We’re in Kaohsiung, Taiwan for the first time, headed out via taxi to see the famous Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, the Dome of Light (4,500 glass panels depicting the The Story of Life), and the Pier 2 waterfront art district.
Our taxi driver speaks no English, but is eager to have a chat. We talk back and forth using Google Translate, which adds a layer of anticipation to the conversation. (With every phrase, we have to wait for the app to speak the translation aloud in a tinny female voice.) Have I ever been to Taiwan? What do I think about Taiwan? Am I planning to immigrate to Taiwan? Why did I choose to come to Taiwan?
I tell him it’s my first time here. I find his city (Kaohsiung) beautiful and sparkling clean. I’m not immigrating today, I say, “because they won’t take old and fat people.” (This gets a laugh, and he insists neither of us looks a day over eighteen.) And I came to Taiwan because I’ve always wanted to see it, and have never had the opportunity to visit.
I’m not lying about the cleanliness. Almost three million people live in Kaohsiung, and there’s not a scrap of paper or plastic on the streets. On the drive to the pagodas, we see at least a dozen crews working on landscaping and scrubbing every surface. It’s so clean, the city almost feels like a Disney park.
Traffic is light on a Sunday morning, and we make good time out to the pagodas. For luck, you walk into the first pagoda — the dragon’s mouth — and exit from the second — the tiger’s mouth. In between, we walk a tunnel of elaborate carvings depicting Chinese myths before taking the seven flights of steps up to the observation deck.
After we absorb enough luck to last us for the year, we visit a local temple before snagging an Uber to the world’s largest public glass installation … which is, of all places … in a subway station! It covers the ceiling of a transportation hub where two major lines meet, bringing a layer of magic to what would otherwise be a gray and cavernous underground space.
From here, it’s easy to hop on the inexpensive (and almost silent, and sparkling clean) subway train and be whisked back to the port area in just two stops.
The Arts Center at Pier 2 is just waking up as we arrive around 10:30. We check out the local immersive digital art installation: one of those “3-D objects projected on the blank walls of a white room” programs people are crazy about these days. This one’s focus is on great art pieces by Japanese wood carvers, including The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai. We spend more time in the Hokusai room than any other, mostly because a few Taiwanese kids are having a great time playing in the digital surf at the foot of the animated waves.
We walk the neighborhood, browsing at shops and having lunch at Zhang Men Brewery. The Taiwanese pizza being served here — frozen crusts and very light toppings — strikes me as a lost opportunity, but the local beer, a wheat beer called 15%. (That’s just the name; it wasn’t fifteen percent alcohol!) It was just the right thing after a long morning’s walk.
From there, we shopped and strolled our way back to the ship. A good day, all told — but this is another place so packed with great things to do, we’ll have to plan another trip here on our own to really dig into them all.
Off to Taipei!
