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Itinerary No. 3: Snack on History, Gorge on Shop ping
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| The ornate Hanlai Hotel speaks volumes about the spirit of the people of Kaohsiung. |
Afternoon: Hanshin Department Store, Isetan Department Store
Evening: Liuho Night Market, Hsinhsing Market
Lodgings: Hanlai Hotel
2nd day: Lotus Lake, Old Fengshan, Mt. Panping, Confucius Temple, Museum of Fine Arts, sculpture garden
Hanlai Hotel is described by many as the ultimate expression of "Kaohsiung style."The hotel features an ornate classical decor, and has been a big hit since the day it opened. Starting out from the Hanlai, spend the afternoon checking out the Hanshin Department Store (located in the same building) and the nearby Isetan Department Store. When evening falls, cruise Liuho Night Market, Kaohsiung's biggest collection of outdoor eateries, then head on over to Hsinhsing Market, known for its bargain-basement clothing. Next day, go to the city's north side to visit Lotus Lake, Old Fengshan, the Confucian Temple, and the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts. This itinerary will give you a taste of both the old Kaohsiung and the new, always important for the traveler aiming for an in-depth understanding of a city.
Shopping at Hanshin and Isetan
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| Isetan and Hanshin Department Stores are linked by Hsintien Road to form an integrated shopping district. |
The opening of the Hanshin Department Store six years ago created a lot of excitement in Kaohsiung. The building's high-class look attracted many famous private-label shops, but it also managed to blend in very well with the flavor of the local community, and soon an entire shopping district had sprung up in the area. Hanshin and Isetan are now linked by a bustling warren of boutiques, restaurants, and coffee shops lining either side of Hsintien Road. On the other side of Chungshan Road, meanwhile, is another shopping district anchored by the President Department Store.
Starting out from either Hanshin or Isetan, shop 'til you don't quite drop, recharge your batteries at one of the coffee shops on Hsintien Road, and continue on from there to hit whatever you haven't yet covered. It's an exciting shopping district that throws a surprise at you every time you turn a corner!Liuho Night Market
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As you wander through Liuho Night Market you can taste a fantastic variety of foods from all parts of Taiwan.
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| A Liuho Night Market branch outlet sells the famous yaodun paigu (pork ribs stewed in medicinal herbs), also sold in Taipei's Shihlin night market. It's extremely popular. |
This market is known for its great eats. It offers anything but haute cuisine, and there may be fewer customers than before the big earthquake of 1999, but the hungry visitor will find that the joy of stuffing yourself silly here hasn't diminished one iota. Au contraire, you can chow down at your leisure now that the crowds have thinned.
The Liuho Night Market is strung out along either side of Liuho 2nd Road on a stretch running just 300-plus meters between Chungshan 1st Road and Tzuli Road. The vendors there sell shaved ice and much more. Pretty much every stall and shop has been in business for ages. The salty dumplings are nice and chewy, and never stick to the roof of your mouth. The seafood in the rice congee is fresh from the harbor. The peanut-in-rice balls are made that same afternoon. And if you miss the eel spaghetti,
you'll be missing a quintessential bit of southern Taiwanese cuisine. The eels are stir-fried together with noodles that have just been deep-fried in oil. Just the right touch of sweet and sour!
Livening up the atmosphere are stalls where you can play games or have your fortune told. It only costs NT$100 for one fortune telling session, which is extremely cheap. Do they tell it like it is" You'll just have to try it to find out.
Hsinhsing Market
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| Rice balls, eel noodles, and hot and cold desserts are perennial favorites at Liuho night market. |
Kaohsiung's oldest shopping district is centered on Chungcheng Road near the Central Post Office, about ten minutes from Kaohsiung Railway Station.
Hsinhsing Market is open for business for a dozen or more hours every day, beginning in the morning. Hsinhsing Market is especially noted for its wide selection of clothing, personal accessories, cosmetics, and jewelry, with everything from the latest teen fashions to the tried-and-true items that find favor with the older matrons. The people of Kao-hsiung are in the habit of having everyone in the family go shopping together so that they can take care of everyone's needs in one fell swoop. Because it only takes ten minutes to walk from Liuho Night Market to Hsinhsing Market, it's probably best to cruise both markets in one outing before sitting down to eat. That way you can get a good feel for how the people of Kaohsiung spend their shopping hours.
Lotus Lake and its environs
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| The Dragon and Tiger Pagodas reflect off the breeze-tickled surface of Lotus Lake. This is old Taiwan at its best. |
Lotus Lake, located in Tsoying District, had long lain relatively forgotten, but Kaohsiung has been expanding northward in recent years, toward the lake. At the same time, local activists and the city government have completed some attractive improvements in the nearby area, establishing the Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts as well as the Mt. Panping Nature Park. These efforts have triggered a cultural renaissance in Tsoying District. If you depart from Hanlai Hotel and move north on Chunghua Road, signs will guide you to all of these attractions.
