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This picture was taken from the 76th floor of Tuntex Sky Tower, Kaohsiung.
Kaohsiung is like Taipei, a very big, Taiwanese city. It's the second biggest and located in the opposite corner of Taiwan. In Kaohsiung it's hot and there is more space between the buildings. Roads are bigger. If you plan to be in Taiwan during winter, I can strongly recommend Kaohsiung. Taipei is a bit cold right now, actually. In summer though, it's probably a little too hot to feel utterly comfortable in Kaohsiung. You could go to the beach, which is much much better down in the southern part of Taiwan, but Taipei is already a bit uncomfortable hot for most people during summertimes, so personally, I think I'll prefer to stay up here when it gets warmer.
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They do have MRT too in Kaohsiung, so getting around wont be a big issue. MRT is a little smaller and slightly different there, but mostly the same experience.
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If you have an easycard in Taipei, you won't be able to use it down here. They have a different system, so you'll have to get another card if you frequent Kaohsiung and don't like to buy tickets.
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Inside the trains are a little different. The Kaohsiung trains too are made by Siemens, but a green colour-theme has been applied to the trains. I hear this is because Kaohsiung is governed by the DPP, whose symbolic colour is green.
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Left the train at Central Park, and saw this when exiting the station.
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Really enjoyed this trip, just so that you know.
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This is the guy who brought me here, Mark Lee, who is my host brother. His wife grew up in Kaohsiung and he worked on some of the ships that dock in the harbour once in a while, so he knows a few places you can go and has some helpful in-laws living here too.
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Lot's of space here.
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The little green and red LED men are slightly different here as well.
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I didn't bother to take much pictures with this strange phenomenon in Taiwan, (actually in all of Asia I think,) where you'll be able to see this infamous sign everywhere. Unless you paid a lot of attention while watching Angels and Demons or went to Asia already, you might be weirdened out when seeing this. But it's not what you'd think it is. No skinheads live in this building, because that sign up there is an icon for Buddhism. And it's used extensively all over Taiwan since they have Buddhist temples everywhere. Funny isn't it?
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A pirate store.
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Like Taipei, Kaohsiung also has a very tall building. If you read my previous blogpost, you'll already know, but now I'm telling again.
This is the Tuntex Sky Tower and was the 6th biggest building in the world when it was built in 1997. Now it has dropped to a 21th place. It's still the second biggest building in Taiwan. It has a hotel inside, but is mostly an office building with a few restaurants and fashion stores.
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The Want Daily newspaper. Kaohsiung has it.
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Tuntex Sky Tower also has fast elevators. The worlds 3rd fastest. This one is at max speed now: 600m/min or 36km/h.
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From the observatory on the 76th floor, there's a great view over the harbour. One thing that's hard to take pictures of but easy to notice is the many ships floating around out on the sea, waiting for I wonder what. I don't know if it's something that's very normal to occur at big harbours like this. It looks peculiar though.
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Mærsk occupies a pretty big share of this harbour. Didn't go to their department though, so I actually didn't get to see their logo anywhere.
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Looks like a lovely place for a bicycle ride.
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Denmark is a place where you will see a lot of ships, but I've never in my life seen anything as big as this harbour and such many big ships at one place.
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After going to the observatory for a while, we went a little downstairs to eat lunch with two of Marks aunties-in-law. Light conditions weren't good, so I won't show you their faces today. You'll get those once I finish the story in my next post.
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Apart from being located really nice, this restaurant had an enormous buffet and lots of tables too. A week ago (during Chinese new year), Mark went here with his wife and the place was stuffed with people. Now it seems almost lonely. I almost feel a little home with places being this empty out of holiday seasons.
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Actually it's 3 am here now, so I'm going to take a break and write the rest another day. Tomorrow I hope. Following, I will write about a cruise around the harbour, monkeys and post a few night-time photos hopefully. Ought to give a bit of info on HSR sometime too. Also, perhaps I can use some of the pictures Mark took as he just gave me a DVD with them today.
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