New adventures in public transport

A randomized bus journey across Kaohsiung City…

The new Fongshan Station Building at sunset with scooters parked in the foreground.
Fongshan Station. Photo: Zhen-Kang.

Despite living in Taiwan for more than one-and-a-half years, until yesterday I was yet to catch a bus. The schedules are numerous and confusing, and I have better transport options:

  • The light rail’s within a 10-minute walk of my apartment
  • I’m less than 15 minutes from the MRT
  • There’s a YouBike (bike rental) station 100 meters from my building
  • I have a scooter
  • Uber is cheap
  • A night market, two shopping malls, three cinemas, three supermarkets, four food courts, half-a-dozen dentists, a dozen tea shops, my Chinese school, IKEA, and a million convenience stores are within walking distance

So, I’ve never had cause to take a bus—until now.

I mentioned my bus-free lifestyle to a local with more transit experience, and he suggested a random adventure:

  1. Catch the first bus that comes along
  2. Get off when we feel like it
  3. Repeat

So, yesterday, that’s what we did…

Person standing under a bus shelter in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, in the rain.
The rain dictated that we start at the nearest sheltered bus stop—an element of additional randomness I hadn’t considered pre-downpour.
A dot-matrix sign at a bus stop, indicating bus number 100 is Coming Soon.
I was excited about the pending arrival of dry seats and air conditioning.
Interior of a bus in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. The bus is dull and dirty.
First impressions of a Kaohsiung bus: kinda dark, kinda dirty. By comparison, Kaohsiung light rail and the MRT are bright and spotless. As if that’s where all the money went.
Interior of the forward section of a dirty bus in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
On the other hand, each bus ride is just NT$12 (NZ$0.60), regardless of distance. Way cheaper than the MRT.
Interior of the elevated rear section of a bus in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. There are no passengers visible in the photo.
A few things impressed me though: Every bus had two wheelchair spaces, lots of emergency exits…
Seatbelts on the seats of a commuter bus, with wet footprints on the foor next to the seats.
…Seatbelts…
A watertight lid being held open to reveal two USB ports underneath, integrated into the side of a bus seat.
…And USB ports for every seat.
Looking out a bus window onto a rainy side street in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Some Chinese characters on the window partially obstruct the view out.
After a few minutes of distraction, I looked out and had no idea where we were. Time to disembark!
Cars and a bus stopped at traffic lights in the rain, on Siwei 3rd Road in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
We were in the middle of a six-lane road, so after pushing the button I thought the bus might shift to the side lane before stopping somewhere in the next block. But it lurched to a halt almost immediately, causing me to scramble for my bag, umbrella, and EasyCard before jumping out to the door as the good passengers of Kaohsiung patiently waited. Up ahead, I saw the Kaohsiung City Government Building (高雄市政府 四維行政中心). I went there for the first time only a month ago.
The main entrance to the Kaohsiung City Government Siwei Administration Center building, on a rainy day.
It’s boring on the outside, but…
Two people holding plastic-wrapped umbrellas outside an office building entrance.
…Once you successfully wrap your umbrellas in the plastic bags provided…
Atrium of the Kaohsiung City Government Building. The wide-angle shot shows both the reflective marble foor, with a few people walking on it, and the stained glass ceiling 11 floors up. Integrated into the ceiling are six stylized Chinese characters.
…You can enjoy the 11-story atrium, featuring stylized ‘Gao’ (高) characters—the first character in the name Kaohsiung (高雄)—in the glass ceiling. This area also houses a cafe, post shop, government services, and a blind masseuse(!).
Counter at Sefun Cafe in the Kaohsiung City Government Biulding.
We stopped for coffee at the first floor cafe, Sefun. It’s part of a chain that provides intellectually-disabled people with vocational training. Its baked goods are exclusively made by intellectually-disabled employees—but as they were all loaded with eggs (the baked goods, not the employees), I was unable to try them.
