Easter Holiday Ride – Journey to Revitalisation
Revitalisation of historical buildings as a means of preserving cultural and historical heritage is getting more significant nowadays. By injecting new usages to these buildings, it is expected that its life activities can be sustained.
Taiwan has made considerable efforts in the revitalisation work with excellent results. Examples are:
- Treasure Hill (寶藏巖) in Taipei
- The Confucian Temple (孔廟) in Tainan
- The Former British Consulate at Takao (打狗英國領事館) in Kaohsiung
Our second ride in Kaohsiung has been focused on one of the highly recognised revitalisation projects, the Pier 2 Art Center. We have also boarded the ferry at GuShan to the Cijin District (旗津半島)and have a wonderful sprint along the Cijin Cycling Promenade (旗津踩風大道).
First of all, let’s have a cup of fresh brewed coffee and sandwich to start the day and today’s journey.
Today’s ride will be started at the Love Pier and six of us have to take a 5 Kilometers ride from the hotel along Zhongzheng 1st Road, Wufu 1st, 2nd and 3rd Road to the Dayi Park. Since this is a Monday morning, the traffic is not busy and we managed to arrive at the Love Pier easily.
The Pier 2 Art Center is located in the YanChang District (鹽埕區). It used to be a general purpose warehouse in Pier Number Two, within the third ship trench of the Kaohsiung Port. Built in 1973 but was abandoned in late ’90s. This forgotten place was re-discovered during the planning stage of the 2000 National Day firework in Kaohsiung. First phase of the revitalisation project was subsequently completed in early 2002.
The Pier 2 Art Center now becomes a place for modern arts, exhibition, arts related shops and various cafes.
Geographically, it is divided into three zones:
- Dayi (大義) Zone
- Dayong (大勇) Zone
- Penglai (蓬萊) Zone
Pier 2 Art Center – Dayi Zone
Pier 2 Art Center – Dayong Zone
Pier 2 Art Center – Penglai Zone / Hamasen Railway Cultural Park
adjacent to the Penglai Zone of the Pier 2 Art Center, is the Takao (Kaohsiung) Railway Museum which is the old Kaohsiung Port Railway Station. This is the first railway station in Kaohsiung and was built during Japanese occupation in 1900.
Takao (Kaohsiung) Railway Museum and the Kaohsiung Light Rail Train (LRT) Hamasen Station
If you want to explore every details of the Pier 2 Art Center or to enjoy the bright sunlight in the Hamasen Railway Culture Park, probably a full day of stay is not enough. Given that Cijin Cycling Promenade is still on today’s itinerary, we needed to speed up our ride to catch the ferry to Cijin.
To get to the Cijin District, we are going to take the ferry from the GuShan Ferry Pier which is few minutes of ride from the Railway Museum. Scooters and bikes were restricted to the lower deck of the ferries and additional fare is also required.
Lunch time again, a simple yet expensive seafood lunch. 😱
The Cijin Cycling Promenade is just right at the end of the Cijin Old Street. A 7.5 Kilometers bike path where you can slow down you pace, enjoy the breeze and the magnificent sea view.
The “Double Whelk Statue (雙螺台)” near the Tourist Centre.
The “Sound of Sea – The Listening Point (海珍珠)“.
An excellent timing of the levitation shot of our sweet ladies.
Another Cijin landmark , the “Windmill Park ( 旗津風車公園)“.
If you are a die-hard cyclist when speed is everything, you will definitely appreciate the last 4 Kilometers right after the Cijin Windmill Park – a straight stretch of road for sprinting.
Oh, I missed my road bike very much!
Evening comes and there are still other landmarks that we have not covered. May be it is one of the reasons for another ride in the near future. 🤣
Summary for the Cijin journey.
3-D visualisation of the journey as generated with Relive.
Background information:
Route Name | Pier 2 Art Centre & Cijin Cycling Promenade |
Background | The two bike paths started from the Love Pier and ended in the Cijin District. In between is the Binhai Road. The route covers the revitalisation works for modern arts as well as natural scenery in southern Taiwan. |
Distance | 25 Kilometers (Round Trip) |
Starting point | Love Pier |
End point | End of the Cijin Cycling Promenade near the Coastal Guard Station |
Point of Interest | Pier 2 Art Center, Hamasen Railway Culture Park, Takao Railway Museum, Cijin Cycling Promenade, Rainbow Church, Double Whelk Statue, Cijin Seashell Gallery, Sound of Sea and Windmill Park |
View (1 to 5 👍; with 5 for the most stunning view) | 👍👍👍👍👍 |
Difficulty (1 to 5 💪🏼; with 5 is most difficult) | 💪🏼 |
Support facilities | |
Food & Drinks | Lots of local cafes, restaurants in Pier 2 Art Centre and Cijin Old Street |
Toilets | Public toilets along Pier-2 Art Centre and the Cijin Cycling Promenade |
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