Kaohsiung City (

Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language of ...

: ;

Wade–Giles Wade–Giles () is a romanization system for Mandarin Chinese. It developed from a system produced by Thomas Francis Wade, during the mid-19th century, and was given completed form with Herbert A. Giles's '' Chinese–English Dictionary'' of ...

: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;''

Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

: ''Gāoxióng'') is a

special municipality Special municipality may refer to: * Special municipality (Netherlands) There are twelve provinces of the Netherlands (), representing the administrative layer between the national government and the local municipalities, with responsibility fo ...

located in southern

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural

Yushan Range The Yushan Range, formerly the and also known as the JadeMountain Range, is a mountain range in the central-southern region of Taiwan Island. It spans Chiayi County, Kaohsiung City, and Nantou County. It faces the Central Mountain Range on the ...

with an area of . Kaohsiung City has a population of approximately 2.72 million people as of May 2022 and is Taiwan's third most populous city and largest city in

southern Taiwan The regions of Taiwan are based on the historical administrative divisions. However, most of the definitions are not precise. Division into two regions * Eastern and Western Taiwan: the Central Mountain Range separates Taiwan into east and west. :* ...

. Since founding in the

17th century The 17th century lasted from January 1, 1601 ( MDCI), to December 31, 1700 ( MDCC). It falls into the early modern period of Europe and in that continent (whose impact on the world was increasing) was characterized by the Baroque cultural moveme ...

, Kaohsiung has grown from a small trading village into the political and economic centre of

, with key industries such as manufacturing,

steel-making Steelmaking is the process of producing steel from iron ore and carbon/or scrap. In steelmaking, impurities such as nitrogen, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur and excess carbon (the most important impurity) are removed from the sourced iron, and alloy ...

oil refining An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, liquefie ...

freight transport Freight transport, also referred as ''Freight Forwarding'', is the physical process of transporting commodities and merchandise goods and cargo. The term shipping originally referred to transport by sea but in American English, it has been e ...

and

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

. It is classified as a "Gamma −" level global city by the

Globalization and World Cities Research Network The Globalization and World Cities Research Network (GaWC) is a think tank that studies the relationships between world cities in the context of globalization. It is based in the geography department of Loughborough University in Leicestershi ...

, with some of the most prominent infrastructures in Taiwan. The

Port of Kaohsiung The Port of Kaohsiung (POK; ) is the largest harbor in Taiwan, handling approximately 10.26 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) worth of cargo in 2015. The port is located in southern Taiwan, adjacent to Kaohsiung City, and surrounded by t ...

is the largest and busiest harbor in Taiwan while

Kaohsiung International Airport Kaohsiung International Airport () is a medium-sized civil airport in Siaogang District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, also known as Siaogang Airport (). With nearly seven million passengers in 2018, it is the second busiest airport in Taiwan, after T ...

is the second busiest airport in number of passengers. The city is well-connected to other major cities by high speed and conventional rail, as well as several national freeways. It also hosts the

Republic of China Navy The Republic of China Navy (ROCN; ), also called the ROC Navy and colloquially the Taiwan Navy, is the maritime branch of the Republic of China Armed Forces (ROCAF). The service was formerly commonly just called the Chinese Navy during World Wa ...

fleet headquarters and its

naval academy A naval academy provides education for prospective naval officers. See also * Military academy A military academy or service academy is an educational institution which prepares candidates for service in the officer corps. It normally pro ...

. More recent public works such as

Pier-2 Art Center The Pier-2 Art Center () is an art center in Yancheng District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The arts center was originally an abandoned warehouse site due to Kaohsiung's shift from industrial city to service city. The warehouses were built in 19 ...

National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts, also known as Weiwuying, (), is located in Fengshan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan and has been acknowledged as the largest performance arts center under one roof in the world while owning the largest pipe org ...

and

Kaohsiung Music Center The Kaohsiung Music Center (KMC; ) is a music hall in Yancheng District and Lingya District in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History In 2009, the Executive Yuan recognized the need to establish a music center in Kaohsiung. The Council for Cultural Affair ...

have been aimed at growing the tourism and

cultural industries The term culture industry (german: Kulturindustrie) was coined by the critical theorists Theodor Adorno (1903–1969) and Max Horkheimer (1895–1973), and was presented as critical vocabulary in the chapter "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment ...

of the city.

Etymology

Hoklo The Hoklo people or Hokkien people () are a Han Chinese (also Han Taiwanese) subgroup who speak Hokkien, a Southern Min language, or trace their ancestry to Southeastern Fujian, China and known by various endonyms or other related terms such a ...

immigrants to the area during the 16th and 17th centuries called the region ''Takau'' (). The surface meaning of the associated

Chinese characters Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...

was "beat the dog". According to one theory, the name Takau originates from the aboriginal

Siraya language Siraya is a Formosan language spoken until the end of the 19th century by the indigenous Siraya people of Taiwan, derived from Proto-Siraya. Some scholars believe Taivoan and Makatao are two dialects of Siraya, but now more evidence shows that ...

and translates as "bamboo forest". According to another theory, the name evolved via metathesis from the name of the Makatao tribe, who inhabited the area at the time of European and Hoklo settlement. The Makatao is considered by some to be part of the Siraya tribe. During the Dutch colonization of southern Taiwan, the area was known as ''Tancoia'' to Europeans for a period of about three decades. In 1662, the Dutch were expelled by the

Kingdom of Tungning The Kingdom of Tungning (), also known as Tywan by the British at the time, was a dynastic maritime state that ruled part of southwestern Taiwan and the Penghu islands between 1661 and 1683. It is the first predominantly Han Chinese state in Ta ...

, founded by Ming loyalists of

Koxinga Zheng Chenggong, Prince of Yanping (; 27 August 1624 – 23 June 1662), better known internationally as Koxinga (), was a Ming loyalist general who resisted the Qing conquest of China in the 17th century, fighting them on China's southeastern ...

. His son,

Zheng Jing Zheng Jing, Prince of Yanping (; 25 October 1642 – 17 March 1681), courtesy names Xianzhi () and Yuanzhi (), pseudonym Shitian (), was a 17th-century Chinese warlord, Ming dynasty loyalist and ruler of the Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan. Bio ...

, renamed the village ''Banlian-chiu'' () in 1664. The name of "Takau" was restored in the late 1670s, when the town expanded drastically with immigrants from

mainland China "Mainland China" is a geopolitical term defined as the territory governed by the People's Republic of China (including islands like Hainan or Chongming), excluding dependent territories of the PRC, and other territories within Greater China. ...

and was kept through Taiwan's cession to the Japanese Empire in 1895. In his 1903 general history of Taiwan, US Consul to Formosa

James W. Davidson James Wheeler Davidson (14 June 1872 – 18 July 1933) was an American-born Canadian businessman, diplomat, explorer, journalist, and philanthropist. He is remembered for writing ''The Island of Formosa, Past and Present'' (1903), a book on th ...

relates that "Takow" was already a well-known name in English. In 1920, the name was changed to and administered the area under

Takao Prefecture was one of the administrative divisions of Taiwan during the Japanese rule. The prefecture consisted of modern-day Kaohsiung City and Pingtung County. Population Administrative divisions Cities and districts In 1945 ( Shōwa 20), the ...

. While the new name had quite a different surface meaning, its pronunciation in Japanese sounded more or less the same as the old name spoken in

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

. After Taiwan was handed to the Republic of China, the name did not change, but the official romanization became Kaohsiung (), derived from the Wade-Giles romanization of the

pronunciation for . The name ''Takau'' remains the official name of the city in Austronesian languages of Taiwan such as Rukai, although these are not widely spoken in the city. The name also remains popular locally in the naming of businesses, associations, and events.

History

The written history of Kaohsiung can be traced back to the early 17th century, through archaeological studies have found signs of human activity in the region from as long as 7,000 years ago. Prior to the 17th century, the region was inhabited by the Makatao people of the Siraya tribe, who settled on what they named Takau Isle (translated to 打狗嶼 by Ming Chinese explorers); "Takau" meaning "bamboo forest" in the aboriginal language.

Early history

The earliest evidence of human activity in the Kaohsiung area dates back to roughly 4,700–5,200 years ago. Most of the discovered remnants were located in the hills surrounding

Kaohsiung Harbor The Port of Kaohsiung (POK; ) is the largest harbor in Taiwan, handling approximately 10.26 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) worth of cargo in 2015. The port is located in southern Taiwan, adjacent to Kaohsiung City, and surrounded by t ...

. Artifacts were found at Shoushan, Longquan Temple, Taoziyuan, Zuoying, Houjing, Fudingjin and Fengbitou. The prehistoric

Dapenkeng The Dapenkeng culture () was an early Neolithic culture that appeared in northern Taiwan between 4000 and 3000 BC and quickly spread around the coast of the island, as well as the Penghu islands to the west. Most scholars believe this culture was b ...

, Niuchouzi, Dahu, and

Niaosong Niaosong District () is a rural district of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. History After the handover of Taiwan from Japan to the Republic of China in 1945, Niaosong was organized as a rural township of Kaohsiung County. On 25 December 2010, Kaohs ...

civilizations were known to inhabit the region. Studies of the prehistoric ruins at Longquan Temple have shown that that civilization occurred at roughly the same times as the beginnings of the aboriginal Makatao civilization, suggesting a possible origin for the latter. Unlike some other archaeological sites in the area, the Longquan Temple ruins are relatively well preserved. Prehistoric artifacts discovered have suggested that the ancient Kaohsiung Harbor was originally a lagoon, with early civilizations functioning primarily as

Hunter-gatherer A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

societies. Some agricultural tools have also been discovered, suggesting that some agricultural activity was also present. The pronunciation of Kaohsiung (Takao) in Japanese is similar to Takau (Takau), so the local flavor of Takao was renamed Kaohsiung. The first Chinese records of the region were written in 1603 by

Chen Di Chen Di / Chʻen Ti () (1541–1617), courtesy name: Jili (), was a Chinese philologist, strategist, and traveler of the Ming dynasty. A native of Lianjiang County, Fuzhou, Fujian, China, he was versed in both pen and sword. As a strategist, he s ...

