Kaohsiung – Old School Taiwan

We started our visit to Taiwan in Kaohsiung (Gao Xiong), where we have lots of family.  The Kaohsiung airport was a breeze; our luggage was delivered quickly and customs and immigration were a nonevent.  Best of all, there were no lines!

Kaohsiung is the second city of Taiwan, often in the shadow of the glitzy capital city of Taipei.  In addition to being the second largest city in Taiwan (and one of the largest container ports in the world), Kaohsiung is also the stronghold of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), aka the pro-independence green party.  The primary language spoken here is Taiwanese.  When mandarin is spoken, it is heavily accented by Taiwanese.  Kaohsiung is often overlooked because it’s not as tourist friendly for Westerners.  English is not as prevalent as in Northern Taiwan, and there are not as many tourist attractions.  However, coming to see this city will give visitors a glimpse into a completely different, more intense view of Taiwan. 

When I think of Kaohsiung, my mind brings up fond memories of summers spent with my extended family as a child.  Thus, a lot of our visit in this city consisted of visiting memories.  We did some sightseeing too, but that will be in the next post.

Liu He 2nd Street

Morning Market

My Favorite Bawan Stand

Bawan (Taiwanese for Rou Wan, or directly translated as Meat Ball), a Taiwanese delicacy and popular street food, is a ball of steamed rice dough usually stuffed with meat, mushrooms, and bamboo shoots.  Sometimes there is also garlic involved, and there are regional variations to this dish.  This is my favorite Taiwanese food, and oh my goodness it was good.  So good I had it two days in a row.  Charles also thought it was delicious, and said it was the best thing he had in Taiwan in terms of food.

Here is a freshly made batch of bawan.

My soon to be devoured Bawan in sauce.

A pretty apartment building.

Next: Sightseeing in Kaohsiung

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