Kaohsiung: The Pier-2 Art Center

From Takao Railway Museum, you can also come to the Pier-2 Art Center - one that was transformed from a disused dockside warehouse. It was abandoned and faded away of its original purpose until a group of persistent artist who injected waves of creativity and inspiration into the spaces. The Pier-2 was then released and reborn and became a huge attraction to the local and tourist to enjoy fine art, contemporary art, to explore and to contemplate.  

We were half-recharged from Old Yancheng District and were not sure to call it a day or to continue our exploratory. The girls were pretty much up to their max, in term of exhaustion: from morning to almost evening, from the hotel in Gushan to Fengshan to Yancheng, almost equivalent to from the north to the east and the west of Kaohsiung. But since we could pick a route passing by Pier-2 to get a train back to hotel, why not? We pushed our limit and encouraged the girls too- to strike off the very last to-go-place for the day.

Kaohsiung: 書店喫茶 一二三亭(ヒフミテイ)

I wanted to visit one very peculiar cafe that I learnt from Selena, the writer.  So, from the Takao Railway Museum, we walked into the old Yancheng District of Kaohsiung. This part of Kaohsiung was modernized during the Japanese colonial period and many of which were still remain the same as old days. As it's very close to the harbour, as we walked, we saw some business very much related to shipping. 

With the address in hand, this particular cafe was not too difficult to be found, among the rows of old and new buildings. Once saw this very outstanding signage of "Takao Artistry Warehouse(打狗港都文化艺术仓库)", and an enlarged black and white photo of the above, with a cut-out in the middle hung on the wall, we had arrived!

However, as the entrance was kind of set-back from the building front and the cafe sign was humble to be seen, it would be missed.

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.

Kaohsiung: Fongyi Academy

I first learnt about this place was from a well-known Writer- Selena, through her blog. It was a place after years of restoration and renovation to retain and repair the Academy's origin and uniqueness. Those funny figures scattered around the Academy sure attracted me to put it into our itinerary. Good place to introduce a brief history of the ancient Chinese Education and its civil examination system to the girls, I thought.

First built in 1814, the 19th year of Qing emperor Jiaqing (嘉慶), the Fongyi Academy is considered a third-grade heritage site. It has 37 rooms and the academy's internal altars, as well as desks and chairs; it was a place where prospective examinees took the initial exams and the largest Confucian academy preserved in Taiwan. (source)