, a member of

Ming The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

admiral Shen You-rong's expedition to rid the waters around Taiwan and

Penghu The Penghu (, Hokkien POJ: ''Phîⁿ-ô͘'' or ''Phêⁿ-ô͘'' ) or Pescadores Islands are an archipelago of 90 islands and islets in the Taiwan Strait, located approximately west from the main island of Taiwan, covering an area ...

of pirates. In his report on the "Eastern Barbarian Lands" (Dong Fan Ji), Chen Di referred to a Ta-kau Isle:

Dutch Formosa

Taiwan became a Dutch colony in 1624, after the

Dutch East India Company The United East India Company ( nl, Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the VOC) was a chartered company established on the 20th March 1602 by the States General of the Netherlands amalgamating existing companies into the first joint-stock ...

was ejected from

forces. At the time, Takau was already one of the most important fishing ports in southern Taiwan. The Dutch named the place ''Tankoya'', and the harbor ''Tancoia''. The Dutch missionary

François Valentijn François () is a French masculine given name and surname, equivalent to the English name Francis. People with the given name * Francis I of France, King of France (), known as "the Father and Restorer of Letters" * Francis II of France, King ...

named Takau Mountain "Ape Berg", a name that would find its way onto European navigational charts well into the 18th century. ''Tankoia'' was located north of Ape's Hill and a few hours south from Tayouan (modern-day

Anping, Tainan Anping District is a District (Taiwan), district of Tainan, Taiwan. In March 2012, it was named one of the ''Top 10 Small Tourist Towns'' by the Tourism Bureau of Taiwan. It is home to 67,263 people. Name The older place name of Tayouan ...

) by sail. At the time, a wide shallow bay existed there, sufficient for small vessels. However, constant

silting Siltation, is water pollution caused by particulate terrestrial clastic material, with a particle size dominated by silt or clay. It refers both to the increased concentration of suspended sediments and to the increased accumulation (temporary or ...

changed the coastline. During this time, Taiwan was divided into five administrative districts, with Takau belonging to the southernmost district. In 1630, the first large scale immigration of

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive va ...

to Taiwan began due to famine in

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

, with merchants and traders from China seeking to purchase hunting licenses from the Dutch or hide out in aboriginal villages to escape authorities in China.

Qing Dynasty

In 1684, the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

annexed

and renamed the town Fongshan County (), considering it a part of

Taiwan Prefecture Taiwan Prefecture or Taiwanfu was a prefecture of Taiwan during the Qing dynasty. The prefecture was established by the Qing government in 1684, after the island came under Qing dynasty rule in 1683 following its conquest of the Kingdom of Tungnin ...

. It was first opened as a port during the 1680s and subsequently prospered fairly for generations.

Japanese rule

In 1895, Taiwan was ceded to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

as part of the

Treaty of Shimonoseki The , also known as the Treaty of Maguan () in China and in the period before and during World War II in Japan, was a treaty signed at the , Shimonoseki, Japan on April 17, 1895, between the Empire of Japan and Qing China, ending the Firs ...

. Administrative control of the city was moved from New Fongshan Castle to the Fongshan Sub-District of . In November 1901, twenty ''chō'' were established in total; was established nearby. In 1909, Hōzan Chō was abolished, and Takow was merged into Tainan Chō. In 1920, during the tenure of 8th Governor-General

Den Kenjirō Baron was a Japanese politician and cabinet minister in the pre-war government of the Empire of Japan. He was also the 8th Japanese Governor-General of Taiwan from October 1919 to September 1923, and the first civilian to hold that position. De ...

, districts were abolished in favor of prefectures. Thus the city was administered as under

. The Japanese developed Takao, especially the harbor that became the foundation of Kaohsiung to be a port city. Takao was then systematically modernized and connected to the end of North-South Railway. Forming a north–south regional economic corridor from Taipei to Kaohsiung in the 1930s, Japan's Southward Policy set Kaohsiung to become an industrial center.

was also developed starting from 1894. The city center was relocated several times during the period due to the government's development strategy. Development was initially centered on ''Ki-au'' () region but the government began laying railways, upgrading the harbor, and passing new urban plans. New industries such as refinery, machinery, shipbuilding and cementing were also introduced. Before and during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it handled a growing share of Taiwan's agricultural exports to Japan, and was also a major base for Japan's campaigns in Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Extremely ambitious plans for the construction of a massive modern port were drawn up. Toward the end of the war, the Japanese promoted some industrial development at Kaohsiung, establishing an aluminum industry based on the abundant

hydroelectric power Hydroelectricity, or hydroelectric power, is electricity generated from hydropower (water power). Hydropower supplies one sixth of the world's electricity, almost 4500 TWh in 2020, which is more than all other renewable sources combined and ...

produced by the

Sun Moon Lake Sun Moon Lake (; Thao: ''Zintun'') is a lake in Yuchi Township, Nantou County, Taiwan. It is the largest body of water in Taiwan. The area around the lake is home to the Thao tribe, one of aboriginal tribes of Taiwan. Sun Moon Lake surround ...

project in the mountains. The city was heavily bombed by

Task Force 38 The Fast Carrier Task Force (TF 38 when assigned to Third Fleet, TF 58 when assigned to Fifth Fleet), was the main striking force of the United States Navy in the Pacific War from January 1944 through the end of the war in August 1945. The task ...

and FEAF during World War II between 1944 and 1945.

Republic of China

After control of Taiwan was handed over from Japan to the government of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

on 25 October 1945, Kaohsiung City and

Kaohsiung County Kaohsiung County was a county in southern Taiwan between 1945 and 2010. The county seat was located in Fongshan City. History Kaohsiung County was established on 6 December 1945 on the territory of Takao Prefecture () shortly after the end of W ...

were established as a provincial city and a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

Taiwan Province Taiwan Province (; Pha̍k-fa-sṳ, PFS: ''Thòi-vàn-sén'' or ''Thòi-vân-sén'') is a nominal Administrative divisions of Taiwan, administrative division of the Taiwan, Republic of China (ROC). Its definition has remained part of the Constit ...

respectively on 25 December 1945. The official romanization of the name came to be "Kaohsiung", based on the

romanization of the

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

reading of the

kanji are the logographic Chinese characters taken from the Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script and used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese ...

name. Kaohsiung City then consisted of 10

districts A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

, which were

Gushan Gushan may refer to: * Gushan Environmental Energy (古杉集团), mainland Chinese biodiesel producer *Gushan, Khash (گوشان), a village in Iran Places in Greater China *Gushan District (鼓山區), Kaohsiung, Taiwan * Mount Gu (Jingjiang) ( ...

, Lianya (renamed "Lingya" in 1952),

Nanzih Nanzih District, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (also spelled Nanzi; ) is a district located in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. It was the northernmost district of Kaohsiung City until Kaohsiung County was merged into the municipa ...

, Cianjin, Cianjhen,

Cijin Cijin District (; Hokkien POJ: ''Kî-tin-khu'') is a district of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, covering Cijin Island () and islands in the South China Sea. It is the second smallest district in Kaohsiung City after Yancheng District, with an area of ...

Sanmin Sanmin District () is a district of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History During the Ming dynasty, the Wang, Tsai, and Cheng families built houses in the area to farm the land. The area was thus named ''Sankuaicu'' (). After the handover of Taiwan from ...

, Sinsing,

Yancheng Yancheng () is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Jiangsu province of China, province, People's Republic of China. As the city with the largest jurisdictional area in Jiangsu, Yancheng borders Lianyungang to the north, Huai'an to the west, ...

, and Zuoying. During this time, Kaohsiung developed rapidly. The port, badly damaged in

, was restored. It also became a fishing port for boats sailing to Filipino and Indonesian waters. Largely because of its climate, Kaohsiung overtook

Keelung Keelung () or Jilong () (; Hokkien POJ: '), officially known as Keelung City, is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. The city is a part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, along with its neighbors, New Taipe ...

as Taiwan's major port. Kaohsiung also surpassed Tainan to become the second largest city of Taiwan in the late 1970s and Kaohsiung City was upgraded from a provincial city to

on 1 July 1979, by the

Executive Yuan The Executive Yuan () is the executive branch of the government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Its leader is the Premier, who is appointed by the President of the Republic of China, and requires confirmation by the Legislative Yuan. ...

with a total of 11 districts. The additional district is

Siaogang District Siaogang District, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency () is a district of Kaohsiung City in southern Taiwan. Before the merging of Kaohsiung City and Kaohsiung County in 2010, Siaogang was the southernmost district in Kaohsiung ...

, which was annexed from Siaogang Township of

. The

Kaohsiung Incident The Kaohsiung Incident, also known as the Formosa Incident, the Meilidao Incident, or the ''Formosa Magazine'' incident,tang was a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations that occurred in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, on 10 December 1979 during Taiwan's ...

, where the government suppressed a commemoration of International

Human Rights Day Human Rights Day is celebrated annually around the world on 10 December every year. The date was chosen to honor the United Nations General Assembly's adoption and proclamation, on 10 December 1948, of the Universal Declaration of Human Right ...

, occurred on 10 December 1979. Since then, Kaohsiung gradually grew into a political center of the

Pan-Green The pan-Green coalition, pan-Green force or pan-Green groups is a nationalist political coalition in Taiwan (Republic of China), consisting of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP), Taiwan Solidarity Union (T ...

population of Taiwan, in opposition to

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...

where the majority population is

Kuomintang The Kuomintang (KMT), also referred to as the Guomindang (GMD), the Nationalist Party of China (NPC) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (CNP), is a major political party in the Republic of China, initially on the Chinese mainland and in Tai ...

supporters. Kaohsiung-Tainan before and after 2010

On 25 December 2010, Kaohsiung City merged with

to form a larger

with administrative centers in

Lingya District Lingya District () is a district of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The 85 Sky Tower and the Kaohsiung City Hall are located here. Lingya District is the administrative center of Kaohsiung City along with Fongshan District. Its population is around 162,3 ...

and

Fongshan District Fongshan District, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency () is a district located in southern Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Fongshan is one of the administrative centers of Kaohsiung and is home to the Republic of China Military Academy. ...

. On 31 July 2014, a series of

gas explosions A gas explosion is an explosion resulting from mixing a gas, typically from a gas leak, with air in the presence of an ignition source. In household accidents, the principal explosive gases are those used for heating or cooking purposes such as na ...

occurred in the Cianjhen and

s of the city, killing 31 and injuring more than 300. Five roads were destroyed in an area of nearly near the city center. It was the largest gas explosion in Taiwan's modern history.

Geography

The city sits on the southwestern coast of Taiwan facing the

Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a s ...

