January 10th, 2025
On January 10th, we drove down to Kaohsiung, a beautiful port city in the south of Taiwan. Since the south of Taiwan has a tropical climate, the weather was beautiful down there, it was very warm, which was great for us. It was nice. Back in New York where I am from, it’s cold this time of the year, so it’s nice to escape into a warmer climate. Also, although we got lucky with more warm sunny weather in Taipei, there was a cold spell hitting after we left, so we were lucky to avoid that. But their cold spell isn’t that cold for me, it’s in the 50s, and I like that kind of weather. But, the weather was nice. It was in the high 60s, but felt like it was in the high 70s. It felt like a spring/summer day. So that’s definitely one great thing about Taiwan, the weather, even in the winter, is not bad at all.
Anyways, a part from the weather, I enjoyed our time around the city, and some of the sites it has to offer. We started off our afternoon by walking around, and having lunch at the beach. We found a restaurant that was alongside the beach, which was great as it was the perfect location. We had a nice view of the beach, and while their beaches aren’t that appealing, at least in that part of Taiwan, where the sand is a different, more grey appearing color, and nothing special about it, I like the beach, and I enjoyed sitting alongside it.
Afterwards, we visited the Kaohsiung Lighthouse. This historic lighthouse, which sits a top one of the big hills in the city, served as the watchtower for ships coming into the port of the city, where at one point in time the port was interestingly one of the biggest ports in the world. So, this lighthouse would’ve allowed for it to serve as a way of ensuring the safety of ships coming in. Besides, it has an excellent view of the entire port of the city. While the way up to the lighthouse was tiring, there were a lot of steps, the view at the top of the port was an amazing sight. Its high location provides an excellent view, allowing you to take in the scenery of the port and the city.
After that, we took the ferry back to the other side of the city. As the city is quite large, and it would take even longer to go all the way around to other parts of the city, it’s really an efficient and convenient way of traveling. It’s only a short ride, and it comes with a beautiful view of the city’s coastline and port.
For our last sight in Kaohsiung, we visited the history museum of the city. Here, I learned more about some of the cities history, such as how it kind of became established and developed, culturally and economically, into the modern city it is today. We also learned about past historic events that had an important presence in the city, and the prominent one was the 228 incident. During this incident in 1947, the KMT government violently suppressed the Taiwanese protesters, resulting in the death of around 28,000, which is a lot of people, especially as this happened only for about 3 months. It began with the arrest of a cigarette vendor, and the people’s resentment towards the ROC government, and its takeover over the island, and suppression and corruption. Eventually, this would lead to the white terror, which saw many killed and arrested, and Taiwan under martial law. Thus, the exhibit shows a model scene of the massacre, which occurred within the city at the sight of the museum, and the city had a high amount of people involved in the protest. So, this exhibit was really informative, providing some new information that I didn’t know, such as the large role Kaohsiung had played in the protests, but also some additional information from what I learned before coming onto this trip as it is these events that led to its eventual democratization.
I really enjoy museums because I find them very insightful. I was able to expand my knowledge of what I already knew about Taiwan’s authoritarian past, such as about the 228 incident, and democratization efforts after these incidents, and learn further facts about it. For example, I did not know about the brutal scene at the sight of this museum that took place around the time of the 228 massacre, or the significant role Kaoshiung had in pushing for democratization, where there were a lot of pro-democracy voices in the south. In 1979, there were around 80,000 pro-democracy protesters demanding the was of martial law and freedom for Taiwanese. Much of my knowledge about Taiwan has also been centered around Taipei, the capital city. I knew and heard most about Taipei, but I didn’t know much, or even heard about other cities like Kaoshiung, including its development into a modern and cultural hub, and its involvement in the events during martial law.