Located near Lotus Lake are, from south to north, the old city (Fengshan), the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, Wuli Pavilion, Spring and Autumn Tower, the Temple of Enlightenment, and the Confucian Temple. The lake itself, covered with lotuses, has been regarded since the Qing dynasty as one of the eight most beautiful sights of Fengshan. Today one can stand on the banks and see the beautiful scenery of Mt. Panping in the distance, while the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas in the foreground reflect off the surface of the water. Today, the words "sun set at Lotus Lake"have a special meaning to anyone lucky enough to have seen one.
There are over 20 temples within a 500-meter radius of Lo tus Lake, the most famous of all being the Confucian Temple. The area's sights can be comfortably visited on foot in half a day.
The lake covers an area of 42 hectares, and is fed by the Kaoping River. The willows lining the banks add to its beauty, and in the breeze it feels as if you were looking out upon the water through a curtain. Rising in the middle of the lake are the twin Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. One pagoda has a giant dragon in front of it, the other a tiger. Visitors enter via the dragon and exit via the tiger for good luck.
To the northwest of the lake is Confucian Temple. Rebuilt in 1976 in Song-dynasty style, it covers a larger area than any other Confucian temple in Taiwan. The temple precincts are laid out just as they are at the granddaddy of all Confucian temples in Qufu (the sage's hometown, in Shandong Province). The original Confucian Temple in Fengshan was built in 1684 but fared badly during the Japanese colonial occupation. Only a small part of this original survives, in the grounds of Tsoying Elementary School in old Fengshan.
The Temple of Enlightenment is the largest temple on the banks of Lotus Lake. Within the temple precincts are a Spring Hall and Autumn Hall, linked by a footbridge. The pagodas are named in memory of Guan Yu, a great general famed for the immortal lines: "Though I fight to restore the Han, I am inspired by the Spring and Autumn [a supposed golden age in ancient China]; My ambition is to make a contribution to history."
To the southeast of the lake is the old city of Fengshan, capital during the Qing dynasty of one of the five administrative districts into which Taiwan was then divided. The walled city was built in 1825, the first city in Taiwan with earthen walls. Qing troops were stationed to the left of the city, and the area came to be known accordingly as Tsoying ("the left encampment". The old city remains intact today, and the city's north, east, and south gates are listed as Class 1 national historic sites.
Mt. Panping
Mt. Panping is famed for its distinctive beauty. Half of the mountain appears to have simply fallen away, and a number of myths explain the oddity. According to the best known among them, an immortal came to Tsoying in hopes of finding someone worthy of taking on as a disciple. He wanted someone who knew how to be con tent with what he had. The immortal sliced off half the mountain, mixed it with the water of Lotus Lake, rolled out a giant mass of dumpling dough, and posted a sign: "One copper coin buys one piece of dumpling dough. Pay two coppers and take all you want."Everyone who came paid two coppers and carted the dough away by the bagful, but then a youth came, paid one copper, and ate his dumpling. He then paid a second copper for another one. The immortal took the youth away with him to his celestial abode. The missing half of the mountain was eaten up by all those others who thought they were so smart in carting away their bags of dough.
Half the mountain is missing, to be sure, but it wasn't sliced away by an immortal. Mt. Panping was quarried intensively in the 1960s and 70s to supply the construction crews building Taiwan's freeway system. The heavy earth moving equipment is all gone now, and left in its wake is a new nature park. All the digging done 30 to 40 years ago exposed a lot of fossils, making the mountain a favorite destination for elementary school field trips. The fossil record reveals that the area was once inhabited by mammoths, stegadons, rhinos, bovine creatures, turtles, crocodiles, deer, whales, sharks, cats, and fish. Plans for a fossil museum are now under discussion.
Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
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| The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts is noted for its emphasis on Taiwanese art.
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This is Taiwan's largest museum, noted especially for its emphasis on the preservation of Taiwanese art. Its extensive holdings include a carving of water buffalo made by Huang Shui-tu, Taiwan's first modern sculptor, and paintings by Hung Ken-shen, Kaohsiung's "black school"painter. The museum also puts on temporary exhibits of works by Taiwanese painters.
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| Kaohsiung has made great efforts to throw off its reputation as a cultural desert. The city now sports a lot of public art. The sculpture garden seen here is just one example. |
Located next to the museum is a sculpture garden with over 20 works from both Taiwan and abroad. Most were commissioned at one point or another over the years. Under the big, open sky of Kaohsiung, these sculptures interact with the natural environment particularly well.
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