Southern Taiwan
Discover Southern Taiwan
Introduction
Southern Taiwan is hot, flat and sunny in a way the north is not, and it is where the island’s history starts. Tainan was the capital for more than two hundred years, beginning as the Dutch East India Company’s fort in 1624, and it has more historic temples than anywhere else in Taiwan along with a reputation as the country’s food city — the dishes are sweeter here, and the good ones are sold from stalls that have been in the same family for generations.
Kaohsiung, further south, is the main port and the second city: heavy industry reworked into waterfront arts districts, the Lotus Pond with its dragon and tiger pagodas, and the Fo Guang Shan monastery complex inland. The Hakka communities of the inland hills have their own language, food and walled settlements.
At the very bottom of the island, Kenting national park has coral reef, tropical forest and the only genuinely tropical weather in Taiwan — it is warm enough to swim all year. The plains between produce mango, sugar and rice, and the Dongshan and Meinong areas are worth the detour. Summer is very hot and brings the typhoons; November to March is the comfortable season, and it is when the rest of the island is wet and this part is not.