Cijin
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A long, thin island and natural breakwater for Kaohsiung’s harbour and home to a war memorial and special museum. It also features some relics from the Japanese colonial era and some fortress ruins. Worth the excursion when in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan.
More background info: What today is Cijin Island (also spelled “Qijin”) was originally a peninsula, until in 1967 the southern end was severed from the mainland to create another entry to Kaohsiung’s increasingly busy harbour.
This strip of land was first settled by fishermen in the 17th century, and fishing remains an important part of the island’s economy. A temple called Tianhou for the Chinese sea goddess Ma-Tsu (also “Mazu”) was established at the northern main settlement of Cihou (also “Qihou”) at that time too (and is still active – see below).
This part of the island is still the main town, while the south and almost all of the inland-facing parts of the island are off limits, being occupied by an ROC Navy base, shipyards and other industries, including one of Kaohsiung’s container terminals at Cijin’s southern end. The ocean-facing side features several parks and promenades.
At the northern tip of the island is Cihou Mountain with a lighthouse and fortress ruins at the top, and at the foot of the hill is the touristy part of the town and also the location of the main ferry terminal.
The island is about 5.5 miles (9 km) long but only 1300 feet (400m) wide on average. Except for the parts of the island with industrial areas and shipyards, Cijin is very densely populated (18,000 people per square km, just over 26,000 in total).
What there is to see: The main reason for dark tourists to come here is to visit the War and Peace Memorial Park in the middle of the island, which is given a separate chapter here.
Other than that there are a few relics from the Japanese colonial era (see History of Taiwan) in the form of a tunnel under Cihou Hill at the northern end of the island. There are pillbox bunkers at either end of the tunnel, but the inside has been spruced up with maritime wall murals and an LED light installation and has been titled “Cijin Tunnel of Stars”. At its north-western end is a monument to James Laidlaw Maxwell, a British Presbyterian missionary and medical pioneer who came to Cijin in 1868.
(By the way, there’s another Japanese-era tunnel on the mainland just north of Cijin called Xiziwan or Shoushan Tunnel, which during WWII also served as an air-raid shelter.)
More Japanese-era military fortifications can be found at the headland to the south-west of Cihou’s main (grey-sand) beach.
On the top of Cihou Hill south of the lighthouse are ruins of a former fortress (dating back to 1875) that are a popular tourist attraction. From up here you get good views over Cijin and the ocean.
The Lighthouse has a small exhibition inside (open 10-19h daily, free) mainly about the (British-built) lighthouse and Kaohsiung harbour, so not much of specific dark interest but worth a quick look. There are a few viewpoints along the path up the hill offering a good vista of Kaohsiung’s skyline and the harbour in front.
A somewhat dark spectacle was also offered by a ceremony that I witnessed by chance in front of the Tianhou Temple at the time of my visit. It involved a lot of strutting about by some kind of priest or something holding up a parasol/umbrella and a small band of musicians plus several people in traditional costumes. Firecrackers were set off at intervals inside a wire-mesh drum. But the dark element came primarily in the form of a dead pig and skinned lamb stretched out on racks in front of the temple, which I found was quite a gruesome sight. They were probably some kind of sacrifice, though the exact meanings of the proceedings completely elude me.
Location: stretching along the south-west of Kaohsiung harbour, with the ocean on the other side.
Google Maps locators:
Tunnel of Stars (eastern entrance): [22.6127, 120.2645]
James Laidlaw Maxwell monument: [22.61321, 120.26358]
Fortress: [22.6132, 120.2642]
Lighthouse: [22.6155, 120.2651]
Tianhou Temple: [22.6134, 120.2684]
Main ferry terminal on Cijin: [22.6142, 120.2697]
Corresponding Gushan Dock ferry terminal on the mainland: [22.6196, 120.2699]
Access and costs: easy to get to by ferry; mostly free.
Details: It is possible to get to the island “overland” as it were, namely by means of the tunnel towards the southern end of the island, which is also used by the bus (line R9A) that serves the length of Cijin.
However it is more convenient to use the northern ferry, which connects Cihou town with Gushan Dock on the mainland. It’s only a short hop (ca. 10 minutes) and dirt cheap (ca. 15NTD – and the EasyCard is valid too; see Taiwan >practicalities). The service runs every ten minutes from 6 a.m. until midnight. This takes you straight to the northern end of Qijin Old Street. Theoretically there’s also another ferry going to Zhang Zhou in the southern part of Cijin, but that’s not of much use for tourists.
Getting around on the island is on foot if you’re only staying in the northern part and Cihou, but if you want to go to the War and Peace Memorial Park then the bus line (R9A) serving the length of the island is useful.
Given the convenient public transport connections to mainland Kaohsiung there’s normally no need for accommodation on Cijin, though there are a couple of options. There are numerous eateries mostly clustered in and around Cihou at the northern end of the island, and as you would expect from the location, seafood features prominently.
Time required: I spent ca. four hours on the island (including the War and Peace Memorial Park), but others may want to make a full-day excursion out of it, yet others only pop by quickly for a look at Qijin Old Street and maybe the seafront.
Combinations with non-dark destinations: Cijin is actually quite a touristy place, at least the northern end with Cihou Hill and Qijin Old Street, which is full of eateries and souvenir shops. It was actually the only place in Kaohsiung where I saw large numbers of white Western tourists … there was one of those evil monsters of the seas called cruise ships in port, which probably explained the presence of so many Westerners.
There’s a grey-sand beach at Cihou too, but swimming in the sea is apparently prohibited.
The walk around the northern tip of the island from the western end of the Tunnel of Stars to the bottom of the road up the hill to the lighthouse is quite pleasant. Part of the route is through cool, shady woodland and you can see the large “Welcome to Kaohsiung Port” sign while endless successions of ships pass through in and out of the harbour, while many more can be seen anchored outside the harbour, presumably awaiting their turn.
Further south are some seafront promenades, but it is unfortunately not possible to walk the entire length of the coastline. Just south of the War and Peace Memorial Park is a curious Windmill Park, with seven small wind turbines on tall tilted supports generating just enough electricity to power the nightly illumination of the park.
For more see under Kaohsiung.
