City Riding

Every Monday and Friday I get the afternoon off work and have a nice window of free time between 12:30 and 5:00pm. The best time for city riding in Kaohsiung is from 1:30 - 4pm on weekdays when the streets are pretty quiet. Did one of my favorite KHH city rides yesterday:
Love River to the North Gate and back.

Started out from Zoying where the bike path crosses Boai road and follows the Love River. The rains from the day before had washed away the smoggy air and a nice breeze was keeping temperatures around 24 degrees.

The bike path along the river is quite narrow, so I usually just stay on the road as it's nice and wide and not very busy.

An octagonal smokstack of the Jhongdu Tangrong Brick Kiln next to the river.
Closed in 1992, it once produced 3 million brick tiles a month.

Nice to be on the bicycle bridge away from this traffic snarl on Wufu road.

The ferry over to Fisherman's Warf on Chijin island was busy.

The Takao Railway Museum has some old steam locomotives and is now a popular spot for flying kites on the weekends.

Just before you get to the British Consolate's parking lot, a little lane on the left takes you up through the old North Gate to a newly built observation platform. I usually stop and get a drink across the street to enjoy while I sit and watch the boats come in and out of the harbour.

The best rest spot in the city.

A harbour pilot hard at work.

I tried to imagine Ang Lee sitting here after reading this in the Taipei Times the other day:

            "During my mandatory two-year military service for Taiwan's armed forces,
             I was stationed in Kaohsiung's harbor area. Looking at the sea every day,
             it gave me free reign to dream my dreams and develop a limitless imagination,
             so it feels good to be back here." Ang Lee

The late afternoon light always makes for great photos at the harbour.

Route Map
Distance: 21km

Kaohsiung City Ride

Got a Wednesday off and decided to take advantage of the beautiful blue skies in KHH and ride down the Love River bike path to the harbour and university.

I always have to remind myself to be careful on bike paths because they are designed to kill cyclists. Here is a great example of design that kills;  hide those ugly boxes along with cyclists transitioning from the bike path to one of the biggest roads in the city.

Got to the harbour at around 10:30am to find it was pleasantly quiet. I normally avoid the road around the point to the university, but the hoards of Chinese tourists that usually mob the former British Consulate must have been elsewhere today.

Was good to finally see work underway to fix the bike path that follows the waterfront below the lighthouse on Cijin Island. The boardwalk/bikepath was washed away by a typhoon in the summer of 2010. I hope the path no longer meets a deadend at a set of stairs that forces everyone to return the way they came.

Headed back to Tzoying along the newest bikepath in the city. It follows an old rail line that goes north from the harbour parallel to Gushan road. It's not finished yet, but will eventually go all the way to the art museum.