Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung is a port city in southern Taiwan, on the Taiwan Strait at the mouth of the Love River. Its harbor, sheltered by the long sand island of Cijin, has made it the main port and industrial city of the south.

The Makatao people lived in the area when Chinese settlers arrived in the 17th century and called the place Takau, after the native name. The port was opened to foreign trade in the 1860s, and in 1920 the Japanese government renamed the town Takao, written with characters later read as Kaohsiung in Mandarin. Under Japanese rule the harbor was dredged and a railway linked it with Taipei. In the 1960s Taiwan's first export processing zone opened in the harbor, bringing factories for electronics and clothing. In 2010 the city merged with the surrounding Kaohsiung County into one large municipality.

China Steel, based in Kaohsiung, runs a steel mill on the coast of the city. ASE Technology, also headquartered there, packages and tests semiconductor chips for chipmakers around the world. Horizon Yachts builds luxury motor yachts in the shipyards of the harbor.

The Dragon and Tiger Pagodas stand on Lotus Pond, linked to the shore by a zigzag bridge, and people walk in through the dragon's mouth and out through the tiger's. The Pier-2 Art Center, in old warehouses on the harbor, holds galleries, sculptures and a light rail stop. Fo Guang Shan, a Buddhist monastery in the hills of the Dashu district, has a large seated bronze Buddha over its museum. The Love River, lined with cafes and lights, is crossed by small boats in the evening.