, bordering

Tainan City Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" for its over 200 years of hist ...

to the north,

Chiayi Chiayi (, Taigi POJ: ''Ka-gī''; ), officially known as Chiayi City, is a city located in the plains of southwestern Taiwan. Formerly called ''Kagee'' during the late Qing dynasty and ''Kagi'' during the Japanese era (), its historical name i ...

and

Nantou County Nantou County (; Hokkien POJ: ''Lâm-tâu-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Nàm-thèu-yen'') is the second largest county of Taiwan by area, located in the central part of the country. It is also the only non-coastal county in Taiwan. Its name derives fro ...

to the northwest,

Taitung County Taitung County (; Mandarin pinyin: ''Táidōng Xiàn''; Hokkien POJ: ''Tâi-tang-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Thòi-tûng-yen''; Paiwan: ''Valangaw'';lit:Eastern part of Taiwan) is the third largest county in Taiwan, located primarily on the island' ...

to its northeast and

Pingtung County Pingtung County is a county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county seat is Pin ...

to the south and southeast. The downtown areas are centered on Kaohsiung Harbor with Cijin Island on the other side of the harbor acting as a natural

breakwater Breakwater may refer to: * Breakwater (structure), a structure for protecting a beach or harbour Places * Breakwater, Victoria, a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia * Breakwater Island Breakwater Island () is a small island in the Palme ...

. The

Love River The Love River or Ai River () is a river (canal) in southern Taiwan. It originates in Renwu District, Kaohsiung City, and flows through Kaohsiung to Kaohsiung Harbor. Love River is the spine of Kaohsiung, playing a similar role to the River Thame ...

(Ai River) flows into the harbor through the Old City and downtown. Zuoying Military Harbor lies to the north of Kaohsiung Harbor and the city center. Kaohsiung's natural landmarks include

Ape Hill Shoushan (, also commonly known in English as Monkey Mountain or Apes' Hill, in Japanese as Kotobuki-yama) is a mountain in Gushan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, north of the main entrance to Kaohsiung Harbor. It was named Ape Hill by the Dutch ...

and

Mount Banping Mount Banping () is a mountain in Nanzih District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Name The name ''Banping'' means half screen, named so because of the mountain steep side resembles a painted screen. History During the Qing Dynasty rule of Taiwan, the mou ...

Climate

Located about a degree south of the

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward ...

, Kaohsiung has a

tropical savanna climate Tropical savanna climate or tropical wet and dry climate is a tropical climate sub-type that corresponds to the Köppen climate classification categories ''Aw'' (for a dry winter) and ''As'' (for a dry summer). The driest month has less than of p ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Aw''), with monthly mean temperatures between and relative humidity ranging between 71 and 81%. Kaohsiung's warm climate is very much dictated by its low latitude and its exposure to warm sea temperatures year-round, with the

Kuroshio Current The , also known as the Black or or the is a north-flowing, warm ocean current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean basin. It was named for the deep blue appearance of its waters. Similar to the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic, the Ku ...

passing by the coast of southern Taiwan, and the

Central Mountain Range The Central Mountain Range is the principal mountain range on the island of Taiwan. It runs from the north of the island to the south. Due to this separation, connecting between the west and east is not very convenient. The tallest peak of th ...

on the northeast blocking out the cool northeastern winds during the winter. The city, therefore, has a noticeably warmer climate than nearby cities located at similar latitudes such as Hong Kong,

Guangzhou Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of Guangdong province in southern China. Located on the Pearl River about north-northwest of Hong Kon ...

as well as various cities further south in northern

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, such as

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

. Although the climate is classified as tropical, Kaohsiung has a defined cooler season unlike most other cities in Asia classified with this climate but located closer to the equator such as

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...

. Daily maximum temperature typically exceeds during the warmer season (April to November) and during the cooler season (December to March), with the exception when cold fronts strikes during the winter months, when the daily mean temperature of the city can drop between 10 and 12 °C depending on the strength of the cold front. Also, besides the high temperatures occurring during the usual summer months, daytime temperatures of inland districts of the city can often exceed from mid-March to late April before the onset of the

monsoon season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

, with clear skies and southwesterly airflows. Average annual rainfall is around , focused primarily from June to August. At more than 2,210 hours of bright sunshine, the city is one of the sunniest areas in Taiwan. The sea temperature of

remains above year-round, the second highest of Southern Taiwan after

Liuqiu Island Liuqiu, also known by #Names, several other names, is a coral island in the Taiwan Strait about southwest of the main island of Taiwan. It has an area of and approximately 13,000 residents, the vast majority of whom share only 10 Chinese s ...

. According to recent records, the average temperature of the city has risen around 1 degree Celsius over the past three decades, from about in 1983 to around by 2012.

Cityscape

Demographics

As of December 2018, Kaohsiung city has a population of 2,773,533 people, making it the third-largest city after

New Taipei New Taipei City is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality located in northern Taiwan. The city is home to an estimated population of 3,974,683 as of 2022, making it the most populous city of Taiwan, and also the second largest s ...

and

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Taiw ...

, and a population density of 939.59 people per square kilometer. Within the city,

is the most populated district with a population of 359,519 people, while

Sinsing District Sinsing District, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency () is a downtown District (Taiwan), district of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Name Sinsing means ''new prosperity'' in Mandarin Chinese. ...

is the most densely populated district with a population density of 25,820 people per square kilometer.

Ethnic composition

Han Chinese

As in most Taiwanese cities or counties, the majority of the population are

. The Chinese are divided into 3 subgroups:

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

, and

Waishengren ''Waishengren'' (), sometimes called mainlanders, are a group of migrants who arrived in Taiwan from mainland China between the Japanese surrender at the end of World War II in 1945, and Kuomintang retreat and the end of the Chinese Civil War i ...

. The Hoklo and Waishengren mostly live in flatland townships and the city centre, while the majority of the Hakka population lives in the suburbs or rural townships of the northeastern hills.

Indigenous peoples

The

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

of Kaohsiung, who belong to various ethnic groups that speak languages belonging to the Austronesian language family, live mostly in the mountain indigenous district such as Taoyuan or

Namasia Namasia District ( Kanakanavu language, Bunun language: ''Namasia''; ), formerly Sanmin Township (), is a mountain indigenous district located in the northeastern part of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is the second largest district in Kaohsiung after T ...

. The main indigenous groups in the city include the Bunun, Rukai, Saaroa and the Kanakanavu.

Other ethnicities

As of December 2010, Kaohsiung hosts around 21,000 foreign spouses. Around 12,353 are Mainland Chinese, 4,244 are Vietnamese, around 800 are Japanese and Indonesians, and around 4,000 are other Asians or foreigners from Europe or America. As of April 2013, Kaohsiung hosts 35,074

foreign workers Foreign workers or guest workers are people who work in a country other than one of which they are a citizen. Some foreign workers use a guest worker program in a country with more preferred job prospects than in their home country. Guest worker ...

who mainly work as factory workers or foreign maids (not including foreign specialists such as teachers and other professionals). About half of them are

Indonesians Indonesians (Indonesian: ''orang Indonesia'') are citizens or people originally from Indonesia, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. There are more than 1,300 ethnicities in Indonesia, making it a multicultural archipelagic coun ...

, with the other half being workers from other

Southeast Asian Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

countries, mainly from

, the

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

Economy

Kaohsiung is a major international port and industrial city in the southwest of Taiwan. As an exporting center, Kaohsiung serves the agricultural interior of southern Taiwan, as well as the mountains of the southeast. Major

raw material A raw material, also known as a feedstock, unprocessed material, or primary commodity, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished goods, energy, or intermediate materials that are feedstock for future finished products. As feedst ...

exports include rice, sugar, bananas,

pineapple The pineapple (''Ananas comosus'') is a tropical plant with an edible fruit; it is the most economically significant plant in the family Bromeliaceae. The pineapple is indigenous to South America, where it has been cultivated for many centuri ...

s, peanuts (groundnuts) and

citrus fruit ''Citrus'' is a genus of flowering trees and shrubs in the rue family, Rutaceae. Plants in the genus produce citrus fruits, including important crops such as oranges, lemons, grapefruits, pomelos, and limes. The genus ''Citrus'' is native to So ...

s. The

Linhai Industrial Park The Linhai Industrial Park () is an industrial park located in Siaogang District and Cianjhen District of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It near the Kaohsiung International Airport, No. 5 Container Center of Port of Kaohsiung and the terminal of National Hig ...

, on the waterfront, was completed in the mid-1970s and includes a

steel mill A steel mill or steelworks is an industrial plant for the manufacture of steel. It may be an integrated steel works carrying out all steps of steelmaking from smelting iron ore to rolled product, but may also be a plant where steel semi-finish ...

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

petrochemical Petrochemicals (sometimes abbreviated as petchems) are the chemical products obtained from petroleum by refining. Some chemical compounds made from petroleum are also obtained from other fossil fuels, such as coal or natural gas, or renewable sou ...

complex, and other industries. The city has an

oil refinery An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where petroleum (crude oil) is transformed and refined into useful products such as gasoline (petrol), diesel fuel, asphalt base, fuel oils, heating oil, kerosene, lique ...

, aluminum and cement works,

fertilizer A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...

factories, sugar refineries, brick and tile works, canning factories, salt-manufacturing factories, and

papermaking Papermaking is the manufacture of paper and cardboard, which are used widely for printing, writing, and packaging, among many other purposes. Today almost all paper is made using industrial machinery, while handmade paper survives as a speciali ...

plants. Designated an export-processing zone in the late 1970s, Kaohsiung also attracted foreign investment to process locally purchased raw materials for export. In 2020, Kaohsiung's

land reclamation Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

project in the Port of Kaohsiung was completed, equivalent to 16 of Taipei's Dean Forest Parks. The Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau plans to buy 49 hectares of the reclaimed land to establish a solar energy industrial district that would be in the harbor's free trade zone. The gross domestic product (GDP) in nominal terms of Kaohsiung City is estimated to be around US$45 billion, and US$90 billion for the metropolitan region. , the GDP per capita in nominal terms was approximately US$24,000. Despite early success and heavy governmental investment, the city suffers from the economic

North–South divide in Taiwan In Taiwan, the North–South divide () refers to the uneven distribution of resources in regard to political, wealth, medical, economic development, education and other aspects across the country over past decades that has drawn the social and c ...

