Author: Eryk Michael Smith
Eryk Michael Smith
Eryk Michael Smith is a journalist with over a decade of experience working for local and international outlets. He is also the co-host of The Taiwan History Podcast: Formosa Files, and co-founder of Plum Rain Press. The Kaohsiung Times is Smith's latest project, and aims to provide more southern Taiwan-centric news in English.
The city hopes to position Kaohsiung’s mountainous regions as a key domestic tourism draw, particularly as interest in camping and outdoor recreation grows.
A brief meeting between the KMT’s Ko Chih-en and the TPP’s Ko Wen-je is drawing attention amid ongoing speculation over a possible KMT–TPP alignment in Kaohsiung, where the race between Ko and the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) will likely narrow despite Lai currently enjoying a large lead in many polls.
The STJSC emphasized that institutional support is vital for ensuring that global experts can “root themselves” in Taiwan, a theme also highlighted on the Talent Taiwan website: “Taiwan is no longer just looking for ‘workers’—it is looking for residents.”
Industry insiders say the March 10 launch from Singapore of the first Disney cruise ship based in Asia, Disney Adventure, highlights both the rapid growth of the regional cruise market and the structural challenges facing cities like Kaohsiung as they try to capture a larger share of it.
The dispute reflects a broader tension across southern Taiwan, where rapid industrial expansion tied to the semiconductor sector is increasingly intersecting with environmental concerns and long-standing land-use plans.
Company representatives said the priority is bringing people into the space and building familiarity with the station area ahead of the larger retail and office complex expected to open in 2028.
One current exhibition, running through May 10, 2026, explores how East Asia was represented in historical maps and images from the 14th to the 19th centuries, offering visitors a fascinating look at how the region understood the wider world.
The first section that has reopened is a marked improvement on what was there before. The city is asking residents to bear with the inconveniences of construction from now through about June, when hopefully the entire sections on both sides of the river will reopen.
By Eryk Michael Smith / Staff. Images via KH City Govt. KAOHSIUNG — A former railway maintenance complex in Kaohsiung is being transformed into a large indoor-outdoor children’s recreation area that city officials say will open free to the public in June. The Liberty Times reports that the area is part of a large-scale redevelopment of the former TRA Kaohsiung Railway Workshop (台鐵高雄機廠) site, located near the border of Lingya District (苓雅區) and Fengshan District (鳳山區). The facility once played a key role in Taiwan’s rail industry but has remained largely unused since operations were relocated to Chaozhou (潮州). Kaohsiung…
The woman, identified in court documents by the pseudonym “Xiao Xuan,” attempted to toss her garbage bag into the truck’s open rear compartment before the vehicle had fully stopped. Witness accounts and surveillance footage showed she swung her arm backward and threw the bag forward “using inertia,” in a motion resembling a basketball shot.
