Just 5 minutes away from Kaohsiung, you’ll reach a beautiful island called Cijin Island 旗津島, making it the perfect destination for families to spend their evening together. We too, wandered around the Cijin District before getting on the ferry with a tap of our iPass card.
It is as easy as it sounds and as relaxing as an evening getaway can get.
How to get to Cijin Island?
Ferry operates at about 10 minutes interval daily at Gushan Ferry Pier Station 鼓山輪渡站. An adult pass cost 45 TWD if paid by cash and only 20 TWD if paid by iPass. Motorbikes are allowed on the ferry at additional charges.
Alternatively, on a weekend or public holiday, you can also purchase ferry tickets and board from the KW2 Pier 棧貳庫. It was the perfect golden hour throughout this 5-minute ride and it’s always good to be near water during sunset.
Once you debarked from the ferry, most people will head to one direction – straight ahead. This road will lead you to the old street and the beach.
Cijin Old Street 旗津老街
It’s not a famous street if it doesn’t involve food in Taiwan. Being so close to the sea, seafood is commonly found here. Take a stroll along this street and besides a couple of convenience stores, most of the stores are all seafood restaurants.
Cijin Beach 旗津沙灘
At the end of the old street, you’ll be greeted with a vast, dark sandy beach. On a weekday, there are not many activities going on except for a handful of tourists taking photos – a perfect backdrop for the tourist shots! With that said, there are beach volleyball nets and lifeguards at the coast – which the beach is more active on weekends.
A few steps away from the beach, there are many bars with live band, getting ready for the evening crowd.
Cihou Market 旗後観光市場
Never doubt a Chinese love for dried seafood. Anywhere blessed with abundant of seafood will be dried and sold as premium products. Step into the market and you will immediately smell the pungent seafood.
Not a big market so it should only be able to keep you maximum 20 minutes if you are not making any purchases.
While we only bought a traditional marble soda here, there are also stalls selling ready-to-eat grilled squids.
Seafood Restaurant 万三小吃部
To get here, head to the bus stop near the pier you debark from. Wait for bus 紅9 (literal: red 9) and get off at 天鳳宮 Tianfon Temple.
The process of this restaurant is to purchase coupons first, which the unused coupons are refundable. It’s really an extra step that the owner chose to take but perhaps it’s a strategic action psychologically to encourage higher spendings – who knows?
So once you have your coupons, proceed to the appetiser counter where there are cold dishes such as salad prawns, crab sticks, squids, fried shishamo, fried scallops and so on.
Moving on, the next counter has a line up of cooked food waiting for you to pick it up. However, the chefs are also there to prepare your orders on the spot. The menu is in Chinese but you may ask the staff to recommend some dishes.
Price: Each dish is about 100-150 TWD. Rice, fruit platter and tea are free of charge!
From here, you can catch the same bus that brings you out of the island. We decided to go straight to Kaisyuan Night Market 凱旋青年觀光夜市.
Address
No. 162號, Zhongzhou 2nd Road, Qijin District, Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 805
805高雄市旗津區中洲二路162號
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