, which continues to be the center of political debate. There has been public aims to shift the local economy towards tourism and

, with projects such as

and

Agriculture

The main agricultural

produce Produce is a generalized term for many farm-produced crops, including fruits and vegetables (grains, oats, etc. are also sometimes considered ''produce''). More specifically, the term ''produce'' often implies that the products are fresh and g ...

in Kaohsiung are vegetables, fruits and rice with a total

arable land Arable land (from the la, arabilis, "able to be ploughed") is any land capable of being ploughed and used to grow crops.''Oxford English Dictionary'', "arable, ''adj''. and ''n.''" Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013. Alternatively, for the ...

of 473 km², which accounts to 16% of the total area of the municipality. Kaohsiung has the highest production of

guava Guava () is a common tropical fruit cultivated in many tropical and subtropical regions. The common guava ''Psidium guajava'' (lemon guava, apple guava) is a small tree in the myrtle family ( Myrtaceae), native to Mexico, Central America, the ...

jujube Jujube (), sometimes jujuba, known by the scientific name ''Ziziphus jujuba'' and also called red date, Chinese date, and Chinese jujube, is a species in the genus ''Ziziphus'' in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae. Description It is a smal ...

and

lychee Lychee (US: ; UK: ; ''Litchi chinensis''; ) is a Monotypic taxon, monotypic taxon and the sole member in the genus ''Litchi'' in the Sapindus, soapberry family, ''Sapindaceae''. It is a tropical tree native to Southeast and Southwest China (t ...

in Taiwan. The main

animal husbandry Animal husbandry is the branch of agriculture concerned with animals that are raised for meat, fibre, milk, or other products. It includes day-to-day care, selective breeding, and the raising of livestock. Husbandry has a long history, starti ...

are chicken,

dairy cattle Dairy cattle (also called dairy cows) are cattle bred for the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species ''Bos taurus''. Historically, little distinction was mad ...

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

, duck, goose, pigs and sheep. The total annual agricultural outcome in Kaohsiung is NT$24.15 billion.

Future investment

Culture

Tourism

Main landmarks of Kaohsiung city include the

85 Sky Tower 85 Sky Tower, formerly known as the T & C Tower or Tuntex Sky Tower (), is an 85-story skyscraper in Lingya District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The structure is high. An antenna increases the pinnacle height to . Constructed from 1994 to 1997, it is th ...

, the

Ferris wheel A Ferris wheel (also called a Giant Wheel or an observation wheel) is an amusement ride consisting of a rotating upright wheel with multiple passenger-carrying components (commonly referred to as passenger cars, cabins, tubs, gondolas, capsules ...

of the Kaohsiung

Dream Mall Dream Mall (), located in Cianjhen District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, is the largest shopping mall in Taiwan and the 15th largest in East Asia (formerly the largest). It is built and operated by Tungcheng Development Corporation (), a subsidiary of U ...

, the

Kaohsiung Arena The Kaohsiung Arena () is an indoor sporting arena located in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is used to host indoor sporting events. It was used as a host to some of the indoor sporting events during the 2009 World Games. Name Loc ...

and

. The newly developed city is also known for having a large number of shopping streets, organized

night markets Night markets or night bazaars are street markets which operate at night and are generally dedicated to more leisurely strolling, shopping, and eating than more businesslike day markets. They are typically open-air markets popular in East Asia, Sou ...

and newly developed leisure parks such as the

, E-DA Theme Park,

Metropolitan Park Metropolitan Park is a urban waterfront park and concert venue located on the north bank of the St. Johns River in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida. It is projected to be the eastern terminus of the northbank Jacksonville Riverwalk. Facility ...

, the

Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts The Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts (KMFA; ) is located in Gushan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It was founded by the Kaohsiung City Government and has been administrated by the Kaohsiung Bureau of Cultural Affairs since 2003. It occupies about a ...

and

Taroko Park The SKM Park is an amusement park and outlet in Cianjhen District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is owned by Shin Kong Mitsukoshi. SKM Park is positioned as an "international lifestyle complex" with restaurants, lifestyle theme stores, and entertainme ...

. Natural attractions of the city include Shoushan (Monkey mountain), the

, Cijin Island,

Sizihwan Sizihwan () is a community and sightseeing spot in Gushan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, named for the adjacent bay of the Taiwan Strait, also called Sizihwan. Names The name ''Sizih'' () can also refer to Xi Shi, an alternative name used by the ...

, the Dapingding Tropical Botanical Garden and

Yushan National Park Yushan National Park () is one of the nine national parks in Taiwan and was named after the summit Yushan, the highest peak of the park.Old City of Zuoying The Old City of Zuoying (), also known as the Old City of Fongshan County (), is a walled city located in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It was built during the Qing rule period and is one of the first Taiwanese cities fortified by a de ...

, a historical town built during the early 17th century, the

Former British Consulate at Takao The British Consulate at Takao (or Ta-kau; ) is a former British consulate built in 1865 in Gushan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It has been designated a historic site by the Ministry of Culture. It lies on the peak of Shaochuantou (哨船頭) a ...

built during the late 19th century, and various sugar and crop factories built under Japanese rule.

Natural attractions

Kaohsiung city includes a wide range of different natural attractions due to its large size and geographical variation, as it is bordered by the

in the northeast and the warm

South China Sea The South China Sea is a marginal sea of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is bounded in the north by the shores of South China (hence the name), in the west by the Indochinese Peninsula, in the east by the islands of Taiwan and northwestern Phil ...

to the west and southwest. The year-round warm climate allows

coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...

to grow along the coasts around

, with Shoushan Mountain being a small mountain completely made up of coral reefs and calcium carbonate, while the mountainous districts in the northeast include Taiwan's highest mountain, Yushan. Other notable natural attractions include the

Lotus Pond Lotus Pond is a small water body Inside MLA Colony, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, India. The pond is surrounded by lush green flora and a 1.2 kilometer path. Lotus Pond is home to more than 20 species of birds. A few of them are pied kingfisher, ...

, and Dongsha Atoll National Park, which is currently inaccessible by the public due to military occupation.

Historical sites

A large number of historical sites and monuments were left in the city after the colonization of the Dutch in the 17th century, the Qing dynasty during the 18th and 19th century and the Japanese empire from the late 19th century to the mid 20th century. The city government has protected various sites and monuments from further damage and many have been opened to the public since the early 1980s. Notable historical sites include the Cemetery of Zhenghaijun,

Fengshan Longshan Temple The Fengshan Longshan Temple () is a Chinese temple in Fongshan District, Fengshan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The temple is predicted to be constructed in the early years of Qianlong Emperor of Qing Dynasty. It is the second oldest am ...

Former Dinglinzihbian Police Station The Former Dinglinzihbian Police Station () is a historical building in Linyuan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The police station building was originally built in February 1898 as Yuan Dinglinzibian Police Station at Fusing Street. Soon, ...

Meinong Cultural and Creative Center The Meinong Cultural and Creative Center () is a multi-purpose park in Meinong District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in ...

Former Sanhe Bank The Former Sanhe Bank () is a historical bank building in Gushan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The bank building was the branch of Sanjushi-Ginko Bank set up in 1921. In 1933, the bank was changed to Sanwa Bank after series of merging neg ...

, and the

Kaohsiung Lighthouse The Kaohsiung Lighthouse (), also called Cihou Lighthouse () or Cijin Lighthouse (), is a lighthouse in Cijin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History After the signing of Convention of Peking in 1860 during the Qing Dynasty rule, the Takau Harbo ...

, one of the oldest lighthouses of the city.

Museums

Kaohsiung is home to many museums, including the

Chung Li-he Museum The Chung Li-ho Museum () is a museum in Meinong District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The museum is dedicated to Taiwanese novelist Chung Li-ho. History The idea to establish the museum started in June 1979 and the construction work of the building w ...

Cijin Shell Museum The Cijin Shell Museum () is a museum in Cijin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The original Cijin Shell Museum opened on September 11, 2000, on the second floor of the Cijin Seaside Park administration building. After the original museum b ...

Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum The Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum (), formerly known as the Buddha Memorial Center, is a Mahāyāna Buddhist cultural, religious, and educational museum located in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The museum is affiliated with Fo Guang Shan, ...

Jiasian Petrified Fossil Museum The Jiasian Petrified Fossil Museum () is a museum in He'an Village, Jiasian District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The museum was established in February 1991. It was built by Jiasian Township Government. Architecture The museum was built near ...

Kaohsiung Astronomical Museum The Kaohsiung Astronomical Museum () is an astronomical museum in Siaogang District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The museum was established in 2000. Features The museum has a 2-meter-diameter constellation map, which is the largest ever created ...

Kaohsiung Hakka Cultural Museum The Kaohsiung Hakka Cultural Museum () is a cultural museum in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History In 1995, Kaohsiung Mayor Wu Den-yih proposed the construction of the museum to preserve the Hakka culture. The construction of museum bu ...

, Kaohsiung Harbor Museum,

Kaohsiung Museum of History The Kaohsiung Museum of History () is a museum located in Yancheng District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is administered by the Kaohsiung City Government. History The building of the museum was originally the Kaohsiung City Hall. It was designed by ...

Kaohsiung Museum of Labor The Kaohsiung Museum of Labor () is a museum about labor in Cianjin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The museum was originally officially opened in conjunction with the International Workers' Day on 1 May 2010 in Pier-2 Art Center. Howeve ...

Kaohsiung Vision Museum The Kaohsiung Vision Museum () is a museum in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The museum building was constructed in 1941 in the Imperial Crown Style by Shimizu Corporation and served as the Kaohsiung Main Station building until ...

Meinong Hakka Culture Museum The Meinong Hakka Culture Museum () is a cultural museum in Meinong District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History During the opening ceremony speech on 28 April 2001, President Chen Shui-bian emphasized the effort by the central government to preserve H ...

National Science and Technology Museum The National Science and Technology Museum (NSTM; ) is a museum of applied science and technology in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The museum was established in November 1997. Architecture The museum covers an area of 19 hectares ...

Republic of China Air Force Museum The Republic of China Air Force Museum () is an air force open-air museum in Gangshan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The museum building was completed on 14 August 1987 to accommodate the Republic of China Air Force Academy campus plannin ...

Soya-Mixed Meat Museum The Soya-Mixed Meat Museum () is a food museum in Benjhou Industrial Park, Gangshan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Exhibitions The museum offers detailed information to the history and culture of marinated food, sea food and agriculture produces ...

Taiwan Pineapple Museum The Taiwan Pineapple Museum () is a museum of pineapple in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The museum is housed in a refurbished factory constructed in 1925 called Jioucyutang Taifang Company, a factory that canned pineapples produce ...

