Kaohsiung - A Foodie City You've Probably Never Heard Of (Taiwan)

On our recent trek to see cherry blossoms in Japan, we spent a few days in Taiwan. Since we've been to Taipei twice, we thought it would be cool to see another city and Kaohsiung popped up. It's known as Taiwan's Maritime Capital, home to it's largest international port. It has a thriving art scene, crazy good food and feels like a chill little sister to Taipei. 

There is a beautiful lake in the middle of Taiwan called Sun Moon Lake. I don't remember how I first found out about it but it's been on our list of things to see. We were going to take the high speed train from Taipei to Kaohsiung. My sister noticed Sun Moon Lake was on the way. So we took the HSR from Taipei to Taichung and there is a bus that goes to SUn Moon Lake. It takes about an hour. We actually joined a tour because it was direct ride to Sun Moon Lake instead of multiple stops. 

So it's named Sun Moon Lake because the round lake is divided by a small island in the middle. The east side is round like the sun. The west side is long and narrow like a crescent moon. The lake is beautiful and serene. There are walking and biking paths. There is a ferry with three piers. 

There is a cool little temple at one of the piers: Xuanguang Temple. They sell these tea eggs called Grandma's eggs that are really popular. They were tasty!

We also went up the Sun Moon Lake Ropeway. They have two different cable cars, one with a glass bottom and the regular one. The lines for the glass one were really long. It's not worth it. You can only see the top of trees on the glass bottom. The views were stunning. 

We also tried the black tea ice cream - perfect for the hot humid day. 

On the way back to the train station, we stopped at this cool little park called Paper Dome. 

We stopped for a snack. We tried the famous Japanese raw donuts. It's not raw. It's supposed to be really soft. It was pretty good. The truffle fries were also excellent. 

We took the high speed train from Taichung to Kaohsiung. We bought bento boxes to eat on the train like locals. We also picked up really cute pastries and bread from a local bakery. 

The largest seated Buddha in the world is in Kaohsiung: Fo Guang Shan. There's so much to see here. There are museums and exhibits. There are restaurants and gift shops. There are little parks. I've never been to a Buddha museum and there were five here. It was cloudy all day and around sunset, the sun broke through and there was an ethereal glow around the bronze stature. I'm not religious but there was a feeling of awe. 

We ate at one of the many restaurants on site. I think the vegetarian food in Taiwan is probably the best in the world. The food was delivered via robot, pretty high tech for a monastery. 

Lotus Pond is a man made lake with many pagodas and pavilions. There is Dragon and Tiger. 

Spring and Autumn.

Confucius Temple.  

Pei Chi Pavilion.

Love Pier is a popular area with lots of thing to see. It's next to the Love River. 

This is Kaohsiung Music Center. The architecture is interesting. It looks like hexagons stacked together. 

Pier 2 Art Center is basically a collection of warehouses that was converted to galleries and shops. There are cool street art. 

We stopped for coffee and snacks. The coffee shop was Japanese so we had mochi and red bean dessert and this amazing shaved ice! (Hilarious we ate at a Japanese cafe in Taiwan days before we went to Japan.) 

Night Markets are a must in Taiwan. We went to the Liuhe Night Market because it was close to our hotel. There were a lot of options. I read beforehand I must try the papaya milk. It was like liquid papaya ice cream and not too sweet. Eating while walking is an art. 

On our last day, we went to Central Park. It was literally next to our hotel. It was a cute little park with a pond. The subway station had cool exhibits. 

It was a brief but memorable trip. Kaohsiung reaffirmed my belief that Taiwan really has the best food. The high speed trains are excellent in Taiwan so you can spend a few days in Kaohsiung after Taipei. I will be dreaming about the night markets until my next trip!