Despite its status as Taiwan’s second city, there are some interesting places to explore in Kaohsiung in terms of sightseeing. You can stroll along the banks of the Love River (Ai He), window shop at the well represented big departments stores that include Hansen (next to the Grand Hi-Lai Hotel), Da Li / Isetan, and Da Tong / President, hike the trails and see the pagoda at Cheng Ching Lake, and eat at the Liu He 2nd Street night market. In the outskirts of the city, Lotus Lake is a small lake surrounded by temples that is fun to explore, including a magnificent Confucius Temple. In addition, the Foguangshan Buddhist monastery is not far and is a worthwhile visit if you are interested in Buddhism and exploring the grand temple complex. Plus, if you want to see rhesus monkeys, there are lots at Shoushan Nature Reserve.
We didn’t really follow a sightseeing itinerary since I was more interested in seeing family while we were in Kaohsiung. However, we did manage to squeeze in a tour of Lotus Lake, a drive by Cheng Ching Lake, a look at the San Feng Gong temple and enjoyed the air conditioned havens that the department stores represented.
Todd from the Daily Bubble Tea did a nice post on Kaohsiung a while ago. He visited a lot of places that I didn’t cover, so for the sake of visitors who are thinking of going to Kaohsiung, I am linking his post here.
Here’s a bigger version of the map. Click here!
The series of posts on Kaohsiung are linked below:
Travels with Sandy 
Thanks for the mention Sandy… our posts on Kaohsiung compliment each other quite nicely… I went to all the places you didn’t go and you went to all the places I didn’t go.
[…] Taiwan, including the night market. For information and photos on sightseeing in Kaohsiung, click here for the series I did on this very topic last year. For all my posts on Taiwan, click […]
[…] with Sandy has a bunch of posts about Kaohsiung: Old School Taiwan, Sightseeing and Lotus […]