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CNN Go
CNNGo in Kaohsiung: Taiwan's Largest Port and Coolest Art
Aired January 15, 2014 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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MELISA CHIAO, CEO, DA DA ARTS PROMOTION (voice-over): This is The Labor Park. This place has been changing and changing because it was so different from when I moved to Kaohsiung 20 years ago. It's nicer and nicer and you can also see that this is a very good atmosphere for people to live here.
(INAUDIBLE).
CHIAO (voice-over): And this statue represents the hand of young people because they use this statue to let people understand that if you have faith and you -- if you have anything you want, to do it. If you just don't do it, then it will not happen.
I would like to introduce you to this place because it's not the most important place but it's really the place that relax you the most. You can see many, many different flower and (INAUDIBLE) here. You can buy anything you would like, flowers and even fish.
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CHIAO (voice-over): I personally would like to introduce you to this place because this little theater is a very special place for indie (ph) events because you know, there are so many bands, they don't have any stage to show them off to audiences and this is the first place. So (INAUDIBLE) everybody (INAUDIBLE).
This is the bike path from -- starts from that end to Dream (ph) Mall. It's about, if I remember, it's about 20 kilometers around. So it will take you about one hour to finish it and it's the most famous bike path in Kaohsiung.
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CHIAO (voice-over): Kaohsiung, the city I love the most.
Take off my shoes.
OK. I'm put it in a bag. OK, I'm going.
This is Kaohsiung (INAUDIBLE) Festival. This year it's kind of creative ideas into this festival, more than 300 designers from different countries to show how they feel about this city. So you can see that it's a kind of idea presentation at the festival.
DANIEL CHIU, OWNER, 3080S APARTMENT (voice-over): I'm Daniel. Yes, we are now in the (INAUDIBLE) district. It's a very old neighborhood in Kaohsiung.
This (INAUDIBLE) 3080s. It's the building that my grandma has lived in and start her business from the 1930s. I was born in 1980s. So it's a connection from the '30s to '80s.
We have eight rooms here. My granddad and grandma has lived in this space. So we almost kept all the original things here and also bring some new elements or new ideas into here.
So this space is the living room. It's a neighborhood (INAUDIBLE). It's quiet, typical singles, so the old Kaohsiung. So we want to keep this element in this building and take people to know about it (INAUDIBLE).
Every time when I come back Kaohsiung, I will come back to this building because the neighbors here are quite cute (ph) and the action with the neighbors by good and which is (INAUDIBLE) in a big city like Taipei.
This neighborhood is quiet. It developed very early as the time that Japan grew out of Taiwan. And I think this is the place that I can feel and even smell, yes, the good old times.
I'm taking you guys to the coffee shop. It's a very old-fashioned coffee shop. The site is quite combined with the Japan and U.S. style. It's quite modern, Japanese style.
Here you don't need to order because they don't have actually menus. They only sell coffee. Yes.
(Speaking foreign language).
So there's only one (INAUDIBLE). So you don't have much choice of the old style.
This market is called the Big Market.
And it's a temporary one and it's built only in the morning. So you would have all this disappear in the afternoon. They sell clothes, food, almost everything.
(INAUDIBLE).
This is one of the old temples in Kaohsiung. They start making it from the 6:00 am and they will have maybe five to 10 a day.
I will have this one, the pork chop (ph) with sticky rice, yes.
I like to sit here because you can talk to the -- your grandmom and it's really nice, the thing is well prepared and you will feel warm, not because of the soup, because of the way she is treated.
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MALONE CHANG, ARCHITECT (voice-over): That's contendo lane (ph) over there. It used to be a fishermen's village called Hong Mao Gang Village. And government negotiated with these village people for 40 years. Finally they agreed to be relocated in another part of -- in Kaohsiung in one condition: that it's to keep a place for (INAUDIBLE) memory.
So this is the place we call the Hongmaogang Cultural Park. This is a good place to see the boats coming in and place for relaxing.
This is built, according to the Hong Mao Gang old house, and to the exact drawings from the blueprint. And they also made some exhibitions. That's here.
Hong Mao Gang Village is actually is -- was oldest village in Kaohsiung. You've never been to this (INAUDIBLE) this is a good place to come.
These are four houses, not the exact replica of the old house, but they are, according to their sizes and dimension. But we take the roof out so you can see only the space inside (INAUDIBLE).
