The Pier2 Art Center (駁二藝術特區) @ Kaohsiung City in Taiwan

While searching for attractions at Kaohsiung City, a place kept popping out; Pier2 Art Center (駁二藝術特區), also known as Bo Er (駁二). The place looked so chillax; we decided to book and stay at Chateau de Chine Hotel which was within walking distance.

After breakfast in our first morning at Kaohsiung, we walked toward Pier 2 in the nice, cool weather. Strolling past the beautifully designed Kaohsiung Music Center, another beauty stood in front of us. The Great Harbor Bridge! 

As an art center, there were plenty of gigantic sculptures and art pieces serving as fantastic backdrops for the many many photographs that one can take! Honestly, I missed out on quite a few! 

So representative of our contemporary life nowadays. Given that my work is loaded to my mobile phone (think Mail, MS Teams, Zoom, WhatsApp Business), I do make it a point to look at my phone lesser, especially when I am with friends and family.

Pier 2 used to be filled with abandoned warehouses built in 1973 and transitioned only to an art district in 2006, with continuous improvements that made the vicinity into a popular destination for both locals and foreigners. 

Similar to the art murals at Penang, the ones here captivated and played around with existing equipment and infrastructure. A leaking tap, in this case, can be simply a boy cheekily peeing into the grated drain.

A stunning piece of stainless steel metal wire sculpture, in the image of Taiwan's most famous deity; Mazu! You don't really know what it was until you stand right in front of it. 

It's one thing to revitalize the abandoned warehouses.

Another thing to make them so vibrant and inviting! 

Given the large space within each warehouse, you get a variety of activities; they could house food and beverage restaurants, retail spaces and also art galleries and exhibitions, some which required entrance fees.

Grotesque art piece that drew your immediate attention after stepping into the retail store. In case you are wondering if it's just a mish mash of animals, they represent the 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac! 

Warehouses are spread throughout the vast art center, and segregated into a few sections like Dayi, Dayong, Penglai. They didn't seem to have a specific theme for each section so I guess it's only for ease of directional reference. 

Crossing the The Great Harbor Bridge and enjoying the views! One side was north west of Kaoshiung City, where you would see the rising summit of Shoushan and the other was south east, more like the city centre with the sight of Taiwan's second tallest building, 85 Sky Tower.

Alex goofing around with the snoopy characters.

Some artefacts representing the history of the area can also be found; like the above which looked like a humongous metal plug! Hm... could I be mistaken and it was more like a paper weight? 

Exploring the wares in the souvenir shops! So many things I would want to buy as they were so interesting but the rational (and poor) me decided to hold my guns! 

Wait, sailor moon in the multiverse?

Zootopia where Usagi Tsukino is an alpaca! 

Going back, and crossing the bridge again. The period of my visit was in January 2025 and the Christmas decorations were still up. Hm... In Singapore, the lunar new year decorations would have already taken over one week after Christmas! 

Howl's Moving Castle?! 

Wide streets where pedestrians were in no danger from the fast moving motor vehicles. Electric scooters were allowed but there were signs governing its usage. 

A zebra crossing with an optical illusion!

Did you spot it? Looked like a hump! 

Creative! A zipper to make a boring zebra crossing much more interesting! We need more of such things in Singapore, and I do think we are on the right track! 

A single yellow line that eventually turned out to be a hose at the end! p.s. as the streets were for pedestrians only, maybe that's why creativity can run wild here. 

Painted water tanks.

Turning plain looking electrical boxes into eye-catching artwork that leaves you to your imagination as to what the expression means. I would deem this as being observant individuals who noticed the security risk of the unattended bag.

Even the buildings facade were painted or installed with art pieces to stand out from the rest! To me, it's like being surrounded and being constantly bombarded by art. I can imagine it would be hard to enjoy it in the summer but during winter, it was just so comfortable. 

 

Loving "the maneki-neko, also known as the welcoming cat, lucky cat, money cat, happy cat, and beckoning cat" but with two paws instead of one paw up! The English words, Hao Ke Ai, were pinyin for Chinese characters, meaning "so cute"! 

Singapore is known as the city in the garden and it's indeed true that you can see trees, trees and more trees in our city state. What we lacked though were flowers like the above, which are difficult given our climate. 

Topologie seemed popular; aside from Taiwan, I saw a few branches in Thailand. Main selling point for the brand was their wide variety of  straps; no branch in Singapore yet! 

Again, attractions for the abandoned warehouses; some of which were catered more for children or pure fans, like those into dinosaurs and moomin. 

One of my favorites in Pier 2; the battle between the evil and the righteous, the monster and the human. The artist aimed was to have this as representative of life in the modern way.

The monster represented the danger in the modern world, and for me, it could be the allure of social media, the lack of judgment, the polarizing ends of many societies.

Human, on closer look, was based on a historial legendary person who died almost 2,000 years ago, Guan Yu, also known as the God of War. Instead of his signature Green Dragon Crescent Blade, it was a mop. Why?! Because the weapons of the past can no longer be effective to kill the ills of modern life. Such profound insight.

Back to happier things. Made of interlinked cargo ship containers, I have only two questions for this bright red art installation; how stable is it, and would there be anything hidden within those containers?

Loving this transformer inspired sculpture! 

Noticed those tracks on the grass? They were for the Kaohsiung Light Rail and there were four stations just within Pier 2; hence you can imagine how big the art center was! 

Another larger like life sculpture; the fisherwoman! 

There were some characters that I don't quite understand. 

I thought this major road would mean the end of Pier 2 but it was not meant to me. Right across was an area still part of Pier 2 according to the map I found on the website.

Fisherwoman wasn't alone. She had a companion; the worker, but he was right across the road, and don't face each other. Was there a romantic background story that I should be aware of?

This part of Pier 2 is called the Penglai Area, which included the Hamasen Railway Cultural Park; while there were refurbished warehouses there, it was really the expansive field filled with artworks and trains that fascinated me! 

Only one regret so far. I didn't explore as much and as long as I should have. I would love to be back in the near future, and frankly, allocate to spend the whole day at Pier 2! 

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Address

No. 1, Dayong Rd, Yancheng District, 

Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

Map

As above.

Guide Map

As above. 

Website

https://en.pier2.org/

Click HERE for 11 Days, 10 Nights Taiwan Trip: Summarised Itinerary for Chiayi Alishan (嘉义阿里山) - Kaohsiung (高雄) - Tainan (台南) - Taichung (臺中)