DH was able to take some time off work so we decided to take a short trip to Kaohsiung and Sun Moon Lake. Kaohsiung is 345km south of Taipei and we travelled there via Taiwan's new High Speed Rail (HSR), which began operating in January of 2007. The journey from Taipei Main Station to Kaohsiung took us only 1.5 hours, as compared to 4 hours by car in good traffic, or 8 hours in bad traffic. Here we are on board the HSR. The ride was really comfortable. The seats were wide and comfy, and the leg room is huge.
From the New Zuoying HSR station, a short car ride of 20 minutes took us to our hotel in Kaohsiung. We stayed at the Grand Hi-Lai, which is just walking distance to Kaohsiung's famous Love River. The Love River flows some 12km through Kaohsiung and ends at Kaohsiung Harbor. It is a major tourist attraction (not dissimilar to River Thames in London) with a park that runs along it in Kaohsiung city. There are boats which take tourists up and down the river and this place comes alive, especially in the evenings, with a night market and cafes. Here are pictures of the hotel room. The rooms we had were particularly spacious as we were upgraded to the executive floors.
Our room and my dad's room, on the 4oth floor and 41st floor respectively, provided really magnificent, unblocked views of Kaohsiung's Love River, Harbor, and city. The only problem is that Kaohsiung is quite a polluted city, with PSI (Pollutant Standards Index) probably above 100 most of the time. As such, the sky always looks hazy and we couldn't view as far a distance of the scenery from our hotel rooms.
There are a small number of tourist attractions to visit when in Kaohsiung. Besides the Love River, there is the Liu Ho night market. There is also apparently a hot spring location in Kaohsiung. Outside of Kaohsiung, there is Fo Guang Shan (a Buddhist temple) and some distance away, Kenting, a beach resort. We only got to go as far as Fo Guang Shan because we didn't want to tire the kids (and ourselves!) out.
From the New Zuoying HSR station, a short car ride of 20 minutes took us to our hotel in Kaohsiung. We stayed at the Grand Hi-Lai, which is just walking distance to Kaohsiung's famous Love River. The Love River flows some 12km through Kaohsiung and ends at Kaohsiung Harbor. It is a major tourist attraction (not dissimilar to River Thames in London) with a park that runs along it in Kaohsiung city. There are boats which take tourists up and down the river and this place comes alive, especially in the evenings, with a night market and cafes. Here are pictures of the hotel room. The rooms we had were particularly spacious as we were upgraded to the executive floors.
Our room and my dad's room, on the 4oth floor and 41st floor respectively, provided really magnificent, unblocked views of Kaohsiung's Love River, Harbor, and city. The only problem is that Kaohsiung is quite a polluted city, with PSI (Pollutant Standards Index) probably above 100 most of the time. As such, the sky always looks hazy and we couldn't view as far a distance of the scenery from our hotel rooms.
There are a small number of tourist attractions to visit when in Kaohsiung. Besides the Love River, there is the Liu Ho night market. There is also apparently a hot spring location in Kaohsiung. Outside of Kaohsiung, there is Fo Guang Shan (a Buddhist temple) and some distance away, Kenting, a beach resort. We only got to go as far as Fo Guang Shan because we didn't want to tire the kids (and ourselves!) out.
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