Star-faced emoji covering the real face of a man pointing at the third-floor Mayor’s Office listing on an elevator directory.
I was excited by this reference to the Mayor’s Office on the elevator directory. Perhaps the closest I’ve been to my local political crush. But, by exercising some grand level of self-control, I didn’t bust my way onto the third floor. Instead, we went up to 11, a floor that features a food court, hair salon, laundromat, and…
A convenience store.
…This ‘secret’ convenience store, where I bought a take-out hot sweet potato…
View of the 11-story atrium of the Kaohsiung City Government Building, taken from the upper level.
…Which I ate while pretending-but-not-really-pretending to scan for the mayor down below. (No luck this time.)
A bus stop. The roof is supported by blog-like figurines. A wide-format poster advertises Kaohsiung City’s 100th anniversary.
The rain was easing when we went back outside. The Kaohsiung City Government Building occupies a whole block, so we chose to catch the next bus on a different side of the building from where we arrived. A more interesting bus stop across the street, with deteriorating Umbra Buddy-like figures supporting the paper-airplane roof, promoted “100 years of Kaohsiung, 1924–2024”.
A complicated bus schedule and abstract route map, all in Chinese.
Without the need or patience to study them closely, I found the timetables completely bewildering.
Interior of a bus in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. There are three passengers visible.
Our next bus was electric, but otherwise the same on the inside.
Exterior of the  Chang-Gu World Trade Center building in Koahsiung, Taiwan.
Up ahead, I saw the Chang-Gu World Trade Center (長谷世貿大樓), the third-tallest building in Kaohsiung. I’d ridden past many times on my scooter, but never stopped for a closer look. We decided to head inside.
A text-heavy illuminated sign directing people to four different banks of elevators, and two escalators, depending on where in the building they intend to go.
In the lobby, the directory boards were blank and the elevator instructions were more complicated than just ‘get in and push a button’. Nonetheless, we decided to see how high we could go.
View over northern Kaohsiung City.
The first elevator got us to a sky lobby on the 35th floor. It had a great view to the north.
Elevator interior. An old-style golden plaque contains characters in Chinese. The button for the 50th floor is illuminated.
We got in one of the upper elevators and hit ‘50’. The creakiness of the ride, and the dated style of this golden plaque, were reminders this building opened more than 30 years ago. At the time, it was the tallest in Taiwan.
Interior of an office building in a state of demolition.
This is what greeted us on the 50th floor.
Office interior largely demolished.
There were some demolition workers at the far end of the room. We called out to them, and they said we could look around as long as we accepted responsibility for ourselves, and watched out for nails on the floor.
Exterior photo of Chang-Gu World Trade Center with a superimposted arrow pointing at the top floor.
For context, we were standing here. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
View across southern Kaohsiung City including 85 Sky Tower and Farglory The One.
Kaohsiung’s two tallest buildings—85 Sky Tower (85大樓; 348m) and Farglory THE ONE (遠雄THE ONE; 268m)—were visible to the south-west.
Zoomed-in photo of 85 Sky Tower.
85 Sky Tower’s disproportionate size is clearer in this photo. It remains Taiwan’s second-tallest building (and one of my favorites).
East view across Kaohsiung, taken from the 50th floor of the Grand 50 Tower. There are lots of high-rise apartment and office buildings in the foreground, and on the horizon, a small island.
Looking south-east, Xiao Liuqiu Island (小琉球) was visible on the horizon. It’s around a one-hour drive then 30-minute ferry ride from Kaohsiung, and is famous for its sandy beaches and sea turtles. By all accounts, it’s a tropical paradise. I’m yet to visit.
Aerial photo of Kaohsiung Main Station, under contruction, with all other areas darkened. The station comprises two towers, perhaps 10 floors each, plus a near-kilometer-long sinuous elevated grass corridor snaking through the city.
To the west, the enormous Kaohsiung Main Station (高雄車站)—still under construction—snakes through the city. The train tracks have been undergrounded, and a 750-meter-long elevated green canopy built across the roof and surrounding roads. When it opens, it will create uninterrupted cycle and walking track across some of the busiest parts of the city.
