Kaohsiung is Taiwan's cheapest big city to travel in: the MRT tops out at NT$60 a ride, half its best sights charge nothing, and a full night-market dinner costs less than a Taipei coffee. Three days here rarely breaks NT$800 a day.
A 1,200-hectare uplifted coral ridge above Sizihwan holding roughly 1,500 wild Formosan macaques. Trails from the Longquan Temple gate climb to the Xiaopingding lookout over the container port. Open dawn to dusk, no entry fee.
The 1939 Japanese-era city hall on the east bank of Love River, free to enter, covering the 228 Incident, the port's wartime bombing and Kaohsiung's industrial rise. Tue–Sun 09:00–17:00, closed Mondays. Imperial-crown architecture.
Taiwan's first modern sugar mill, built 1901, now open parkland reached in 25 minutes on the MRT red line to Ciaotou Sugar Refinery station. Rusting boilers, banyan tunnels, Japanese dormitories and a shrine, all free to wander.
The rock-lined walkway past National Sun Yat-sen University where locals gather for the Taiwan Strait sunset, around 18:35 in summer and 17:25 in winter. Free to enter, unlike the fenced beach section next door.
A 300-metre covered lane of dried-goods stalls five minutes from Kaohsiung Main Station, trading since the Qing dynasty. Free samples of dried mango, candied lotus seed and mushroom crisps at nearly every stall along the row.
A Yancheng counter shop running since 1955, serving duck rice at NT$40, duck-blood soup at NT$30 and sliced duck by weight. Cash only, communal tables, and it closes the moment the day's duck runs out — often before 19:00.
A covered arcade of clothing, shoe and accessory stalls behind Kaohsiung Main Station, operating since 1949. T-shirts from NT$100, bubble tea NT$35, and the food alley at the north end does oyster omelette for around NT$60.
Around 1,000 stalls on a lot beside Kaohsiung Arena MRT, open Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 18:00 until roughly 01:00. Papaya milk NT$50, grilled squid NT$60, salt-fried chicken NT$70.
A white British-built lighthouse of 1883 on Cijin's hilltop, ten minutes uphill from the ferry pier. Free to enter, open 10:00–18:00 and closed Mondays, looking straight down the harbour mouth onto the container terminals.
A ring of coloured glass arches on Cijin's black-sand shore, beside the free Cijin Shell Museum and its collection of over 2,000 specimens. Both cost nothing; Miaoqian Road stalls behind grill squid from NT$60.
Forty-seven hectares of former military training ground turned public park, wrapped around the National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts. The centre's undulating banyan plaza is open to walk through free of charge until 22:00.
Taiwan's first horizontal-swing bridge, a 110-metre curved deck over Penglai fishing harbour that rotates open on a fixed daily schedule. Free to cross on foot, and the LED deck lighting comes on at dusk.