Dragon and Tiger Pagodas (龍虎塔) - They Were Closed Though @ Kaohsiung City in Taiwan

(Visited in January 2025)

Searching online for attractions at Kaohsiung City, there's one place that's always mentioned; the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas (龍虎塔), and I was excited to be finally checking them out! 

Facing the pagodas would be the Chiji Temple (左營城邑慈濟宮) which honored the Poh Seng Tai Tay (保生大帝), also known as a the God of Medicine. Do also take pictures of the gigantic door gods that were protected with plastic cases. 

Now back to the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas; honestly, the seven-floor pagodas would not have attracted much attention. The eye-opener would have to be the two humongous creatures in front of the pagodas! 

Before that, let's pay homage to the stone turtle. Oh wait, that could be a pixiu. Sometimes, hard to differentiate but this has a shell. So i stand corrected. 

Stepping closer! Can't wait to climb up the pagodas! 

Mallards in the water! 

Nearest to us was a male, given its green head. 

Instead of a straight path leading to the pagodas, we were made to walk zig zag! Darn, I wouldn't have complained that much if the temperature was 10 degrees celcius. It was around 25 and the heat was unbearable! 

Those were big mouths for the dragon and tiger, and something was amiss. I have watched enough YouTube to know that the key activity for the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas was to go into the dragon head, and exit from the tiger, for good luck! 

However, both mouths were shuttered with a notice, in Chinese.

Both pagodas, plus the mouths, were closed for renovation! 

Didn't stop us from taking photographs though.

Here's the gaping dragon mouth! 

Body for the dragon was a bit stunted though... Oh well, this was built back in 1976 and back then, maybe the technology could only do so much....

Tiger would be more realistic. Now I know why the route was to exit from the tiger's lair, because it would seem as if you are escaping from the tiger, whereas going in appeared as if one was eaten up by the ferocious feline! 

Goofing around the tiger's mouth.

As if to dare it to eat us! 

Took a picture of the inner mouth of the tiger. Guess it would be a vibrant journey filled with Chinese folk legends and fables. Damn, I so wanted to check it out.

Closer look of the eyes for both dragon and tiger.

Guess they would light up at night. 

While I was already quite sad that I am unable to check out the inner workings of the "stomachs" of both tiger and dragon, it's even more saddening that the pagodas were closed too! :( 

Lotus Pond has more than just the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas. There's also an impressive pavilion known as 五里亭, the Spring and Autumn Pavilions, and a towering statue of a Chinese god.

The translated message that one should go down the dragon's throat and exit from the tiger's mouth in order to reduce bad luck and correspondingly increase one's good luck.

Last few photographs of the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas, identified by the smaller statues of dragon, and tiger above their main signages. Next time; I shall visit next time! 

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Address

No. 9, Liantan Rd, Zuoying District, 

Kaohsiung City, Taiwan 

Map

As above.

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)