Tiled wall art depicting the  Chang-Gu World Trade Center.
Waiting for the elevator to go back down, I noticed this impressive retro tile art. But unfortunately the next few minutes of our lives were less impressive: after the two public elevators never arrived, we assumed the call button was disabled, so we took the service elevator—which was full of demolition materials—down to the sky lobby on 35F. However, once there, we were unable to send it back up. The doors wouldn’t close. While trying to figure out how to undo our mistake, a rightly pissed-off demolition worker exited from one of the public elevators and started yelling at us for stealing his service elevator. “I kindly let you look around, and then you stole my elevator?!” he yelled, with good reason. It was the first time I’ve been yelled at in Taiwan. I, too, would’ve been pissed off if someone stole my elevator.
An avante-garde McDonald’s in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The upper floor, clad in glass, is supported by two huge golden arches.
I remembered a reader of this blog had told me about the Kaohsiung House of Prayer (高雄廿四小時敬拜禱告中心) on the 39th floor (thanks Peter!). We had a quick look, but it was closed and empty. So it was time to get back on a bus. Soon we spotted this double-golden-arched McDonald’s. I’d seen it before on Instagram, but had no idea where it was. We went in for a cold drink and a snack. In the right conditions—think reflective wet road at night—this scene would be 💯. That’s something I don’t say about many McDonald’s.
Looking out the emergency exit window of a bus in Kaohsiung.
We hopped on an eastward bus towards Fongshan District (鳳山區), one of the historic centers of Kaohsiung.
Christmas decorations inside a bus.
This bus had inexplicable tinsel and a Christmas stocking. On September 20.
Exterior shot of the brand-new Fongshan Station building in Fongshan, Kaohsiung. Taken September 20, 2024.
We got off near Fongshan Station (鳳山車站), a brand-new building in one of the oldest parts of the city. For now, only the station part is operational. But eventually it will house a cinema, community center, library, and shopping mall. The roof design references traditional Taiwanese architecture, and—I guess—the various arches reference the old city gates. This was my first time seeing the completed exterior. I was impressed.
Entrance to the brand-new Fongshan Station Building. A digital sign says it is 29ºC.
It was time for dinner. We decided to catch a local train back to Kaohsiung Main Station.
Busy interior of Fongshan Station, including a departure board. The current time is 6:28pm.
There were 10 departures over the next 45 minutes.
A sign that says Fongshan in English and Chinese.
I was amused by this sign on the platform…
Close-up of the letter ‘o’, which is revealed to be a sticker covering the letter ‘e’.
…It was originally spelt “Fengshan” (using Hanyu Pinyin), but the ‘e’ was covered over, to change it to Wade–Giles spelling. (Taiwan officially uses Hanyu Pinyin romanization for all words except some proper nouns, like Fongshan.)
A commuter train arriving at an underground platform at Fongshan Station, Kaohsiung.
This is the local train we took back to Kaohsiung Main Station. On the inside there was standing room only, but it was 100 times cleaner and brighter than any of the buses had been.
Interior of Kaohsiung Main Station. A vast high ceiling is covered in pebble-shaped ceiling tiles.
Soon we were standing under the canopy of Kaohsiung Main Station, which we’d looked at three hours earlier from the 50th floor of Chang-Gu World Trade Center. Although the station is functional, most of it—including a new hotel and shopping mall—is still blocked off for construction.
Two electric bicycles with YouBike branding.
We rented a couple of electric YouBikes and rode to a hotpot restaurant for dinner.
Two hotpot meals and side dishes on a table in a restaurant. Outside the window, scooters can be seen parked on the side of the street.
Our meals were NT$265 (NZ$13) each. Mine included vegan miso hotpot with noodles, fried tofu (the non-stinky variant), and a kumquat lemon tea. Later, we rode the humid 3km back to my house, where my delivery order of two orange green teas (NT$75 / NZ$3.75 each, including delivery), was waiting. I recommend orange green teas to anyone concluding a public transport adventure.