, Taiwan Sugar Museum,

Takao Railway Museum The Takao Railway Museum () is a museum in Gushan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The museum was formerly the Kaohsiung Harbor Station, built during the Japanese period. Then called the , the station was the first railway station in Ka ...

Xiaolin Pingpu Cultural Museum The Xiaolin Pingpu Cultural Museum () is a museum in Jiaxian District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The museum was officially opened in 1996. In August 2009, it was destroyed by Typhoon Morakot. It was then rebuilt afterwards with a cost of NT$2 ...

and

YM Museum of Marine Exploration Kaohsiung The YM Museum of Marine Exploration Kaohsiung (MOME; ) is a museum about marine exploration in Cijin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History After its rental tenure was approved by the Marine Bureau of the Kaohsiung City Government on 18 January ...

Parks and zoos

As the largest municipality in Taiwan, Kaohsiung has a number of newly built leisure areas and parks. Notable parks or pavilions in the city include the

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...

Siaogangshan Skywalk Park The Siaogangshan Skywalk Park () is a park in Gangshan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The park is owned by Kaohsiung City Government. History The park was constructed with a budget of almost NT$100 million. It was opened on a trial basis on 4 Fe ...

Fo Guang Shan Monastery Fo Guang Shan Monastery ( is a Chinese Mahāyāna Buddhist monastery in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is the headquarters of the Fo Guang Shan international organization and the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. History In 1967, Hs ...

, the

Dragon and Tiger Pagodas The Dragon and Tiger Pagodas () is a temple located at Lotus Lake in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The temple was built in 1976. One of the towers is the ''Tiger'' Tower, the other one being the ''Dragon'' tower. Both towers are seven ...

Spring and Autumn Pavilions The Spring and Autumn Pavilions () are a Taoist temple complex located on Lotus Lake in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Like the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, the temple is special and unique. It was built in 1953 by Chi Ming palace, were tw ...

, the

Love Pier The Love Pier () is a pier along Love River in Yancheng District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The pier area used to be the No. 12 dock of the Republic of China Armed Forces. Features The pier is famous for its double sail design. It also house ...

Singuang Ferry Wharf The Singuang Ferry Wharf () is a wharf in Lingya District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is the 22nd pier of Port of Kaohsiung. Architecture The wharf features the Seaboard Park and Shinkong Avenue. It has a ring-shaped walkway that provides a great vie ...

and

Kaohsiung Fisherman's Wharf The Kaohsiung Fisherman's Wharf (also Fishermen's Wharf, ) was a wharf in Gushan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Today it is Kaohsiung Port Warehouse No. 2 (KW2), a multi-functional space combining cultural creative industries, exhibitions and dinin ...

. Notable zoo in the city includes the Kaohsiung City Shousan Zoo.

Other

Kaohsiung is home to many

, such as

Jin-Zuan Night Market The Jin-Zuan Night Market () is a night market in Cianjhen District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Together with the adjacent Kaisyuan Night Market, they form the largest night market in Taiwan. History The night market was opened in July 2013. Features ...

Liuhe Night Market The Liuhe Night Market () is a tourist night market in Sinsing District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is one of the most popular markets in Taiwan where seafood, handicrafts, clothing, knives, cameras and live animals are sold. History In the 1950s, th ...

Ruifeng Night Market Ruifeng Night Market () is in the Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, located between the Yucheng and Nanping Road (close to the Kaohsiung Municipal Sanmin Home Economics and Commerce Vocational High School), and is nowadays considered to be ...

and Zhonghua Street Night Market, and the

Kaisyuan Night Market The Kaisyuan Night Market () is a night market in Cianjhen District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Together with the adjacent Jin-Zuan Night Market, they form the largest night market in Taiwan. History The night market was opened on 29 July 2013. Archit ...

. Other attractions include the

Cijin Tianhou Temple The Cijin Tianhou Temple,. also known as the Cihou Tianhou Temple,. & or Chi Jin Mazu Temple, is a temple dedicated to the Chinese Goddess Mazu, who is the Goddess of Sea and Patron Deity of fishermen, sailors and any occupations related to s ...

, Dome of Light of Kaohsiung MRT's Formosa Boulevard Station, the

Kaohsiung Mosque The Kaohsiung Mosque () is a mosque in Lingya District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is the second mosque to be built in Taiwan after Taipei Grand Mosque in Taipei. History First building Kaohsiung Mosque was built in 1949 in Taiwan by Muslim nation ...

and the

Tower of Light The Tower of Light () is a former transmission tower in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The tower was originally used by Taipower as high voltage transmission tower. With the construction of underground power cable, the tower was ...

Sanmin District Sanmin District () is a district of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History During the Ming dynasty, the Wang, Tsai, and Cheng families built houses in the area to farm the land. The area was thus named ''Sankuaicu'' (). After the handover of Taiwan from ...

. Traditional "wet" markets have long been the source of meat, fish, and produce for many residents. With the arrival of Western-style

supermarkets A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limit ...

in the 1980s and 1990s, such markets have encountered fierce competition. In 1989, the global leader in hypermarkets,

Carrefour Carrefour () is a French multinational retail and wholesaling corporation headquartered in Massy, France. The eighth-largest retailer in the world by revenue, it operates a chain of hypermarkets, groceries stores and convenience stores, which ...

, entered Asia, opening its first store in Kaohsiung. Due to the success of its Taiwan operation, the French retailer expanded throughout the country and Asia. Jean-Luc Chéreau, the general manager in Taiwan from 1993 to 1999, used this newfound understanding of Chinese culture and ways of doing business with Chinese customers to lead its China expansion starting in 1999. As of February 2020, Carrefour has opened 137 hypermarkets and supermarkets in Taiwan. Despite the fierce competition from "Westernized" supermarkets, Taiwan's traditional markets and mom-and-pop stores remain "one of the most popular retail formats for many Asian families when they purchase daily food items and basic household goods." Coffee cafes have become famous and numerous in the city. With the arrival of Western-style chains many new local cafes have opened in the recent years.

Languages

The majority of those living in Kaohsiung can communicate in both

Taiwanese Hokkien Taiwanese Hokkien () (; Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-uân-uē''), also known as Taigi/Taigu (; Pe̍h-ōe-jī/Tâi-lô: ''Tâi-gí / Tâi-gú''), Taiwanese, Taiwanese Minnan, Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively by about 70% ...

and

Standard Chinese Standard Chinese ()—in linguistics Standard Northern Mandarin or Standard Beijing Mandarin, in common speech simply Mandarin, better qualified as Standard Mandarin, Modern Standard Mandarin or Standard Mandarin Chinese—is a modern Standar ...

. Some of the elderly who grew up during the Japanese colonization of Taiwan can communicate in Japanese, while most of the younger population has basic English skills. Since the spread of Standard Chinese after the Nationalist Government retreated to Taiwan in 1949,

Hakka Chinese Hakka (, , ) forms a language group of varieties of Chinese, spoken natively by the Hakka people throughout Southern China and Taiwan and throughout the diaspora areas of East Asia, Southeast Asia and in overseas Chinese communities around th ...

and various

Formosan languages The Formosan languages are a geographic grouping comprising the languages of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, all of which are Austronesian. They do not form a single subfamily of Austronesian but rather nine separate subfamilies. The Taiwa ...

are gradually no longer spoken with the new generation and many Formosan languages are therefore classified as

moribund Moribund refers to a literal or figurative state near death. Moribund may refer to: * ''Moribund'' (album), a 2006 album by the Norwegian black metal band Koldbrann * "Le Moribond", a song by Jacques Brel known in English as "Seasons in the Sun" ...

endangered languages An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a "dead langu ...

by the United Nations. Nowadays, only elder Hakka people mostly living in Meinong, Liouguei,

Shanlin The term shanlin () was frequently used to describe bandits in northeast China from the time of the Qing dynasty, because they knew the local wooded and mountainous terrain very well. Most operated in a fairly small district and took pains to mai ...

and

Jiasian Jiasian District, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency () is a rural district in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. Located far from the coast, the township is regarded as a gateway to Taiwan's Central Mountain Range. History Qing Dyna ...

districts can communicate in Hakka and elder Taiwanese aborigines living mostly in the rural districts of

and Taoyuan can communicate with the aboriginal languages. The Taiwanese government has established special affairs committees for both the Aboriginals and the Hakkas to protect their language, culture, and minority rights.

Arts

Kaohsiung has rich resources of ocean, mountains and forests which shape a unique and active multi-faceted art and cultural aesthetic in public infrastructure and transport,

public art Public art is art in any Media (arts), media whose form, function and meaning are created for the general public through a public process. It is a specific art genre with its own professional and critical discourse. Public art is visually and phy ...

, and city architecture, from MRT stations and city space to art galleries. The "Dome light" in the concourse of

Formosa Boulevard Station Formosa Boulevard () is a station of Kaohsiung Metro located in Sinsing District, Kaohsiung. It is currently the sole interchange station between metro lines in Kaohsiung. Formosa Boulevard station is named after the Formosa Boulevard project, ...

Kaohsiung MRT Kaohsiung Metro () is a rapid transit and light rail system covering the metropolitan area of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Its rapid transit network is known as Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit or Kaohsiung MRT. Construction of the MRT started in October 200 ...

is one of the world's largest public

glass works Glass production involves two main methods – the float glass process that produces sheet glass, and glassblowing that produces bottles and other containers. It has been done in a variety of ways during the history of glass. Glass container ...

of art. The city also has the

Urban Spotlight Arcade The Urban Spotlight Arcade () is located at Central Park, Cianjin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It spans from the roundabout of Wu-Fu 3rd Road and Chung-Hua Road to the intersection of Wu-Fu 3rd Road and Chung-Shan road. It is famous for its light ...

spanning along the street in

Cianjin District Cianjin District, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency () is an urban district of Kaohsiung City, Taiwan. It is the third smallest district in Kaohsiung City, with a land area of 1.8573 square kilometers, or 0.7171 square miles. ...

. In October 2018, Weiwuying (the National Kaohsiung Centre for the Arts), designed by

Mecanoo Mecanoo is an architecture firm based in Delft, Netherlands. Mecanoo was founded in 1984 by Francine Houben, Henk Döll, Roelf Steenhuis, Erick van Egeraat and Chris de Weijer. Foundation Houben, Döll and Steenhuis won a competition to desig ...

, opened.

Religion

The religious population of Kaohsiung is mainly divided into five main religious groups:

Buddhists Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

Taoists Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao ...

