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 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.

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.

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.