! The kids were doing so well already!!
After dinner, we wanted to end the night with a romantic gondola ride at Love River, but it was quite late (10 pm-ish) and we kinda got lost (again)...where the heck was the pier?!
Eventually, we just ended up strolling along the river, watching the market stall cleaning up.
Then we stumbled upon a beer garden with a live singing performance - felt like we found a hidden gem! Her voice is sooo clear and healing. I overheard a passing aunties commenting that her singing voice sounds like Waa Wei (魏如萱). We sat there, listened for an hour, and left some tips before we left.
Her IG --> @red_bean10
She didn't post much of her cover online though! >:(
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Our last day was to catch a noon flight, so we had to check out in the morning.
It's actually nice that the airport is just a 15-minute train ride away from Kaohsiung city station, and the outlet is just one stop away - of course I didn't want to waste the extra 2 hours in the airport. It was funny (and unfortunate) that we actually spent ALL of our TWD...so I ended up exchanging some HKD for TWD in the airport hahaha...
We put our stuff in a locker and took the subway to the one-station away SKM Park Outlets. Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos, but I highly recommend this outlet to anyone who has some spare time here in Kaohsiung - the entertainment is amazing! Don't mind about the other shopping stuff - just the entertainment alone, makes me really want to head there for a weekend.
What amazed me the most is the Taroko Baseball Park, an indoor baseball park! You don't need to go to Japan for this anymore! Impossible to have this in Hong Kong/Malaysia due to the cultural difference/space issue...and you can just sway your stress away by hitting some baseball - that could be fun! (speaking from someone who is bad at any sport and doesn't know how to play baseball at all....)
(photo taken from official website)
And there was the Suzuka Circuit Park - it seemed like a theme park for kids so I wasn't too interested, but there was the go-kart that could be fun! It was 650 TWD per person, or 850 TWD for a two-person kart - find more details here. I just noticed that I can't be the driver because I'm not over 155cm.......🫠
(photo taken from official website)
Apparently, the outlet park looks even prettier at night with all the lights on. So a short weekend getaway just to spend the whole day here is actually doable...? 🤔
(photo taken from official website)
That's all of my Kaohsiung 3 days 2 nights trip in June 2023! :)
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