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

and

Christians Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

(

Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and

Protestants Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

). , Kaohsiung City has 1,481 temples, the second highest in Taiwan after

Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" ...

. Kaohsiung also has 306 churches.

Buddhism

Buddhism is one of the major religions in Taiwan, with over 35% of Taiwan's population identifying as Buddhists. The same applies to Kaohsiung city. Kaohsiung also hosts the largest

Buddhist temple A Buddhist temple or Buddhist monastery is the place of worship for Buddhists, the followers of Buddhism. They include the structures called vihara, chaitya, stupa, wat and pagoda in different regions and languages. Temples in Buddhism represen ...

in Taiwan, the

with its

. There are also other famous Buddhist temples such as

and

Hong Fa Temple The Hong Fa Temple () is a temple in Xinxing, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Transportation The temple is accessible within walking distance North West from Sinyi Elementary School Station of Kaohsiung MRT. See also * Buddhism in Taiwan * List of temple ...

Taoism

Around 33% of the Taiwanese population are Taoists, making it the second largest religion of Taiwan. Most people who believe in Taoism also ascribe to Buddhism at the same time, as the differences and boundaries between the two religions are not always clear. Many residents of the area also worship the sea goddess known as Tian Shang Sheng Mu () or

Mazu Mazu or Matsu is a Chinese sea goddess also known by several other names and titles. She is the deified form of the legendary figure Lin Mo or Lin Moniang, a Fujianese shamaness whose life span is traditionally dated from 960 to 987. Re ...

, who is variously syncretized as a

Taoist immortal ''Xian'' () refers to a person or similar entity having a long life or being immortal. The concept of ''xian'' has different implications dependent upon the specific context: philosophical, religious, mythological, or other symbolic or cultural ...

or embodiment of the

bodhisattva In Buddhism, a bodhisattva ( ; sa, 𑀩𑁄𑀥𑀺𑀲𑀢𑁆𑀢𑁆𑀯 (Brahmī), translit=bodhisattva, label=Sanskrit) or bodhisatva is a person who is on the path towards bodhi ('awakening') or Buddhahood. In the Early Buddhist schools ...

Guanyin Guanyin () is a Bodhisattva associated with compassion. She is the East Asian representation of Avalokiteśvara ( sa, अवलोकितेश्वर) and has been adopted by other Eastern religions, including Chinese folk religion. She ...

. Her temple on Cijin Island,

Chi Jin Mazu Temple The Cijin Tianhou Temple,. also known as the Cihou Tianhou Temple,. & or Chi Jin Mazu Temple, is a temple dedicated to the Chinese Goddess Mazu, who is the Goddess of Sea and Patron Deity of fishermen, sailors and any occupations related to ...

, is the oldest in the city, with its original bamboo-and-thatch structure first opened in 1673. The area surrounding it formed the center of the city's early settlement.. & There are also other prominent Taoist temples such as

Fengshan Tiangong Temple The Fengshan Tiangong Temple () is a temple in Fengshan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. This temple is dedicated to Jade Emperor. History The temple was constructed in 1798. Architecture The temple is a two-story building designed in the Southern ...

, dedicated to the

Jade Emperor The Jade Emperor or Yudi ( or , ') in Chinese culture, traditional religions and myth is one of the representations of the first god ( '). In Daoist theology he is the assistant of Yuanshi Tianzun, who is one of the Three Pure Ones, the three ...

Cih Ji Palace Zuoying Ciji Temple () or Bao Sheng Da Di Temple () is a temple by Lotus Lake in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. See also * Baosheng Dadi * Cide Temple * Chi Ming Palace * Zhouzi Qingshui Temple * Spring and Autumn Pavilions * List of temp ...

, dedicated to

Bao Sheng Da Di Baozi (), Pao-tsih or bao, is a type of yeast-leavened filled bun in various Chinese cuisines. There are many variations in fillings ( meat or vegetarian) and preparations, though the buns are most often steamed. They are a variation of ''mant ...

, Qing Shui Temple, dedicated to Qing Shui Zu Shi and

Gushan Daitian Temple The Gushan Daitian Temple () or Hamasen Temple is a temple in Gushan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The temple was built in 1951 and used as the Kaohsiung City Government office. It was the original location of Shuangye Elementary School ...

dedicated to

Wang Ye worship Wang Ye worship () is a Fujianese and Taiwanese folk religion, frequently considered an aspect of the Taoist belief system. Wang Ye is particularly worshipped in Southern Taiwan and also among Minnan speaking communities worldwide. The customary ...

Christianity

Christianity is a minority religion in Taiwan. It was first brought onto the island when the Dutch and Spanish colonized Taiwan during the 17th century, mostly to the aboriginals. Kaohsiung currently hosts around 56,000 Christians.

Islam

Besides the majority population of Buddhists and Taoists, Kaohsiung also includes a rather tiny population of

Muslims Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abraha ...

. During the

Chinese Civil War The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on m ...

, some 20,000 Muslims, mostly soldiers and civil servants, fled

with the

government to Taiwan. During the 1980s, another few thousand Muslims from

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

and

, whom are mostly descendants of

Nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

soldiers who fled

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

as a result of the communist takeover, migrated to Taiwan in search of a better life, resulting in an increase of Muslim population within the country. More recently, with the rise of Indonesian workers working in Taiwan, an estimated number of 88,000 Indonesian Muslims currently live in the country, in addition to the existing 53,000 Taiwanese Muslims. Combining all demographics, Taiwan hosts around 140,000 Muslims, with around 25,000 living in Kaohsiung.

is the largest mosque in Kaohsiung and the main gathering site of Muslims within the city. Fo Guang Shan.jpg, Foguangshan Temple 旗後天后宮.jpg, Cijing Tianhou Temple 玫瑰聖母主教座堂.JPG, Holy Rosary Cathedral Kaohsiung Mosque.JPG,

Politics

Government

Sometimes Kaohsiung used to be seen as the political opposite of Taipei. While northern Taiwan leans towards the

Pan-Blue Coalition The pan-Blue coalition, pan-Blue force or pan-Blue groups is a political coalition in the Republic of China (Taiwan) consisting of the Kuomintang (KMT), People First Party (PFP), New Party (CNP), Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NPSU), and Young ...

in the state-level elections, southern Taiwan, including Kaohsiung, leaned towards the

Pan-Green Coalition The pan-Green coalition, pan-Green force or pan-Green groups is a nationalist political coalition in Taiwan (Republic of China), consisting of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Taiwan Statebuilding Party (TSP), Taiwan Solidarity Union (T ...

since the late 1990s.

Frank Hsieh Frank Hsieh Chang-ting (; born May 18, 1946) is a Taiwanese politician and former defense attorney. A cofounder of the Democratic Progressive Party, he has served on the Taipei City Council, the Legislative Yuan, as the mayor of Kaohsiung City ...

of the

Democratic Progressive Party The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is a Taiwanese nationalist and centre-left political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Controlling both the Republic of China presidency and the unicameral Legislative Yuan, it is the majori ...

was reelected twice as Mayor of Kaohsiung, where he was widely credited for transforming the city from an industrial sprawl into an attractive modern metropolis. Hsieh resigned from the office of mayor to take up the office of

Premier of the Republic of China The Premier of the Republic of China, officially the President of the Executive Yuan (Chinese language, Chinese: 行政院院長), is the head of the government of the Republic of China of Taiwan and leader of the Executive Yuan. The premier ...

in 2005. The municipal election, held on 9 December 2006, resulted in a victory for the

's candidate

Chen Chu Chen Chu or Kiku Chen (; born 10 June 1950) is the current President of the Control Yuan and Chair of the National Human Rights Commission. Before assuming her current post, Chen had served as Secretary-General to the President from 2018 t ...

, the first elected female mayor of

in Taiwan, defeating her

rival and former deputy mayor, Huang Chun-ying. As of 12 June 2020, the mayor of Kaohsiung City is

Chen Chi-mai Chen Chi-mai (; born December 23, 1964) is a Taiwanese politician and the current Mayor of Kaoshiung since August 24, 2020. He has served as spokesperson of the Democratic Progressive Party and the chief executive officer of its Policy Research ...

. File:Kaohsiung City Hall (Dec 2010).JPG, alt=Kaohsiung City Hall,

Kaohsiung City Government The Kaohsiung City Government is the municipal government of Kaohsiung. It was formed after the merger of Kaohsiung County and Kaohsiung City in December 2010. Its chief administrator is the directly elected Mayor of Kaohsiung. History In ...

– Sihwei Administration Center File:Fongshan Administration Center, Kaohsiung City Government 20140720.jpg, alt=Kaohsiung City Hall,

– Fongshan Administration Center File:Hall of Kaohsiung City Council.JPG, alt=Kaohsiung City Council,

Kaohsiung City Council Kaohsiung City Council () is the city council of Kaohsiung City, Republic of China. It is currently composed of 65 councilors, each serving a four-year term, elected using the single non-transferable vote system. Speaker and deputy speaker of ...

File:高雄地方法院.JPG, alt=Kaohsiung District Court, Kaohsiung District Court

Subdivisions

Kaohsiung is divided into 38

, three of which are mountain indigenous districts. There are a total of 651

villages A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in which each village is subdivided into

neighborhoods A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...

(鄰). There are 18,584 neighborhoods in Kaohsiung City. Lingya and

Fongshan Fongshan District, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency () is a district located in southern Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Fongshan is one of the administrative centers of Kaohsiung and is home to the Republic of China Military Academy. ...

districts are the administrative centers of the city while Lingya and Sinsing Districts are the two most densely populated districts of the city. Kaohsiung has the most numbers of districts among other special municipalities in Taiwan. :Note: There are several romanization systems used in Taiwan. This table contains both

Hanyu Pinyin Hanyu Pinyin (), often shortened to just pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese in China, and to some extent, in Singapore and Malaysia. It is often used to teach Mandarin, normally written in Chinese for ...

(the official standard of the

central government A central government is the government that is a controlling power over a unitary state. Another distinct but sovereign political entity is a federal government, which may have distinct powers at various levels of government, authorized or dele ...

), and

Tongyong Pinyin Tongyong Pinyin () was the official romanization of Mandarin in Taiwan between 2002 and 2008. The system was unofficially used between 2000 and 2002, when a new romanization system for Taiwan was being evaluated for adoption. Taiwan's Ministry of ...

(the official standard of the

). The major order of districts referred to the code of administrative area.

