Kaohsiung

So you can see the city the way we do.

On our first arrival.

And of course, the 85 Tower is the first sight to great us.

Railway just behind Kaohsiung Main Station.

Another building that makes a frequent appearance throughout the city.

Sanduo, aka Downtown. This is the home of the infamous 85 Tuntex Sky Tower. This tower is always watching you. Always. It looms over every part of the city and can be seen from nearly anywhere. This area is near the harbor and also includes the fairly new Exhibition Center.

We happened to arrive during a special event with a band playing and plenty of games and activities for families.

XinXing District, or as we tend to think of it, Formosa. This area includes Formosa Boulevard (the MRT Station) and is a frequent destination for us as we travel to work and church. LiuHe is one of the major streets traveling through the surrounding area. LiuHe is home to the LiuHe night market, as well as one of the two locations of our school.

Formosa MRT station above ground.

And at night.

Near our church and Formosa station

My walk to work.

This is what greeted me after work one day back in March. One of the most beautiful and clearest days we’d had here yet.

This is actually the view from our friend’s apartment.

And looking the other direction.

Gushan outskirts and the surrounding area, so basically, our neighborhood.

Just around the corner from us and we can see Gushan mountain nearby

The “red sun”. Basically, the smog is so heavy that it turns the sun red. Basically it’s “I can stare at the sun because it’s so hazy” day.

Standing in the same place at an intersection in this picture and the next. This is looking ‘behind’ us (to the West) towards Gushan Mountain. We can almost always see this mountain, though how green it is can be an indicator of how smoggy it is that day.

This is looking forward towards Aozihdi Park (about 4 blocks down). That building WAY off in the distance is at the other end of the park, and behind it, for the first time since we’ve lived here, we discovered that on a beautifully clear day you can see the other mountains that are about 2-3 hours away towards the middle of Taiwan. Incredible.

The mountain and clouds as the sun sets behind us.

A beautiful view of the ever-changing weather 🙂

Aozihdi. The Forest Park and surrounding area.

Gushan Mt. (Monkey Mountain) off in the distance.

The lake at sunset.

Bo-ai Rd, the opposite side of Forest Park from where we live.

Bo-ai facing the other direction, from the opposite side of the road.

Kaohsiung Arena. This area is only about 6 (large) blocks north of Aozihdi following Bo-ai Road. While this area is a tad northeast of where we live, we still consider it to be quite close to home as it’s one of our most frequented areas.

Kaohsiung Arena area on a ridiculously beautiful day. Bo-ai Rd.

Kaohsiung Arena

Love River. This is hard to split from other areas because while we tend to travel some of the same section of the Love River on a regular basis, the River is really quite large and runs through a fair portion of the city. The portion we cross the most is just along Bo-ai Road to the south of Aozihdi.

There’s a bridge over Bo-ai that connects the path following River. This is the view from the bridge looking North. Just up ahead is Aozihdi, and beyond that, Kaohsiung Arena. We live just a bit to the west (left).

Dusk.

Nighttime lights.

Love River to the east.

Love River to the west.

I really like bridges.

Love River at the Harbor. This is at the mouth of the river. It’s a bit farther from us (South and West), closer to Sizihwan at the western border by the ocean.