It was virtually lunch when our ship entered Kaohsiung Port, and I used to be completely unprepared. Boats zig and zag throughout the harbor, a small white lighthouse towering over its waters. Alongside town’s skyline, a hexagonal constructing geometrically stood out, greeting us guests a heat welcome. And me, I used to be scrambling everywhere in the ship, attempting to get to the Resorts World One high deck from my room in time for a greater view of Kaohsiung Metropolis.
BOOK A CRUISE
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| THE RESORTS WORLD ONE CRUISE SHIP DOCKED IN KAOHSIUNG HARBOR |
Earlier than the rest, I like to recommend reserving your Resorts World One cruise through Andrea Manzano, Resorts World Cruises’ Senior Gross sales Supervisor, at andrea.manzano@rwcruises.com. She will be able to direct you to promos and advise relating to your cruise dates.
DOCKING AT KAOHSIUNG PORT
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| KAOHSIUNG HARBOR |
From Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, it took an in a single day crusing throughout the South China Sea to Taiwan’s Kaohsiung Harbor. We departed Hong Kong simply earlier than 5 within the afternoon and arrived at Taiwan a couple of minutes previous ten within the morning the following day.
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| RESORTS WORLD ONE CRUISE SHIP |
The very first thing that acquired my consideration was the small lighthouse atop a hill on the harbor mouth, little did I do know that we’d be climbing that later that afternoon.
RESORTS WORLD ONE SHORE EXCURSION
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| SOME OF RESORTS WORLD ONE’S SHORE EXCURSION TO KAOHSIUNG |
There are literally multiple Kaohsiung shore tour itineraries being provided on Resorts World One, relying on the day of arrival and schedule. These are reserved on a first-come-first-served foundation, so e-book early—ideally proper after boarding the ship. Additionally, be sure you purchase a stamped copy of your passport from the crew the night time earlier than you go, you’ll be needing this to go previous the immigration.
Kaohsiung Discovery Tour With Night time Market – HKD 450.00
Scenic Chijin Island Kaohsiung Tour – HKD 430.00
Kaohsiung Highlights – HKD 480.00
The Better of Tainan – HKD 500.00
Be My Visitor @ My Pineapple Farm – HKD 680.00
Kaohsiung Procuring & Gourmand Tour – HKD 620.00
We took the Scenic Chijin Island Kaohsiung Tour, an eight-hour guided tour with lunch included. Completely not unhealthy for HKD 430.00 per particular person.
A tip when doing the Kaohsiung shore tour, be sure you convey an umbrella (when you have), a hat, arm heaters, further shirt, and plenty of water. Because the tour falls on noontime, anticipate it to be actually sizzling. Effectively, all of us anticipated it to be sizzling, however none of us considered bringing any of these issues. I’m telling you prematurely.
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| KAOHSIUNG SHORE EXCURSION ITINERARY |
For many who need to save on shore tour charges, you may really disembark from the ship and discover the vacation spot DIY. Simply be sure you be again on the ship earlier than the departure time. One of many issues you are able to do is definitely e-book excursions through on-line journey companies like Klook, and redeem it as you disembark.
In case you’re curious, and I confirmed this with Resorts World Cruises, late passengers will actually be left behind, and their paperwork endorsed to the port agent for dealing with. So, there. Be. Again. On. Time.
LUNCH AT BANANA PIER
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| OUR TOY TRAIN RIDE IN KAOHSIUNG |
The primary order of enterprise upon disembarking on the port was lunch. And to get there, we rode a toy practice.
Lunch was on the close by Banana Pier, a sixties-era port warehouse transformed right into a restaurant advanced. Our information defined the identify, regarding us that the world used to import nothing however bananas to Japan. However our lunch wasn’t gonna be bananas. No sir, we’ll have seafood, thanks very a lot.
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| LUNCH AT KAOHSIUNG’S BANANA PIER |
We took to a banquet corridor on the second ground with spherical tables full with a lazy susans typical of Chinese language eating places. And shortly it was crammed by plates of fish roes, seaweeds, strips of Hainanese hen, shrimp noodles, mushroom hen soup, veggies, breaded pork cutlets, and the most effective one for me, spicy Szechuan shrimp. All these had been paired with Taiwanese sticky rice combined with dried shrimp, lotus roots, and seeds. Scrumptious.
