Travelling by Qin : 2013 October - Day 2 (Kaohsiung高雄)

Today's itinerary:

Cijin Island 旗津島
Dream Mall 夢時代購物中心
Kaisyuan Night Market 凱旋夜市
Jinzhuan Night Market 金鑽夜市

Woke up to a sunny day! And off we go to Gushan Ferry Terminal 鼓山碼頭 to take a ferry to Cijin Island 旗津島.

We cabbed down to Gushan Ferry Terminal, but you can actually take the KMRT to Sizihwan Station 西子灣 and use Exit 1, walk on Lixiong Street 麗雄街 turn right onto Binh 1st Road 濱海一路. It is said that this walk will take around 10mins.

Gushan Ferry Terminal 鼓山碼頭

The entrance
If you noticed, the sign is to differentiate people with bikes and without bikes. This is because the ferry actually do carry people with bikes on board and these people with their bikes will be stationed at the lower deck of the ferry.

The rates

After approximately 5mins on board the ferry, we reached Cijin Ferry Terminal 旗津碼頭 on Cijin island 旗津.

General Information: Cijin Island is just 11km in length and 200m wide.

The area where one steps out of Cijin Ferry Terminal 旗津碼頭

We walked with the flow (which is towards the right of the 7-11) and ends up walking towards Cijin Tianhou Temple 旗津天后宮 , which is one of the iconic attractions and also the busiest area in Cijin.

The street in front of Cijin Tianhou Temple 旗津天后宮

Cijin Tianhou Temple 旗津天后宮
Located at No. 93, Miao Qian Road

The red lanterns can be purchased and hang up to gain blessing from the temple.

Cijin Tianhou Temple has been built for 328 years. With the design of simplicity and elegance, this temple has incorporated itself into the residents’ life. It is the first Mazu Temple in Kaohsiung. Determined as a tertiary historic site in 1985 (the 74th year of the Republic of China), the temple is the only temple the Kaohsiung City Government has listed as one of the culture assets. The more important thing is that Cijin Tianhou Temple accompanies with the people in Cijin to pass their difficult life when they reclaimed wastelands, went through the war, rebuilt their homelands. Move over, it is a source where Kaohsiung City started to be developed.

One of the area where you can hang your wishes for blessing

It is said that if you can hit the bell with a coin and the same coin drops into the bowl below, your wish will come true.
Do give it a try: Hold a coin, make a wish and throw the coin.
All the best!

Another area for hanging your wish.

In the temple, the main deity is Mazu, however they do also house other deities.

The map that shows where are the deities located and how many joss sticks are needed.

After giving our respects in the temple, we walked around the area outside the temple which is filled with festival spirit! They have a number of games and food stalls,

Catching guppies using paper net.

After a walk around and grabbing some food as we walked, we decided to start our tour in Cijin by getting our transportation first.

In Cijin, most people moves around by bicycles or motorcycles. We wanted to get a bicycle each, but when we saw the variety of bicycles, our decision swayed. They really do have a huge variety, from single rider bicycle to 4pax bicycle, and they even have battery-operated bicycles!

There are plenty of rentals shop and each shop has a huge number of bicycles, so you do not have to worry about not getting one. Just get the one that you like, and we chose the Pinky Pig which has a second outlet in the middle of the island.

A pumpkin carriage that is battery-operated to carry 4pax.

The simplified map which Pinky Pig gave us.

The rates

Discussing which bike/s to take.

The view opposite the Pinky Pig.

It was only on our way back then we know from the cab driver that we can actually drive the smaller motorcycle in Cijin without any license. So do give it a try if you are there!

Our decision! Which is a battery-operated 4pax carriage.

Off we go on our tour, however at the first stop, we made the wrong decision and end up in nowhere that is stated in the map, but the view we found was awesome.

The place we chanced upon, Kaohsiung Harbour.
The corner of Cijin where one who is entering Kaohsiung by the sea will first see.

So we backtracked and found the correct path, which is a steep slope up.

A fading signboard to show the direction. They do have a newer and prettier signboard, but I did not capture it.

Not sure what this is, but judging from its location, it seems to be a guard building to look out into the sea.

The view from the small little building

The slope that we came up. Actually, just beside the sign, there is a staircase, but judging from the slope, I think it is wiser to take the slope.

We finally reach Cijin Lighthouse 旗後燈塔, which is located at No. 34, Ci Xia Lane. Do remember this lighthouse do have a opening hours which is from 9am to 4pm.

