Taiwan's second-largest city used to be a place you'd go to inspect a steel factory or watch container ships ooze across a grey harbour ringed by smog. That was 13 years ago. Today, travellers to Kaohsiung, still the island's southern anchor, can drink European wines at bars scores of floors above sea level as the smog parts for views from the mountains to the Taiwan Strait. There's a clean swimming beach just off the harbour.
Kaohsiung has reinvented itself as successive mayors have sought to rebrand the city of 1.6 million as a coastal, cultural and commercial centre that can compete with the larger, landlocked Taipei up north.
Kaohsiung still leans on heavy industry and is less affluent than Taipei; building owners more often pack rooftops with corrugated tin than with wine bars. But in fast-expanding pockets, the rebranding drive has quickly caught on.
'One reason is that Kaohsiung's natural advantages are pretty good, namely its mountains and the ocean,' says Luka Lee, manager of Harbor Villa, a 200-seat Thai-Taiwanese restaurant in the coastal Xizi Bay tourist area. 'It's also a big city and transport is convenient.'
Outdoor cafes and boat tours dominate the Love River district, music stores have opened outside Taiwan's most popular night market a few blocks from the main railway station, and almost every commercial object ever invented is sold.
Travellers can use the metro system as a compass. Rides average US$1, and station-area maps in Chinese and English are posted near exits. Stations offer free Wi-fi.