Kaohsiung: Takao Railway Museum

Do you know that Kaohsiung was called Takao (打狗)? I didn't. After visited Takao Railway Museum, I learnt that, Kaohsiung was a small fishing village named Takao, meaning "bamboo forest" in local aboriginal name. The name was changed to Kaohsiung by the Japaneses, which was also pronounced "Takao" in Japanese, as they found the name of ta-kao (beating the dog)  to be vulgar.

The main building of the railway station was kept intact- the open counter, the maps and train schedule on the wall, the desks and the chairs of the workers, the stationery, the blackboard with white chalk, the waiting benches... (can see more from here)

And I thought, the museum was just the station building.

Apparently, the depot with tracks and numerous extinct old trains were part of the Museum. It was a spacious open-air museum that, at the same time having short-term themed exhibition. So luxurious in term of land-use, compare to where we are in Singapore.
 

The museum was descended from the Kaohsiung Harbour Train Station, built during Japanese period. Once the station was closed, the government took over the building and the land on the southern part of the station and authorised the Railway Culture Society to transform the station became the Takao Railway Museum.

I love this place A LOT. Love the green, the breeze, the abandoned tracks, the marvelous openness of the Museum and the unusual kind of exhibition. Look, the base of the train cart became a stage for the green dinosaurs!

We roamed freely by tracing the railway track. Kids love doing that, don't they? Bomber seemed very fascinated with those rocks along the track.

It was chance that we got to immersed into the 2015 Kaohsiung International Container Arts Festival. Apparently, we came to Hamasen Railway Cultural Park, where many artwork installations get to showcase here to public.

And we got to see how container can be used as temporary space for victims and rescue workers during disaster relief operation. I'm not sure if some of this capsule living space inspired from some futuristic movies or some futuristic movies gotten the idea from such innovative use of cargo containers.

Clock was slowing down a lot on us on this day, on this visit. Sunny day, roamed aimlessly in the depot, trying to have maximum fun from this place. We saw some relaxing picnic and kite playing. This, chasing after giant bubbles in particular was one of their favourite...

As there was a bridge over this part of the track and considering visitors wanting some rest, these benches were on wheels and can be moved under the shade, on the railway track. So clever right? On the other hand, the giant swing modified from a container was a tab heavy for the little feet.

One mistake I did was I did not prepare enough water and snack. We came here from Fongshan Station, after Fongyi Academy. We could have lay on the ground for the entire afternoon, the girls didn't want to leave if not the rumbling tummies. So much fun, but no food within the museum.

Official site: http://takao.railway.tw/ (can see various events from time to time)

Opening hours: 11am to 8pm, except Monday and Taiwan's Public Holidays.

Admission fee: nil

The location (save it!):

Nearest MRT station: Sizihwan (西子灣站) Station

Linking up with #CityTripping by MummyTravels