After the treaty of Tianjin signed in 1858 (the 8th year of Xianfeng in Qing dynasty), Cakao was formally opened for the trade with other countries in 1864 (the 3rd Tong Chi managing). Due to the fact that business ships came frequently, to build navigation measurement was becoming more urgent. Until 1883 (the 9th year of Guangxu), Wang Fu Lu, a vice general, invite engineers from Great Britain to build a red- bricked Chinese-style lighthouse in the north summit of Cihou Mountain, which is remained about 5 kilometers far behind the present lighthouse.

In 1916 (5th year of Taisho), Japanese people started to rebuild the lighthouse. It was completed in 1918 and become an octagonal intersection of brick tower, painted white and containing the third-class of thunder light. Then the lighthouse could change red light into white light every twenty seconds, which was able to be seen from about 10.25 kilometers.

After Taiwan was recovered, the government continued to renewal in the light apparatus separately in 1948 (the 37th year of the Republic of China), 1962 (the 51st year of the Republic of China), and 1976 (the 65th year of the Republic of China). Now the lights have already been changed as a new type of rotated ones and strengthened to 850,000 lights. And the lighthouse can be used to maintain the safety of sailing ships in Kaohsiung Harbor 24 hours a day.

In 1979(the 68th year of China), Ministry of Internal Affairs checked and ratified Cihou Lighthouse as the tertiary historic site since it has been in careful maintenance of the Customs of Kaohsiung.

View of the whole of Cijin Island

Can you spot Tuntex Sky Tower?

A corner we found when we went exploring around the Lighthouse.

This area is really cooling and quiet, furthermore, it has a pretty view.

After the walk around the lighthouse, we head off to Cihou Fort 旗後砲台 which has a connecting route from the Lighthouse.

The map showing the ways

Another corner we spotted. This was taken from inside the corner.

Cihou Fort

I personally find that Cihou Fort is nothing much. The view there is similar to the view from the lighthouse.
If you are short of time, you can give this a miss. But I will still give a background of the fort which I found online:

In the 20th year of Daoguang in Qing Dyuasty (A.D.1840) the, Qing Dynasty build the Cihou Fort to defend Kaohisung in the Sino-British Opium War (1840-1842). In the 13th year of Tong Chi in Qing dynasty (A.D. 1874), after the Japanese aggressor troop invaded Mu-dan, Shihmen and caused the Mu-dan incident, Qing Dynasty sent Shen BaoZhen to Taiwan to strengthen the coast defence. Later, to protect Tako Harbor, the dynasty sent again Tang Dingkiu, the generak of Huai Army, and his vice general, Wang Fulu, to build one fort in Cihou and the other near the harbor.

Cihou Fort was built in 1875(the first year of Guang Xu) and completed in 1876. Cihou Fort was located on the top of Mountain Cihou. Both Syongjhen North Gate and Cihou Fort are situated on the corners to protect Kaohsiung Harbor. They set up strong defense and thus had military importance. The original craftsmen seemed to show off their skills. On not only the cliff side but also the ladders, they made good use of various bricks for different designs. Even each story of the ladders was designed differently, which has been honored as the show window of brick-building art. The fort was designed by the British designer. Even though it was a western fort, its entrance showed a totally Chinese style. Specifically speaking, on the entrance door and two side doors, bricks were arranged to show different designs of the character “囍”, which is a great characteristic.

On October 15, the 20th year of Guangxu in Qing Dynasty (A.D. 1894), Japanese aggressor troop attacked Takao. However, since the leader of the Black Flag Army Liu Cheng Lrang had escaped to Tainan, in advance, the Japanese warship “Yoshino” smashed the first two words of, “Wei Zhen Tian Nan”, on the fort. Japanese warriors won without fight and occupied various forts in Cihou and then Takao. During the Japanese colonization, Cihou Fort was moved away and melted. After Taiwan was recovered, no one took care of the fort. Until 1989, the city government planned to rebuild Cihou Fort as a second precious historic site and completed the reconstruction in 1993.

Next we moved on to the Cihou Mountain Tunnel 旗後山隧道 which is also known as Starlight Tunnel星空隧道. I find the tunnel nothing much to raved about. It is just a wooden-path tunnel filled with glow-in-the-dark paints of the different horoscope' signs which I did not take picture of as the lighting is low, however, the view at the end of the tunnel is another thing.

At the entrance of the tunnel

The other side of the tunnel

The view

What I did not capture is the huge and endless sea in front of us, once we stepped out of the tunnel.
So, do take the short walk in the tunnel for the view at the end.

After the tunnel, we carried on with our cycling, or rather our battery-operated ride, to our next destination which is Cijin Wind Turbine Park 旗津區風車公園 located at Cijin 3rd Road.

A lane specifically for cyclists and motorists.

