Takao Railway Museum — Attraction in Kaohsiung

If you are already in the neighborhood of this railway museum, then it's worthy of making a stop to stroll through this tiny older building. It has preserved the original room arrangement well, the wooden counter, the bookcases, the VIP seating area the maps & photos on the walls and bulletin boards as they were like some 90 years ago. Can you imaging many merchants and people from all walks of life hustling and bustling through this tiny railroad station? To further relive that old scenes, there are a few old engines stationed on few abandoned railroad tracks with a backdrop of a modern transit railway running through every once in a while. You couldn't hear the sharp and loud whistle from those antique locomotives anymore, in stead you are hearing a mild ding-dong bell sound from the transit train when they're coming and leaving the track side platform. I noticed visitors that came here didn't show much interest in inside the station, they hurried out through the door to the old train station platform. Using those old engines as the background in their selfies was their main attraction. Perhaps I was there alone, so I spent time browsing inside to see what this train museum has on display. There was a 20 minutes constant running video on the history of this station and its neighborhood that I found it very informative. Surprisingly enough that I found that the staff on duty have no idea as to how and why the port of Kaohsiung was given the name Takao (打狗港) many decades ago. Perhaps, next time when you stop by this railroad museum, which is just outside one of the subway exits at Sizihwan Station (a very strange English spelling), I suggest you to spend half an hour or so checking out their displays and watch that video before you go out to the back...

The cool thing about this place is how it has been locked in time, yet it opens its doors to a historical experience (at no fee). It’s magical to see old log books dating back to the 30s, all sat behind a glass cabinet, and all the furniture in their intended positions when the office was still in its heyday.

At the counter, there is also an hourly/half hourly guided bus service in which you can pay a one time fare of 50NTD, and it gives you unlimited bus rides to three recommended tour routes around Hamashi.

We managed to hop on to one of the tours which was a heritage trail. There’s one with food, and the other which I’m not quite sure of.

I should also add that the said 50NTD pass has unlimited use on their public buses for the whole day,...

The museum descends from the Kaohsiung Harbor Train Station, built during the Japanese period. The station was then the first railway station in Kaohsiung with the original name of Takow Station (Japanese: 打狗停車場). In 2003, the station building was classified as historical building by the Kaohsiung City Government. On 9 November 2008, the last train was pulled out from the station at 5.30 p.m.

Once the station was closed, the government took over the station building and land on the southern part of the station. On 24 October 2010, the government authorized the Railway Culture Society to enter the station for the opening of the Takao...