No expat districts exactly in Kaohsiung, but there’s more expats in the new parts of Ktown (like Zuoying) than the older parts.
I wouldn’t say there’s that few expats in Kaohsiung. Less than Taipei, but I still pass expats on the street multiple times a day here. Also depends where in Kaohsiung you are, I guess.
Ive moved to Taichung but in the last few years when I go back to visit Kaohsiung I’ve noticed anecdotally that the air pollution seems to be better than when I lived there. Maybe it was just the days I visited but back then I could count on one hand the number of blue sky days there were.
I was in DaLiao which is pretty countryside. I liked it because it is very quiet, you can get a massive apartment rented for cheap, and with a scooter it was convenient, but being beside the horrible industrial district of LinYuan and downwind of the farmers burning brush in PingDong, you could barely see anything due to pollution and haze. Would I still live there again? Probably. Like I said cheap and quiet 
I eventually left KTown as I got bored. I’m now bored of Taichung. Thinking of Yilan next.
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I will say quite a bit fewer than Taipei or Hsinchu, and even more so if the OP is coming from Hong Kong. Living in Kaoshiung you get used it and notice non locals as mentioned a few times a day, but in Hong Kong (or S’pore) it’s not a few times a day and would be always and there are places that are full of ex pats. You would have tell me where in KHH any café/shop/restaurant that mostly has Western ExPats (there are some mostly Japanese or SE Asian or such), I might say Foster Hewitts has more expats but even saying that they need local Taiwanese customers to stay in business vs in HK/S’pore some shops need exPats to stay open. That being said if you know local Kaoshiung place that is mostly exPats tell me so I can go try it. (I will visit Arkansas later for Chili-rice if they are open)
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Damn you are making me want to visit Kaohsiung now! : D
Guy
Thank you again.
What about streets and districts that had the gas explosions in KHH a few years before?
Are there some areas to avoid in Taipei and KHH?
The Lighthouse, also. And they’re always around the basement of Kaohsiung Arena with their families. There’s quite a few places. Sure, it’s not nearly as many as Hong Kong or Taipei. But when I think of expats being a rare sight, I think of the countryside or east coast.
The area with gas explosion has been fixed, I would worry about fire in old house or KTV more. Which area I would say not to live in, by the Central Main Station (this applies to many cities in Taiwan though). A bit more homeless though less than Taipei Station where it’s problem at night now (Taipei Station building outside as homeless outside sleeping in boxes/tents I wonder who gives it to them??, anyways they are chased out from the insides at midnight and nowdays a lot). Back to Kaoshiung that area by local standards has more people of interest to the police and more police there (A French resident here was checking there and checked for ID, he as on working holiday and police had call make sure was ok. This is only area and Taipei Station where I heard or see Police to do random ID checks. In fact Taipei I saw police handcuff one). All that being said I pass the area on bike/scooter a lot and is fine by most other city standards.
I wouldn’t live in parts of wanhua. But then again I would live in other parts of wanhua.
Meaning to say that there are few places off limits these days.
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Thanks!
What about three star hotels in Taipei and Kaohsiung? Any fairly new ones that are reasonably priced?
A lot are cheap these days because there are nearly no foreign visitors. But you’ll have to be quick.
One major con about KHH is driving there is terrible.
There are traffic cameras EVERYWHERE and if your tire even so much as touches the white line you get a 紅包 in the mail costing around 2000 NT. It got so bad I would avoid driving there and just take train and use taxis. The freeway access is really awkward and signs are poor.
@mokkie Taipei has a lot more to do and is much more pedestrian friendly, far more restaurants and nightlife options. The city of KHH really isn’t all that and if you’re used to HK it will probably feel small quickly. There’s an OK beach area, but its pretty sprawled out and aside from a couple of night marekts more of a day trip now and again. Just 2 cents but I think you’d find Taipei more interesting.
Kaohsuing County on the other hand has some very beautiful getaway type places under the radar
huh?
I regularly run red lights and have had no problem. Could you explain further?
Oh jeez. All the major intersections have cameras on the stop lights. I was exaggerating when I said they’re everywhere everywhere but in the city I wouldn’t run too many lights. They snap your photo, you can tell if there’s a quick flash of light when you go thru the intersection. Talking about driving a car btw, scooters not sure.
The locals know how to avoid those. You’ll see people hug the curb to make a right on red where there are no sensors. Or hop onto the sidewalk. Or go into the oncoming lane to avoid the sensors.
I got done for crossing the line there though, $1800. The tire was an inch over the line.
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This sounds like a terrible idea, with all sorts of bad possible outcomes.
Guy
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It usually was done by kids on high speed modded scooters. They would weave around the sensors.
I would see a serious crash every week in Kaohsiung. Taichung ive seen only one in years. Taichung drivers are very slow drivers, Kaohsiung the opposite
that’s probably the most popular expat place in kaohsiung but the majority of customers are taiwanese. there is just no one place for expats. however, there are other pubs near central park with expat crowds as well.
i never felt that driving, or in my case riding, was overly dangerous compared to other places in taiwan. kaohsiung has a lot of broad roads and newer roads have separated lanes for cars and scooters. driving behavior is another thing but at least you have some leeway.
i consider myself lucky that in six years of riding scooter in kaohsiung, i’ve only been in a minor accident once. pro tip: never ever pull the front brakes first…
second, there might be a lot of cameras visible but imo most of them are just for scaring people or they have a ridiculous speed tolerance, i can’t say for sure. but i’ve only been caught once speeding, it was during nighttime and well beyond the speed limit, around 20km/h over. usually i just went with the flow which was also well beyond the speed limit but then again, i have no idea how those cameras work. maybe if more than 2 objects appear at the same time, they won’t react.
aerial views for those who do not know kaohsiung