Small sausage wrapped in big sausage

Egg ice cream

A map indicating where one can fly kites and the restricted areas.

Cijin Wind Turbine Park 旗津區風車公園 C

It’s the new landmark in Kaohsiung for the environmental and creative purposes. This park operated function of keeping the coastline, giving tourists or neighbors a rest, and doing the eco wind power recycles. “Wind Stage – Cijin Wind-power Park,” and area over 7 hectares, is the first Park which combines tourism, leisure activities and eco-concepts. It is created from the ideas from the sea, the wind, the light, and the eco-concept under the naturel. Cijin Wind-power Park was completed on March 8th, 2003. The specialty is 7 three-leaf windmills, which are used to preserve the power for the light at night.

After the walk around the Cijin Wind Turbine Park 旗津區風車公園, we supposing wanted to travel back to the harbor to return our bike, but somehow or another, we got lost and ended up cycling even further away from the harbor. Thankfully, the people in Taiwan are really helpful and guided us the way to go back to the harbor.

However, when we got on the correct path, our battery ran out and peddling a battery-operated bike without the battery is crazy. It moves slightly, after we peddled like crazy, and we ended up pushing the bike to the second Pinky Pig shop in the middle.

Lightning is not supposed to strike the same place twice, but it happened to us as the second shop ran out of battery and hence we had to wait for another person from the first shop to come with a battery.

A rustic lookin temple along the street when we got lost.

Finally, we reached the harbor area and successfully returned our bike. After which, we walked around to grab some food.

Banana in Banana, nothing fancy, just banana in waffle that shaped like banana.

As Cijin is a fishing harbor, it is reputed to be the best place to eat fresh seafood in Kaohsiung. So we tried the seafood at the random stall. The stall owner emphasize that all the seafood are freshly caught in the morning by the fishermen in Cijin and hence all the seafood are very fresh.

All dishes are NT100/plate, except for some seasonal catches.

Fake "abalone" in mayo

Fried tofu

Chili stirred-fry calms.

Pufferfish which is their seasonal, but I don't like the texture. It's like eating rubber and no taste.

After the tour around Cijin, we went back to our Minsu to freshen up and head out to Dream Mall 夢時代購物中心 to take the Ferris wheel. To go Dream Mall, take the KMRT, alight at Kaisyuan Station凱旋站 and use Exit 1 to go to the waiting point for Dream Mall shutter bus.

Dream Mall is the largest shopping mall in Taiwan, with restaurants, movie theater, gym, and entertainment facilities including a rooftop amusement park. The rooftop amusement park at Dream Mall is the home of the Kaohsiung Eye 高雄之眼 which is the Ferris wheel. The Ferris wheel has a diameter of 50 metres (160 ft) and the combined height of the building and wheel is 102.5 metres (336 ft).

Lockers in the shopping mall, which are located near the washrooms.

There are instructions on the lockers.

Heading to the top floor

A carnival like area on the top floor where the Ferris wheel is located.

The instruction to take note of the camera at 3/4 of the turn which will take picture of the people in the cabin.

The camera, do get ready for the picture!

After the mall, we went to Kaisyuan Station 凱旋站 using the shutter bus provided by the mall, to go to Kaisyuan Night Market 凱旋夜市 and Jinzhuan Night Market 金鑽夜市.

Do use Exit 2 to reach the free night markets shutter bus 夜市免費接駁巴士 waiting area.
The bus operating hours are 17:30 to 22:30 with an interval of 5 mins.

Look out for the signs that direct you to Exit 2

The board that indicates the waiting area

The distance look short but it is actually quite a long distance. So do take the shutter bus.

FOOD TIME! Which start off at Kaisyuan Night Market 凱旋夜市.

Kaisyuan Night Market 凱旋夜市

高雄市前鎮區凱旋四路700號 (凱旋四路與瑞田街交叉路口)

No.700, Kaisyuan 4th Rd., Qianzhen Dist., Kaohsiung City 806, Taiwan (R.O.C)

1700 to 0200 (Closes on Tuesday and Thursday)


Feature of Kaisyuan Night Market 凱旋夜市: Each row of stalls is named after the roads in Kaohsiung and with individual stall numbers.

Playing the local game stalls. The owners are really kind to let us try and try, but we still didn't win anything.

Ice cream in a pot

The ordering form

Order receipt

Our ice cream!

This stall is real trusting.
They asked the customer to find their own change at the front area.

Jin-Zuan Night Market 金鑽夜市
高雄市前鎮區凱旋四路788號
No.788, Kaisyuan 4th Rd., Qianzhen Dist., Kaohsiung City 806, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
17:00~02:00 (closed on Monday and Wednesday)