Day 7: Tainan to Kaohsiung

Time: 10:53pm

Location: Kaohsiung

Weather: clear 19C

Leaving behind Tainan today, I stopped at Chimei Museum, a large private museum in a beautiful European style building with various Greek God statues lining along the walkway. Tickets to get into the museum must be reserved online and they seem to be sold out months ahead so I didn't get a chance to go inside.

Continuing along Highway 1, I met up with my host Nick who came especially up to Luzhou to ride with me into Kaohsiung city. We had lunch and talked a lot about bike touring, which was mainly me being amazed with his stories of biking through China, SE Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Biking around the world is his ultimate goal and he's hoping to do South Korea, trans Siberia and Europe in the near future. When we finally got going, Nick was an excellent guide and pointed out many things along the way, such as the little remaining Minnan-styled buildings, the area he grew up, Shoushan, the oldest Catholic church in Kaohsiung, and Pier 2 Art Centre which used to be a sugar factory but has now been remodeled into a creative space. I think it's pretty awesome that the artistic renewal of spaces is a common trend across Taiwan. Kaohsiung, although a city with many heavy industries such as corkscrew production and shipbuilding, has many beautification projects and wider roads than anywhere else I've been in Taiwan, helping to reduce the traffic congestion significantly.

In the evening, we met with Nick's friend from Shenzhen who was also bike touring around Taiwan and he took us both along the banks of the Love River and through Liuhe Night Market in search of some good eats. Along with a few different noodles, we had zongzi which was quite different from those in the north part of Taiwan, as it was covered in peanut powder (my favourite!) and they wrap the rice raw before boiling it and then steaming it. Food in the south is sweeter which is just fine with me. Time passed very quickly and we made plans to reconvene in the morning when Nick would bike down with us partway to Kenting.