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| THIS ROUND’S WINNER IS THE SZECHUAN SHRIMP |
Every dish is ready on a big plate which is shared to everybody on the desk. Since we’re touring as one massive group, there’s no downside in sharing the meals inside ourselves. If you happen to’re touring as a pair or as a household, you may really request to be seated individually and also you’ll be served the identical dishes proportionate to your group measurement.
CIJIN ISLAND
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| CUTE SNOOPY FERRY TO CIJIN ISLAND |
A Snoopy-themed ferry carried us to our first vacation spot, Cijin Island. The experience took about one music lengthy, and we had been quickly disembarking on a sleepy city. It in some way jogged my memory of the Korean sequence, Hometown Cha Cha Cha. It simply has that gradual and chill vibe that just about everybody was telling everybody how they wish to keep in a single day and expertise Cijin for an prolonged time period.
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| CIJIN ISLAND’S CUTE CATBUS BIKE FOR TOURIST | CIJIN ISLAND FENCE |
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| THE BEAUTIFUL CIJIN FERRY PORT |
KAOHSIUNG LIGHTHOUSE
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| HIKING UP TO CIHOU MOUNTAIN |
And shortly, we had been all heading in direction of the hill the place the l noticed the lighthouse earlier aboard Resorts World One. It seems, it isn’t a hill, however a full-fledged mountain, Cihou Mountain to be actual. And constructed round it are ramped pathways that make climbing it a breeze.
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| THE KAOHSIUNG LIGHTHOUSE OR CIHOU LIGHTHOUSE |
The Cihou Lighthouse or Kaohsiung Lighthouse stands on the mountain’s peak. And being situated on such, the tower itself isn’t that top, being solely about 15.2 meters tall. It was constructed by the Chinese language in 1883 and was renovated by the Japanese in 1916 when Taiwan was underneath the dependency of Japan, including the octagonal tower it now stands on.
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| A CAFE ON TOP OF CIHOU MOUNTAIN OVERLOOKING THE CITY |
The construction beneath the tower has now been transformed right into a museum and a café—Shoreline Espresso & Roasters, which has al fresco seats that overlooks Cijin Island.
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| THE CIHOU LIGTHOUSE IS ONE OF KAOHSIUNG’S ICON |
From the world across the lighthouse one can see the entire of Kaohsiung Harbor and the jumble of homes alongside Cijin Island. Northwards, we noticed locals spending their afternoon on the close by Cijin Seaside.
CIHOU FORT
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| REMNANTS OF CIHOU FORT ON TOP OF CIHOU MOUNTAIN |
On the south facet of Cihou Mountain lies the ruins of Cihou Fort. This was once the doorway to the mountain, which was first fortified in 1720 by the Qing Empire, and modernized in 1874 as coastal protection towards the Japanese.
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| CIHOU FORT IS ALSO KNOWN AS CIHOU BATTERY |
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| A VIEW OF CIJIN FROM CIHOU FORT |
There’s not a lot to see now, apart from hollowed-out halls and the principle gate, however the view from the highest of the ruins of the encircling space is breathtaking.
CIJIN BEACH
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| CIJIN BLACK SAND BEACH |
And proper on the foot of Cihou Mountain, our path crossed with Cijin Islands’ black sand seashore. The seashore’s grayish black sand is extra harking back to these in Batangas than say, true black sand seashores like on the Vigan Mindoro Seaside.
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| CIJIN MARKER ALONG THE BEACH |
We noticed a whole lot of locals alongside the shore and the shallower components of the water. Swimming, it appears, isn’t actually advisable on these components as a result of sturdy waves and rip tides. This seashore is ideal for browsing although.
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| FATE/GRAND ORDER SAND SCULTURE AT CIJIN BLACK SAND TOY FESTIVAL |
Whereas strolling, we chanced upon bigger than life Destiny/Grand Order anime sand sculptures alongside its very broad shore. We’re in luck, our journey coincided with the bi-annual Cijin Black Sand Toy Pageant, the place gigantic sand sculptures are displayed on the seashore.
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| TENTACLES OF THE HEART BY IYO KACAW |
There have been additionally everlasting artwork installations alongside Cijin Seaside, just like the Tentacles Of The Coronary heart by Taiwanese artist Iyo Kacaw.
CIJIN OLD STREET
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| THE CIJIN OLD STREET |
In tangent to the seashore is Cijin Previous Road. It connects the seashore straight by means of to Cijin Port, and thru all 4 hundred meters of this are road meals stalls and eating places. The most effective meals to attempt are, in fact, seafood. A giant serving to of bao bing or shaved ice dessert can be refreshing, particularly after climbing up Cihou Mountain.
