Explore Kaohsiung

Holy Rosary Cathedral in Lingya, near the Love River, is the seat of the Catholic Bishop of Kaohsiung. Spanish Dominican missionaries founded the church in 1859, and the present Gothic and Romanesque building with its grey stone tower was completed in 1931. It was made a minor basilica in 1995, and Mass is said daily.

The Kaohsiung Music Center is a pop music venue on the harbour in Yancheng, designed by the Spanish team MADE IN Architects led by Manuel Monteserin and opened in 2021. Its white Wave Towers, whale-shaped live houses and concert hall line the waterfront, with an outdoor amphitheatre, promenades and an elevated walkway.

The Kaohsiung Museum of History occupies the former Kaohsiung City Hall in Yancheng, a pale green building in the Japanese Imperial Crown style completed in 1939. The city government left it in 1992 and it reopened as a museum in 1998, with exhibitions on the history and development of the city and on local folk culture.

Pier-2 Art Center is an arts district in former harbour warehouses in Yancheng and Gushan, built in 1973 and turned over to artists in the 2000s by the Kaohsiung Bureau of Cultural Affairs. The concrete warehouses hold exhibitions, shops, a cinema and the Hamasen railway museum, linked by a waterfront path and the light rail.

Formosa Boulevard Station is the underground interchange of the Kaohsiung Metro's Red and Orange lines in Sinsing District. Its concourse is covered by the Dome of Light, a glass ceiling 30 metres across made of 4,500 panels by the Italian artist Narcissus Quagliata, and its four glass street entrances are by the Japanese architect Shin Takamatsu.

The Takao Railway Museum occupies the former Takao Station in Gushan District, Kaohsiung's first railway station, built in the Japanese era. After the last train left in 2008 the hip-roofed station became a museum, now part of the Kaohsiung Museum of History, with railway relics inside and steam and diesel locomotives on the old tracks outside.

ALIEN Art Centre is a contemporary art museum at the foot of Shoushan in Kaohsiung's Gushan District. It occupies the Golden Horse Guesthouse, a concrete building completed in 1967 as a stopover for soldiers on their way to service on Kinmen and Matsu, and has shown changing exhibitions of Asian and international contemporary art since 2018.

The Former British Consulate at Takao stands on a hill in Gushan District above Sizihwan Bay and the entrance to Kaohsiung Harbour. The red-brick consul's residence with arched verandas was completed in 1879, and an old path leads down to the consular office by the harbour. Both buildings hold exhibitions on the treaty-port era.

Cihou Fort is a Qing-era coastal battery on Cihou Mountain in Cijin, guarding the northern entrance to Kaohsiung Harbour. The present brick fort was built after 1874 to plans by the British engineer H. W. Harwood, with barracks around a square, a command post and gun emplacements, and was taken by Japanese forces in 1895. It is a national monument.

The National Science and Technology Museum in Kaohsiung's Sanmin District opened in 1997 as a museum of applied science and technology. Its geometric buildings, linked by bridges on a 19-hectare site, hold permanent and changing exhibitions, a memorial hall to Typhoon Morakot, a maker workshop and a large-screen cinema.

The National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, known as Weiwuying, is a performing arts centre in Fengshan District designed by Francine Houben of Mecanoo and opened in 2018 on a former military camp. A single wave-shaped roof covers an opera house, concert hall, playhouse and recital hall, and an outdoor theatre opens onto Weiwuying Metropolitan Park.

The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts in Gushan opened in 1994 as Taiwan's third public art museum, in the Neiweipi Cultural Park. Its galleries show modern and contemporary art with a focus on southern Taiwan and Austronesian artists, around a four-storey sculpture hall, and the grounds include a children's art museum, sculpture park and wetland lake.

The Fongyi Tutorial Academy in Fengshan District, east of central Kaohsiung, is a Confucian academy founded in 1814 by Jhang Ting-cing, where students prepared for the imperial examinations. Restored by the city after 2007, its brick and timber buildings include the gatehouse, the lecture hall, student rooms along two corridors and a shrine to Wenchang, god of literature.

Lotus Pond is an artificial lake on the east side of Zuoying District, laid out in 1951 and ringed by temples. Zigzag bridges lead out to the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas and the Spring and Autumn Pavilions, and the Confucius Temple on the north shore was rebuilt in 1977. A path runs around the water.