It's old furniture. It's kind of like a time capsule. They kept it here. They keep it here. There's another one.
There's a small shop here for the souvenir. I like this. I want to buy one. Yes.
Oh, this is a tourist room. You can see the arcade. They actually built a arcade in the interior so when you sit here, it's (INAUDIBLE) outdoorsy (INAUDIBLE). And this is the old style (INAUDIBLE) style. You know, Taiwan is (INAUDIBLE) Japanese and (INAUDIBLE) style building style. So this is -- it's really a -- reminds me of all these old memories (INAUDIBLE).
Sometimes during the night they will have this old projector showing old movies, black and white.
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CHANG (voice-over): This place is called the Da Dong Arts Culture Center. And I think this place is cool because the outdoor is especially good in Kaohsiung's weather. Kaohsiung is a very, very hot city. So we use this membrane structure. It can -- it is 15 percent transparency so you can have the lighting at the same time keep the space underneath very cool and windy place.
So the citizens will like to come here. And during the night or even in the day, especially in the weekend.
(INAUDIBLE) they probably need something, someplace to go except their own desktop computers. You know, I think it's cool because when we design after we create this place you can see all these activities, families and youngsters, couples. They all come here.
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PETER PAN, KAOHSIUNG SAILING SCHOOL (voice-over): This area, called hamasin (ph), this in Japanese language means railroad coast to the sea (ph). Today I want to introduce (INAUDIBLE) here and this is very special tea and the coffee restaurant (ph).
Because this is the first old building rebuilt restaurant in Kaohsiung.
They provide many original books and (INAUDIBLE) in here.
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PAN (voice-over): Before, 10 years before, sailing in Taiwan is impossible because of the -- all the martial law. But about seven to eight years ago, we start to import some sailboats to Taiwan.
And then we have sailing club allowed.
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JI ZI-HONG, AUTHOR (from captions): We are at the East Gate, aka Feng Yi Men. This gate was constructed in the Kang Xi reign of the Qing Dynasty in 1826, so it's almost 200 years old.
This used to be a horse path. It has been well preserved which is quite special here.
I would like two orders, please.
This is a spring onion pork patty. It's a bit different from the ones in Taipei. There is pork inside and eggs. Then it is fried with a layer of vegetables on top. It is a specialty from the south.
The food in southern Taiwan is different from other regions of Taiwan because it's sweeter. People like their sauces sweeter and tend to use soy sauce paste, while the north just uses soy sauce. I think that is what sets southern Taiwanese food apart.
This is a memorial for Kuomintang soldiers. We used to come here to see the night scenes. They have just constructed a new viewing platform which makes it an even better observation point.
We are here at the observatory on Shoushan Mountain. This was just finished in January last year and it's called "Lovers' Observatory." Here we have a bird's eye view of Kaohsiung.
I love coming here at dusk and seeing the city light up. To see the windows light up one by one, this is the best place.
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TIGER HUANG, SINGER (voice-over): This is my hometown and this is called Ha Ma Shing Dulun Twan Ko (ph). This is the ferry, it's have been long time since when I was little.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Speaking foreign language).
HUANG (voice-over): This is between the Gushan and two another small islands we call Cijin. Normally I'd take my friend or the friend from outside of Taiwan, always take them to come here to have this experience, small, little ferry to go to another island to have a fantastic seafood.
Even though I take hundred times of this ferry, it's always feels different.
We are in the kind of like a tourist road, you know, when you off the ferry, so it is more right this direction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).
HUANG (voice-over): Seafood is have every time when I come home.
I just order the food first. (INAUDIBLE) go to the beach. So I think I order first and then it will get prepared. So after maybe 10 or 15 minutes when we come back, the food already ready.
As you can see, it's a beach. We call it Cijin Hasha Yuta (ph). In the summer, it's full of local people in the summer because there's so many kids, family. They came from all around the island.
Some people say the sea is like a relationship, like a love story. So if you -- if you don't want to go too deep because you afraid to love or whatever, you are afraid to get hurt. But to me, here is like I feel I need that because it is the water in my hometown.
So I think lunch is ready. And I'm going to join with all my friends.
Oyster, local oysters is very good, too. I like them.
Garlic, ginger and basil, this is called three cup sauce. So three cup squid. I'm hungry. Can I? Can I? Thank you.
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