KAOHSIUNG

I in fact have a bit of history with this southern Taiwanese city, way back when, in the late 50s to early 60s. My late Uncle Tang Tai-Meng left China with Chiang Kai Shek in 1948 as a young naval officer, a graduate of the Tsingtao Naval Academy. Promoted through the ranks, including training in Annapolis with the U.S. Naval Academy, he became a flag officer based in the naval base in Zuoying which is now a station on the KMRT line. We are a KMT family (who lost everything in 1949 and fled the Bamboo Curtain) so many summers I was sent to Zuoying to be with my cousins to be brainwashed and to learn Mandarin .... no Putonghua then.

I have not been here for a while and I am pleasantly surprised by how orderly, clean and well run she is. With just a little over 1.5 million occupying 153.6 sq km it is a small city that also offers the quaint aspects of a natural harbor village. She was colonized by Japan between 1895 - 1945 and one can still see the influence in the older parts of town, in old municipal buildings, old train stations, and old homes etc which carry this 'Southern Fukien cum Colonial Japan' architectural style, quite unique.

The Mayor of Kaohsiung, the bedrock of the Green Camp, is a Tiger Lady. A strong willed and effiicient politician who does not take fools easy, if at all. From casual conversations I struck up with people the past few day she is a respected leader in the first instance, hence the following. I see a well managed, environmentally friendly city, I see happy faces, I see helmeted and fashionably geared families on a bicycle ride in the evenings, I see a talented er-hu soloist performing modern classics along the Love River ie Kaohsiung's answer to the Seine, complete with the East & West banks vs Right & Left in Paris, I see a young jazz singer with her rendition of Sinatra's Fly Me to the Moon in Mandarin, I see dog parks that we in Hong Kong tries to rid, I see one book store after another on main street, mobed by avid readers of all ages who spread themselves on the floor without fear of harrassment, I see clean buses and mass transit that run on time, for an oderly crowd like in Japan. I see, I see, and I see .... it is such a refreshing change to see how a city can quietly and effectively work, without the fanfare our NATO (No Action Talk Only) government prefers.

Kaohsiung is worth a visit, if you can trust this wandering retiree. More blogs to follow, I have to check out now, regrettably.