Kaohsiung Pier 2 Art Center

1 April 2024

The area where Pier 2 Art Center is located used to be port warehouses operating near the Kaohsiung Harbour. These warehouses were left unused and abandoned after the city transform from an industrial based economy to the service-based economy. 

The former warehouses have been repurposed into hundreds of shops, cafes, artist studios, music venues, and bars, buzzing with a diverse and captivating atmosphere. Street art and murals can be found all over the place and these can be quite photogenic and had turned Pier 2 Art Center into a popular attraction in the city for locals and tourists alike.

A colourful mural painted on the wall of a warehouse at the Pier 2 Art Center.

Like Taipei, Kaohsiung has the MRT system which made it easy to get around. To get to Pier 2 Art Center, we took the MRT from Kaohsiung Arena Station near our hotel to Sizihwan Station.

Right outside the Sizihwan Station is the Hamasen Railway Cultural Park which was worth a visit. This was originally Kaohsiung Port Station, Kaohsiung's first railway station, and today has been transformed into the Takao Railway Museum. Although the museum was closed during our visit, the open-air displays of locomotives & carriages outside could be visited.

The railway and the warehouses in the area used to support the operation of Kaohsiung Port.

An attraction that is not to miss in this area is the Hamasen Museum of Taiwan Railway. 

Hamasen Museum of Taiwan Railways occupies a couple of these repurposed warehouses.

One of the many sculptures at the park outside the Hamasen Museum of Taiwan Railways.

Adults enjoying a ride on the mini train. Tickets can be bought at the Hamasen Museum of Taiwan Railways.

It was good to get out of the hot weather and into the air-conditioned museum. The ticket counter and gift shop in the museum sells tickets for the mini train ride as well as entrance ticket to the museum.

Upon entry, there is a small section with mock up of train station of the past era and models of trains.

Details of the engine in a train model.

Next up was the interaction area where one can dress up as a railway worker and posed for pictures with a train.

My wife made me do this for a photo to show our grandson.

Close up of the wheels of the steam locomotive.

There is also a chance to operate the track switching mechanism and have a short ride on a hand-operated rail cart.

There is also a chance to operate the track switching mechanism. 

Illustrated handbook of Taiwan’s Railway Cars.

The highlight of the museum is the scale model exhibition presenting 1083 km of Taiwan’s railways. It is composed of dioramas with 1:80 scale models of railway scenes with moving model trains, tracks, stations and theatrical lightings to simulate day and night transitions.

The exhibits started with dioramas of the railways in Kaohsiung, then Tainan, and continuing with the following: Chiayi, Alishan, Yunlin, Changhua, Taichung, Hsinchu, Taipei, Keelung North-link line, Yilan, Hualien, Taitung and Pingtung South-link Line.

It is interesting to see the model of the High Speed Train (HSR) train running back and forth from one end of the room to the other.

Railway supporting Kaohsiung Port. The area to the top left of this photo is now the Hamasen Railway Cultural Park that we just visited.

Diorama of Taipei Station area.

There are also sound effects of trains moving as well, including cute figures like the men sawing wood in Alishan and lighted lanterns at the Pingxi station.

Alishan Forest Railway supported the logging industry at Alishan by transporting timber down from the mountains to Chiayi.

Lanterns floating above the Pingxi Station.

The model also includes a hot air balloon, a blue commercial airliner and a couple of army helicopters hanging from the ceilings to complete the visuals.

Interesting way to select and turnaround the trains.

The lightings would change between day and night scenes.

This train museum was fun, amazing to see and certainly worth the entrance fees (149 TWD/person) with all the impressive details in the exhibits.

From the train museum, we continued our exploration of Pier 2 Art Centre, moving from the west to the east on the cycling track next to the tracks of the Kaohsiung Light Rail (LRT) that runs across Pier 2 Art Center.

Kaohsiung Light Rail (LRT) that runs across Pier 2 Art Center.

The giant yellow Transformer character is hard to miss.

Is this supposed to be a replica of Bumblebee transformer?

 

Another not to miss art is the giant mural of the train station painted on the sides of a warehouse. There were other visitors there and we helped each other to take photos at this spot.

Giant mural of Kaohsiung Train Station.

   

This red creature looks like a mutated dog. There are murals painted on the residential apartment blocks facing the Art Center.

Did you see the face of a human at the end?

This life-size figure is so creepy.

Great Harbor Bridge at the eastern end of Pier 2 Art Center. 

There are few trees to provide shade in this area meant to be warehouses. It was nice to pop into the air-conditioned shops and a cafe to get relief from the heat.

Timeout at a cafe as the weather was warm and there area few trees to provide shade.

 

Another nice air-conditioned place to visit is the Miffy exhibition.

More art pieces could be seen amongst the warehouses at the eastern end.

Little An – Kaohsiung’s version of the Manneken Pis.

I certainly enjoyed my visit to the Pier 2 Art Center. There is quite a lot to see and do at Pier 2, especially the Hamasen Museum of Taiwan Railway. It was also fun to wander and enjoy the art pieces on display outside and browsing through the various shops featuring toys, handicraft, arts & crafts, bakeries and cafes.

One of the dishes I craved for when visiting Taiwan is their beef noodles in soup. My original plan was to have lunch at the popular Gang Yuan Beef Noodle located near the Pier 2 Art Center but I changed my mind since it meant we had to walk 600 m to the shop and 600m back to Pier 2 Art Center, in the hot midday sun. Instead, we will have lunch at a beef noodle stall located in Cijin Island (our next destination).

After we had enough of exploring Pier 2 Art Center (I am sure there are some art pieces and areas we missed), we took the Light Rail back to Sizihwan Station. From there, we took the ferry to Cijin Island from the nearby Gushan pier.

Next post: Afternoon and evening at Cijin Island.