Attractions in Kaohsiung

The Dome of Light is a 30-metre-diameter stained-glass installation at the Formosa Boulevard MRT station, designed by Italian artist Narcissus Quagliata. Completed in 2008, it is the largest glasswork of its kind in the world, using 4,500 hand-blown glass panels to depict the cycle of human life.

The Kaohsiung Exhibition Center is a waterfront convention facility in the Asia New Bay Area, recognisable by its continuous wave-shaped roof that mirrors the adjacent Music Center. Completed in 2014, it serves as the city's primary trade-show and conference venue.

A monumental Buddhist complex with a 108-metre bronze seated Buddha and museum galleries..

Cijin Lighthouse sits on the northern tip of Cijin Island, perched on a small hilltop overlooking the entrance to Kaohsiung harbour. Originally built under Qing dynasty orders in 1883, the whitewashed brick tower is one of Taiwan's oldest surviving lighthouses.

The Kaohsiung Main Public Library is an award-winning civic building completed in 2014, notable for its suspended steel structure that eliminates ground-floor columns, creating an open public plaza beneath the building. Designed by Mecanoo Architecten, it has become an architectural icon.

Weiwuying National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts is Asia's largest performing-arts venue, designed by Dutch architect Francine Houben (Mecanoo). Opened in 2018, its organic, curving-concrete form was inspired by the canopy of banyan trees in the surrounding park, creating fluid indoor-outdoor spaces.

Love River (Ai He) is a 12-kilometre urban waterway that flows through the heart of Kaohsiung before emptying into the harbour. Once heavily polluted, it was transformed in the early 2000s into a landscaped riverside promenade with public art, cafés, and illuminated bridges.

A metro station housing the Dome of Light, one of the world's largest glass artworks..

Kaohsiung's Confucius Temple is the largest Confucius temple in Taiwan, built in a grand Ming-dynasty palatial style on the northern shore of Lotus Pond. Its sweeping vermillion halls, ornamental gate towers, and ceremonial courtyards make it one of the most architecturally striking sites around the lake.

The Dragon and Tiger Pagodas are a pair of seven-storey towers rising from Lotus Pond in Kaohsiung's Zuoying district. Built in 1976 as Taoist shrines, visitors enter through the dragon's open mouth and exit through the tiger's, following a tradition believed to turn bad luck into good fortune.

Cijin Tianhou Temple is the oldest Mazu temple in Kaohsiung, founded in 1673 by fishermen from Fujian who carried a Mazu idol across the Taiwan Strait. Sitting on Cijin Island's historic main lane, it remains an active place of worship and a window into the island's maritime roots.

The Spring and Autumn Pavilions are a pair of ornate Chinese towers linked by a bridge on Lotus Pond's western shore. Built in 1953, they guard a statue of Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, standing atop a dragon's back—one of Kaohsiung's most photographed scenes.

Cijin Star Tunnel is a short former military tunnel near the Cijin Lighthouse, retrofitted with LED lights that project a star-field pattern on its walls and ceiling. The tunnel emerges onto a rocky overlook facing the open Taiwan Strait.