Kaohsiung is the second largest city in Taiwan and a major center for manufacturing, refining, transportation and the major port.   Kaohsiung is the center of Taiwan ’s shipbuilding industry because its harbor is one of the four largest in the world.   Kaohsiung is also a beautiful city well-known for its scenic beauty, a place for sight-seeings.

Geography
Kaohsiung is located on the southwestern coast of Taiwan facing the Taiwan Straight.  The climate is tropical with average temperatures 30 C in Summer (May– Sept) and 10 C in Winter (Dec– Feb).   The city can be broadly grouped into 3 areas. The old city areas loaded with history, charm and scenic beauty are on the west of the Love River.  The new downtown areas are centered around Kaohsiung Harbor on the east of the river.   And the city ’s outskirts are predominantly  residential and industrial in nature.   Kaohsiung ’s natural landmarks include the coral mountains Shoushan and Papinshan.

History
Kaohsiung was founded near the end of the Ming Dynasty.   The city grew up from a small village called “Ta-Kau” in the language spoken by most of the early immigrants.  The name originates from Matakao, the name of a local tribe meaning “bamboo forest” in the local tribe ’s language.  Under Zheng Jing ’s control the area was named Wan-Nien-Chow in 1664.   Following a further name changed to Ta-Kau in the late 1670s, the town grew dramatically with immigrants from mainland China.   In 1684 the Qing conquered Taiwan and renamed the town Fengshan County.   In 1863 it was opened up as a commercial port and then it was formally developed into a seaport after 1895.

In 1895 Taiwan was ceded to Japan as part of the Treaty of Shimonoseki.  It was during this period that the city ’s name changed from Ta-kau to Takao ( in Japanese ).  While the sound remained more or less the same, the old character meaning of “Beating Dog”  was replaced with the more elegant-sounding “High Hero”.  The Japanese developed Kaohsiung, especially the harbor.   After control of Taiwan was handed to the Republic of China in 1945, the official romanization of the city name came to be “Kao-hsiung”.