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| STREET FOOD AT CIJIN OLD STREET |
It appears all cities in Taiwan has previous streets, a few of these we visited in years previous, like Shifen Previous Road and Jiufen Previous Road, certainly seems previous, however Cijin’s appears to don’t have any antiquated constructions alongside its roadway.
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| THE TIANHOU TEMPLE ALONG THE OLD STREET |
What’s has although are previous worship homes. The road is residence to Cijin Tianhou Temple, which was established in 1634, the oldest Matsu—the Goddess of Fishermen—temple in Kaohsiung. Then there’s additionally the Kî-āu Presbyterian Church, which our information mentioned was the primary Presbyterian Church in Kaohsiung.
PIER-2 ART CENTER
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| OLD WAREHOUSES IN KAOHSIUNG CONVERTED TO SHOPPING HALLS |
Again on mainland Kaohsiung, we began to discover the quite a few deserted warehouses alongside the port that has been fantastically remodeled into procuring halls, eating places, hostels, and even fashionable artwork museums.
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| ART MUSEUMS AT KAOHSIUNG PIER-2 |
It’s inspiring how they had been in a position to remodel one thing as boring and drab as a port warehouse into such attention-grabbing areas, preserving the city’s id and tradition, and revitalizing it on the identical time.
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| FUNNY MOSAIC OF A PEEING BOY | WAREHOUSE NO.2 SHOPPING CENTER |
And alongside these space, quite a few artwork installations may also be discovered, like a large Snoopy determine—it appears Kaohsiung has particular fondness for Charles M. Schulz’s beloved canine—robots, sculptures, mosaics, and murals.
GREAT HARBOR BRIDGE
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| THE GREAT HARBOR BRIDGE |
En path to our bus, we handed one other of Kaohsiung’s architectural marvel, the Nice Harbor Bridge. It spans 110 meters in immaculate white colour. The pedestrian cable-stayed bridge has a really dynamic look, maybe reflecting the fluidity and mercurial property of water.
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| A LOOK AT THE BRIDGE’S CENTRAL STRUCTURE |
However apart from its aesthetic, what actually makes it distinctive is its operate—it rotates horizontally, pivoting on its central tower, to let ships move by means of the water. It’s the one one in every of its type in Taiwan.
VIGOR KOBO TAIWANESE CAKES
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| VIGOR KOBO TAIWANSES CAKE STORE IN KAOHSIUNG |
By request to our very useful information, Jose, we dropped by a retailer promoting Taiwanese pineapple truffles to convey again residence as pasalubong—however not truffles as birthday truffles cake, however small bite-sized goodies that’s common in Taiwan. And he introduced us to Vigor Kobo, some of the common pineapple cake makers within the nation.
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| PRICEY, BUT REALLY DELICIOUS |
They provide free style for friends, and oh my goodness, every part was extraordinarily scrumptious—from the standard pineapple truffles, mung and purple bean truffles, to the tremendous delectable taro truffles. If I didn’t get to style it, I wouldn’t have purchased some, as they’re fairly expensive. It’s very a lot value each New Taiwan Greenback spent although.
LIUHE NIGHT MARKET
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| BUSY NIGHT AT THE LIUHE NIGHT MARKET |
And eventually, as night descended, we dropped by the Liuhe Night time Market, one of many extra common night time markets in Taiwan that dates again to the fifties. It stretches for about 300 meters lengthy.
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| STREETFOOD SKEWERS GALORE |
It isn’t as crowded and busy because the night time markets in Taipei, however the meals being hawked right here had been no much less attention-grabbing. There have been a number of skewered stuff, noodles, and seafood on show, however what acquired my consideration was their Taiwanese Scorching Canine. It’s really a mix of Chinese language Minan sausage sandwiched by a sticky rice sausage—kinda like, a sausage wrapped by one other sausage. It’s a useful and scrumptious snack, good for consuming as I explored extra meals stalls.
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| UNIQUE TAIWANESE HOT DOG |
And certainly, a visit to a Taiwanese metropolis wouldn’t be full and not using a go to to an evening market, a becoming finish tour our eight-hour shore tour to Kaohsiung Metropolis.
~ THIS TRIP WAS MADE POSSIBLE BY RESORTS WORLD CRUISES. VIEWS & OPINIONS, ALL MINE.
