Kaohsiung City Getting there & around

Getting there & away

Land

Bus

Buses to Foguangshan (NT77, 30 minutes, every 40 minutes), Kenting (two-hour ride NT342, three-hour ride NT298, every hour, 24 hours per day) and Meinong (NT121, 1½ hours, every hour) leave from the Kaohsiung Bus Company station (746 2141; 245 Nanhua St). Don’t confuse this with the Kuo Kuang Hao Bus Company station (236 0962; 306 Jianguo Rd), which is just in front and has buses to Taipei (weekday/weekend NT400/500, 5½ hours, every 30 minutes, 24 hours per day).

Train

Kaohsiung is the terminus for most west coast trains. Trains to and from Taipei (fast/slow NT845/544, 4½/seven hours) run frequently from early morning till almost midnight. To Taichung (fast/slow NT470/363, 2½/three hours), trains run about every two hours.

High-speed rail (hsr)

At the time of writing there was HSR service (NT1490, two hours) between Taipei and Tsoying (Zuoying) Station about every hour.

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Boat

The Taiwan Hangye Company (561 3866; www.taiwanline.com.tw/table.htm in Chinese) operates Taiwanline, which has services to Makung, Penghu. Boats (NT600 to NT1300) leave from Kaohsiung’s Pier 1, near the ferry to Cijin Island, from mid-March into September. The schedule changes every three months and boats are limited in winter. Schedules are posted online (in Chinese only).

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Air

Kaohsiung’s Siaogang Airport, located south of the city centre, serves both international and domestic flights.

UNI Air (801 0189), TransAsia Airways (803 0599), Mandarin Airlines (805 7900), Daily Air Corporation (806 9397) and Far Eastern Transport (801 2311) have counters in Kaohsiung’s Siaogang Domestic Airport Terminal (www.kia.gov.tw). There are flights from Kaohsiung to Taipei, Hualien, Kinmen, Matsu and Penghu. EVA (536 9301) and China Airlines (282 6141) have counters in the international terminal. There are flights to Hong Kong, Japan, Macau, Singapore and Korea.

There are two visitor centres (805 7888; 9am-12.30am) in the airport, one in each terminal. Both can help with hotels, tours, buses, car hire and so on. Staff speak good English.

The domestic and international terminals are joined and you can quickly walk from one to the other. There are money-changing facilities available in the international terminal till 10pm (cash only, no travellers cheques). There’s a post office in the domestic terminal. All airport signs are bilingual.

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