Notable people

Eddy Chen TwoSet Violin is a musical comedy duo consisting of Australian violinists Brett Yang and Eddy Chen. The pair is best known for their musical comedy on their YouTube channel, which has reached over 3.8 million subscribers and 1.2 billion views a ...

(1993–), Taiwanese-Australian violinist and Member of TwoSet Violin *

Wu Kuo-chu Wu Kuo-chu (; 18 August 1970 – 6 January 2006) was a Taiwanese choreographer. Life Wu was born in Kaohsiung in 1970. After studying and working at the Taipei National University of the Arts, He attended the dance academy Folkwang Hochschule i ...

(1970–2006), Taiwanese choreographer *

Brett Yang TwoSet Violin is a musical comedy duo consisting of Australian violinists Brett Yang and Eddy Chen. The pair is best known for their Comedy music, musical comedy on their YouTube channel, which has reached over 3.8 million subscribers and 1.2 b ...

(1992–), Taiwanese-Australian violinist and Member of TwoSet Violin

Transportation

Port of Kaohsiung

A major port, through which pass most of Taiwan's marine imports and exports, is located in the city but is not managed by the city government. Instead, it is administrated by Kaohsiung Port Authority, under the Ministry of Transportation. There is a push for Kaohsiung City to annex the Port of Kaohsiung to facilitate better regional planning. Also known as the "Harbour Capital" of Taiwan, Kaohsiung has always had a strong link with the ocean and maritime transportation.

Ferries A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water tax ...

play a key role in everyday transportation, especially for transportation across the harbor. With five terminals and 23 berths, the ''Port of Kaohsiung'' is Taiwan's largest

container port A container port or container terminal is a facility where cargo containers are transshipped between different transport vehicles, for onward transportation. The transshipment may be between container ships and land vehicles, for example train ...

and the 13th largest in the world. In 2007 the port reached its handling capacity with a record trade volume of . A new container terminal is under construction, increasing future handling capacity by by 2013. Kaohsiung is one of the biggest ports in the world for importing

shark fins Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimor ...

, sold at high prices in the restaurants and shops of Taiwan and China. They are brought in from overseas and are placed out to dry in the sun on residential rooftops near the port.

Kaohsiung International Airport

Kaohsiung City is also home to Taiwan's second-largest international airport, the

, located in

near the city's center. It is one of the three major international airports of Taiwan, serving passengers of the entire southern and southeastern part of the country. However, the size of the airport is relatively small, with short runways compared to other major airports of Taiwan due to its age and its location near the city center, making it impossible for large aircraft such as the

Airbus A380 The Airbus A380 is a large wide-body airliner that was developed and produced by Airbus. It is the world's largest passenger airliner and only full-length double-deck jet airliner. Airbus studies started in 1988, and the project was annou ...

to land at the airport. As a result, plans for runway expansion or building a new airport in replacement have been proposed.

Rapid transit

Kaohsiung MRT Train at World Games Station

Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit Kaohsiung Metro () is a rapid transit and light rail system covering the metropolitan area of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Its rapid transit network is known as Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit or Kaohsiung MRT. Construction of the MRT started in October 20 ...

opened for service in March 2008. The MRT is made up of two lines with 37 stations covering a distance of . Two of Kaohsiung's MRT stations,

and Central Park Station, were ranked among the top 50 most beautiful subway systems in the world by Metrobits.org in 2011. In 2012, the two stations respectively are ranked as the 2nd and the 4th among the top 15 most beautiful subway stops in the world by BootsnAll.

Circular Light Rail

THSR Zuoying Station and TRA New Zuoying Station 20080712

The Circular Light Rail Line (also known as the Kaohsiung LRT, Kaohsiung Tram) for Kaohsiung City is a light rail line. Construction of Phase 1, known as the Waterside Light Rail began in June 2013 and is in full operation since September 2017. To combat air pollution, usage of the light rail, was well as buses, was made free of charge for electronic ticket holders from December to February, when air pollution is at its peak.

Railway

The city is served by the

Taiwan Railways Administration Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) is a railway operator in Taiwan. It is an agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, responsible for managing, maintaining, and running conventional passenger and freight railway services ...

's Western Line and

Pingtung Line The Pingtung Line () is a line of the Taiwan Railway Administration West Coast line in Taiwan. It is long, of which is double track. The section between Nanzhou and Linbian railway stations will be upgraded from a single-track railway ...

Kaohsiung Main Station Kaohsiung Main Station () is a railway and metro station in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan served by the Taiwan Railways and Kaohsiung Rapid Transit. It is one of four ''special class'' stations, the highest class with the most services. It ...

is an underground station, replacing the old ground level station.

Taiwan High Speed Rail Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) is the high-speed railway of Taiwan consisting of one line that runs approximately along the west coast, from the capital Taipei to the southern city of Kaohsiung. With construction and operations managed by a pri ...

also serves Kaohsiung City at Zuoying Station in northern Kaohsiung City.

Sports

Kaohsiung is home to Taiwan's largest international-class stadium, the

National Stadium Many countries have a national sport stadium, which typically serves as the primary or exclusive home for one or more of a country's national representative sports teams. The term is most often used in reference to an association football stadiu ...

, with a maximum capacity of 55,000 seats, as well as

. Kaohsiung hosted the

2009 World Games The 2009 World Games () the eighth edition of the World Games, were an international multi-sport event held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan (under the name Chinese Taipei) from 16 July 2009 to 26 July 2009. The games featured sports that are not contested i ...

at the National Stadium. Nearly 6,000 athletes, officials, coaches, referees and others from 103 countries participated in the 2009 Kaohsiung World Games. Kaohsiung was also home to the

Kaohsiung Truth The Kaohsiung Truth were a professional basketball team based in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The Truth played one season in the ASEAN Basketball League. History Kaohsiung Truth was founded in 2016 as the first professional basketball team to play in Kaoh ...

of the

ASEAN Basketball League The ASEAN Basketball League (ABL) is a professional men's basketball league in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong/Macau, which includes six teams from Southeast Asian nations (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam), one tea ...

. They were the first team in the history of the league that was based outside Southeast Asia. The team folded in 2017. Other recent major sporting events held by Kaohsiung include: *

2001 Asian Cycling Championships The 2001 Asian Cycling Championships took place at Kaohsiung and Taichung, Taiwan from 8 to 15 July 2001. Medal summary Road Men Women Track Men Women Medal table References Road ResultsTrack Results
{{Asian Cycling Championship ...

2005 WPA World Nine-ball Championship The 2005 WPA World Nine-ball Championship was the 16th edition of the WPA World Nine-ball Championship, WPA World Championship for 9-Ball Pool. It took place from July 2 to 10, 2005 in the Taiwanese city, Kaohsiung. Taiwanese Wu Jiaqing, Wu Chia ...

2011 AFC President's Cup The 2011 AFC President's Cup was the seventh edition of the AFC President's Cup, a football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for clubs from "emerging countries" in Asia. Teams from 12 member associations competed. ...

2013 World Modern Pentathlon Championships The 2013 World Modern Pentathlon Championships was held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan from August 19 to August 28, 2013. The event includes pistol shooting, fencing, 200m swimming, show jumping and a 3 km run. Medal summary Men's events Women's eve ...

2016 Asian Men's U20 Volleyball Championship The 2016 Asian Men's U20 Volleyball Championship was held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan from 9 to 17 July 2016. The top two teams qualified for the 2017 U21 World Championship. Pools composition Teams were seeded in the first two positions of each poo ...

WTA Taiwan Open The Taiwan Open is a professional women's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts in Taipei, Taiwan. The tournament began in 2016 and was held in Kaohsiung, Taiwan for its first year. The event is affiliated with the Women's Tennis Associa ...

(2016) * 2019 U-19 Asia Rugby Championship

Education

Republic of China Air Force Academy Main Gate Front 20111015b

Kaohsiung has a number of colleges and junior colleges offering training in commerce, education, maritime technology, medicine, modern languages, nursing, and technology, as well as various

international schools An international school is an institution that promotes education in an international environment or framework. Although there is no uniform definition or criteria, international schools are usually characterized by a multinational student body an ...

and eight national military schools, including the three major military academies of the country, the

Republic of China Military Academy The Republic of China Military Academy () is the service academy for the army of the Republic of China, located in Fengshan District, Kaohsiung. Previously known as the the military academy produced commanders who fought in many of China's ...

Republic of China Naval Academy The Republic of China Naval Academy (CNA; ) is the service academy for the navy of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and is located at Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The academy was originally established as the Chinese Naval Academ ...

and

Republic of China Air Force Academy The Republic of China Air Force Academy (CAFA; ) is the service academy for the air force of the Republic of China (Taiwan), and is located in Gangshan District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History Mainland China The Republic of China Air Force Academy ...

. Universities *

I-Shou University Formerly known as Kaohsiung Polytechnic Institute (KPI), I-Shou University (ISU; ) is a private university in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. ISU was established in 1986 by I-Shou Lin, the founder of E United Group ( 義联集團), to commemora ...

Kaohsiung Medical University The Kaohsiung Medical University (KMU; ) is a private medical school located in Sanmin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The university was originally established as Kaohsiung Medical College in 1954 by the former mayor of Kaohsiung City, Ch ...

National Kaohsiung Normal University The National Kaohsiung Normal University (NKNU; Kaohsiung Normal University),The name of the university is translated using Chinese word order. By English grammar rules, it is National Normal University of Kaohsiung. founded in 1967, is a public ...

National Sun Yat-sen University National Sun Yat-sen University (NSYSU; ) is a public research-intensive university renowned as an official think tank scholars' community, located in Sizihwan, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. NSYSU is listed as one of six national research universities, ...

National University of Kaohsiung The National University of Kaohsiung (NUK; ) is a public university located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and a member of the National University System of Taiwan. History NUK was founded in February 2000, aims to narrow the gap in education between ...

Technical and vocational universities *

Cheng Shiu University Cheng Shiu University (CSU; ) is a private university located in Niaosong District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History Established in 1965, it was founded by three friends, Lee Cheng-Sheng (李金盛), Gong Junke, and Zheng Junyuan. It was initially ...

Fooyin University The Fooyin University (FYU; ) is a private university in Daliao District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History FYU was originally established as three-year Fooyin Vocational High School of Midwifery in 1958. In 1962, it was transformed into a four-year v ...

National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism The National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism (NKUHT; ) is a public university located in Siaogang District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is the only public university specializing in hospitality and tourism in Taiwan. The total amount ...

National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST; ) is a university located in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History The university was formed in 2018 by a merger of the National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology (NKFUST), ...

Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages Wenzao Ursuline University of Languages (WZU; ) is the only university devoted to language education in Taiwan. It awards A.A., B.A., B.B.A. degrees, and offers a master's degree program conferring M.A., M.B.A., and M.F.A. degrees. Students ...

High schools and junior high schools * The Affiliated Hospitality Senior High School of National Kaohsiung University of Hospitality and Tourism * The Affiliated Senior High School of National Kaohsiung Normal University * Cheng Yi Senior High School * Chung Cheng Armed Forces Preparatory School * Chung Shan Industrial & Commercial School * Chung-Hwa School of Arts * FUHWA Senior High School * Guoguang Laboratory School, National Sun Yat-sen University * Kao-Feng Vocational High School * Kaohsiung Dah Yung Senior High School * Kaohsiung Municipal Chung-Cheng Industrial High School * Kaohsiung Municipal Chungshan Senior High School * Kaohsiung Municipal Cianjhen Senior High School * Kaohsiung Municipal Fu Cheng High School *

Kaohsiung Municipal Gushan Senior High School Kaohsiung City (Mandarin Chinese: ; Wade–Giles: ''Kao¹-hsiung²;'' Pinyin: ''Gāoxióng'') is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsi ...

* Kaohsiung Municipal Haiching Vocational High School of Technology and Commerce * Kaohsiung Municipal Jhongjheng Senior High School *

Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Girls' Senior High School Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Girls' Senior High School () abbreviated as KGHS is an all-girls high school located in Cianjin District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History Japanese rule: * 1924:Founded officially. * 1928: The first graduation ceremony w ...

* Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Industrial High School * Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Senior High School * Kaohsiung Municipal Kaohsiung Vocational High School of Commerce * Kaohsiung Municipal Lujhu Senior High School *

Kaohsiung Municipal Nanzih Comprehensive Senior High School Kaohsiung Municipal Nanzih Senior High School(NTHS, Chinese: 高雄市立楠梓高級中學) is a comprehensive high school in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Kaohsiung City Government planning to set up the first comprehensive high school. Departments of Na ...

* Kaohsiung Municipal Renwu Senior High School * Kaohsiung Municipal Rueisiang High School * Kaohsiung Municipal Sanmin Home Economics & Commerce Vocational High School * Kaohsiung Municipal Sanmin Senior High School * Kaohsiung Municipal Siaogang Senior High School * Kaohsiung Municipal Sinsing Senior High School *

Kaohsiung Municipal Tsoying Senior High School Tsoying Senior High School (TYHS; ) is a senior high school in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the nor ...

* Kaohsiung MunicipalHsin Chuang Senior High School * Lichih Senior High School * National Feng-Hsin Senior High School * National Feng-Shan Senior High School *

National FongShan Senior Commercial & Industrial Vocational School National Fongshan Senior Commercial & Industrial Vocational School (FSVS) is a National vocational high school with departments ranging from machine, design to business management. It also opens PE departments and comprehensive vocational departme ...

* National Kangshan Agricultural & Industrial Vocational Senior High School * National Kangshan Senior High School * Saint Dominic's Catholic High School * Sansin High School of Commerce And Home Economics Kaohsiung * Shu-Te Home economics&Commercial High School * Sin-Guang Senior High School * Taiwan Kaohsiung St. Paul's High School International schools * Dominican International School Kaohsiung *

I-Shou International School The I-Shou International School (), a bilingual school, is an international school in Dashu District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I-Shou International School is the first school in Taiwan that is authorized to offer the International Baccalaureate (IB) ...

Kaohsiung American School The Kaohsiung American School (KAS; ) is a private, Pre-K through grade 12 college preparatory school located in Zuoying District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The school was established in 1989 and it is accredited by the Western Association of Schools an ...

* Kivam Junior High School *

Morrison Academy Kaohsiung Morrison Academy Kaohsiung (MAK) is a K–12 Christian International school in Dashe District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It is the southern satellite school of the Morrison Academy school system. The school is jointly accredited by the Western Assoc ...

Military schools * *

* * * *

(Note: The lists above are not comprehensive.)

Conferences and events

The Kaohsiung Exhibition Center, built by the

, was opened on 14 April 2014. It includes an exhibition space for 1,500 booths, and a convention hall for 2,000 people. The center hosted the Taiwan International Boat Show in May 2014. Another conference and event-related venue is the newly renovated

International Convention Center Kaohsiung The International Convention Center Kaohsiung (ICCK; ) is a convention center in Yancheng District, Kaohsiung, Taiwan. History In early 1991, Kaohsiung City Government started a plan to build a convention center in Yancheng District. In 2000, ...

in 2013.

Sister cities and twin towns

Kaohsiung is twinned with the following locations. *

Barranquilla Barranquilla () is the capital district of Atlántico Department in Colombia. It is located near the Caribbean Sea and is the largest city and third port in the Caribbean Coast region; as of 2018 it had a population of 1,206,319, making it Col ...

, Colombia *

Belize City Belize City is the largest city in Belize and was once the capital of the former British Honduras. According to the 2010 census, Belize City has a population of 57,169 people in 16,162 households. It is at the mouth of the Haulover Creek, wh ...

, Belize *

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

, Australia *

Blantyre Blantyre () is Malawi's centre of finance and commerce, and its second largest city, with an enumerated 800,264 inhabitants . It is sometimes referred to as the commercial and industrial capital of Malawi as opposed to the political capital, L ...

, Malawi *

Busan Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

, South Korea * Cartago, Costa Rica *

Cebu Cebu (; ceb, Sugbo), officially the Province of Cebu ( ceb, Lalawigan sa Sugbo; tl, Lalawigan ng Cebu; hil, Kapuroan sang Sugbo), is a province of the Philippines located in the Central Visayas region, and consists of a main island and 167 ...

Central Visayas Central Visayas ( ceb, Tunga-tungang Kabisay-an; tl, Gitnang Kabisayaan) is an administrative region in the Philippines, numerically designated as Region VII. It consists of four provinces: (Cebu, Bohol, Negros Oriental, and Siquijor) and thr ...

, Philippines *

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

, United States *

Da Nang Nang or DanangSee also Danang Dragons ( ; vi, Đà Nẵng, ) is a class-1 municipality and the fifth-largest city in Vietnam by municipal population. It lies on the coast of the East Sea of Vietnam at the mouth of the Hàn River, and is one ...

, Vietnam *

Dipolog Dipolog, officially the City of Dipolog ( ceb, Dakbayan sa Dipolog; Subanen: ''Gembagel G'benwa Dipuleg/Bagbenwa Dipuleg''; Chavacano: ''Ciudad de Dipolog''; fil, Lungsod ng Dipolog), is a 3rd class component city and capital of the province o ...

Zamboanga Peninsula Zamboanga Peninsula ( tl, Tangway ng Zamboanga; cbk, Peninsula de Zamboanga; ceb, Lawis sa Zamboanga) is an administrative region in the Philippines, designated as Region IX. It consists of three provinces (Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga Sibu ...

, Philippines *

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

, South Africa *

Erzgebirgskreis Erzgebirgskreis is a district ('' Kreis'') in the Free State of Saxony, Germany. It is named after the Erzgebirge ("Ore Mountains"), a mountain range in the southern part of the district which forms part of the Germany–Czech Republic border. I ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, Germany *

George Town, Penang ) , short_description = Capital city of the Malaysian state of Penang , image_map = , map_caption = Location of George Town in Penang , pushpin_map = Penang#Malaysia#Asia#Earth , pushpin_maps ...

, Malaysia * Hachiōji, Tokyo, Japan *

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

, United States *

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey *

Knoxville, Tennessee Knoxville is a city in and the county seat of Knox County, Tennessee, Knox County in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 United States census, Knoxville's population was 190,740, making it the largest city in the East Tennessee Grand Di ...

, United States *

Kumamoto, Kumamoto is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,00 ...

, Japan *

Little Rock, Arkansas (The Little Rock, The "Little Rock") , government_type = council-manager government, Council-manager , leader_title = List of mayors of Little Rock, Arkansas, Mayor , leader_name = Frank Scott Jr. , leader_ ...

, United States *

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia. Situated near the fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is located southeast of Atlanta and lies near the geographic center of the state of Geo ...

, United States *

Malé Malé (, ; dv, މާލެ) is the capital and most populous city of the Maldives. With a population of 252,768 and an area of , it is also one of the most densely populated cities in the world. The city is geographically located at the southern ...

, Maldives *

Matsumoto, Nagano is a city located in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Matsumoto is designated as a core city since 1 April 2021. , the city had a population of 239,466 in 105,207 households and a population density of 240 persons per km2. The total area of the city ...

, Japan *

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, United States *

Mobile, Alabama Mobile ( , ) is a city and the county seat of Mobile County, Alabama, United States. The population within the city limits was 187,041 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 195,111 at the 2010 United States census, 2010 cens ...

, United States *

Monterrey Monterrey ( , ) is the capital and largest city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León, Mexico, and the third largest city in Mexico behind Guadalajara and Mexico City. Located at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental, the city is anchor ...

Nuevo León Nuevo León () is a state in the northeast region of Mexico. The state was named after the New Kingdom of León, an administrative territory from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, itself was named after the historic Spanish Kingdom of León. With a ...

, Mexico *

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

, India *

Panama City Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...

, Panama *

Pensacola, Florida Pensacola () is the westernmost city in the Florida Panhandle, and the county seat and only incorporated city of Escambia County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 54,312. Pensacola is the principal ...

, United States *

Plains, Georgia Plains is a town in Sumter County, Georgia, United States. The population was 776 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Americus Micropolitan Statistical Area. Plains is best known as the birthplace and home of Jimmy Carter, the 39th president o ...

, United States *

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

, United States *

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Brazil *

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, Russia *

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= U.S. state, State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , s ...

, Texas, United States *

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, United States *

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

, United States *

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Provinces of Indonesia, Indonesian province of East Java and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. L ...

East Java East Java ( id, Jawa Timur) is a Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia located in the easternmost hemisphere of Java island. It has a land border only with the province of Central Java to the west; the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean bord ...

, Indonesia *

Tijuana Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

, Mexico *

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, United States

Explanatory notes

Words in native languages

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1620s establishments in the Dutch Empire 1662 establishments in Asia Municipalities of Taiwan Populated coastal places in Taiwan Populated places established by the Dutch East India Company Populated places established in 1662 Port cities and towns in Taiwan