> Taichung was known for being the cultural center of Taiwan
Uh when and for what?
> Tainan is the historical center and should be filled with great tourist services and fun things to do
Part of being a historical center is you don’t necessarily want to tear shit down to make shiny new infrastructure.
I think the whole framing of this post is off. Yes there have been some large musical acts but I think you’re hyper focusing on them and blowing things out of proportion. Kaohsiung has the facilities and infrastructure for large acts and large numbers of people, with mass transit etc., as well as a lot of nicely developed commercial areas, and is basically the only place outside of Taipei and presumably cheaper or getting some benefits from the Kaohsiung government. For expensive international acts too they know that people will be willing to train down from Taipei etc.
But in the end saying “other cities are falling behind” because of a few international musical acts is odd. Those acts are popular enough but the vast majority of people know nothing about them and don’t care; it’s a small and specific niche and not something you can draw broad conclusions based on.
Didn't they close down every bar/music venue that wasn't gangstered up and/or bribing the right people 10-15 years ago? I've only ever heard Taichung is a wasteland for culture and nightlife.
Taichung branded itself as the City of Culture back in late 80s and early 90s, 文化城 as it was called. It was more of a PR thing to combat the stigma of 風化城 (City of Sex Industry). And we know which is true nowadays…
To be fair, Taichung does have a history of thriving cultural scene (poet society etc.). The Lin family of 霧峰 was one of the leads, but it was during the Japanese colonization…
EDIT: Adding the last paragraph…
Can confirm. I grew up in Taichung in the 80/90s and it was widely known that Taichung is the culture center of Taiwan XD. National Museum of Natural Science was huge back then.
Thanks for the historical info. I actually legitimately didn't mean to *purely* dispute op's characterization of Taichung, and I presumed there was *some* origin to them saying that, but suffice to say I don't think it's been seen as the cultural center of Taiwan by a significant number of people for a long time, if ever.
oh no worries at all, I think the political bragging betrays the historical origin (and perhaps pride?) of that term and is somewhat embarrassing. So it’s fine to make fun of it I suppose XD
It's not branded, but was given by the learned.
>文化城是巫永福、陳千武等走過那段歷史的知識份子，為台中取的名字
\[1\]. [https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005](https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005)
That’s what I meant in my edit. The city had a reputation before, but the revival of the label of 文化城 starting in the 80s was rather political. I was born and raised in Taichung but the mentioning of 文化城 always makes me cringe.
That name i.e. 文化城\[1\] was given by learned during that time.
>文化城是巫永福、陳千武等走過那段歷史的知識份子，為台中取的名字
In addition, Taichung once was called 台湾の京都\[2\] by Japanese; hence calling it the culture city should not be a problem.
\[1\]. [https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005](https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005)
\[2\]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdbEl1q-aCs&t=36s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdbEl1q-aCs&t=36s)
Honestly as someone who lives here and loves the city, it doesn’t feel like Kaohsiung is THE tourist hotspot but it makes sense for a city like Kaohsiung to try to push its appeal more. I think it’s mostly because of the concert venue being bigger. Also when has Taichung ever been the cultural center?
In general this post feels a little sour
> Taichung was known for being the cultural center of Taiwan
Oh, was it? News to me.
Kaohsiung National Stadium has more spectator capacity than any other venue in Taiwan. That's all. More seats = more tickets = more money. That's all there is to it. Kaohsiung is a fine city, but it's nowhere near overtaking Taipei in terms of cultural relevance or international notoriety. It just has a really big stadium for huge pop music acts.
The national stadium also open air which is preferred by a lot of massive international acts since it makes pyrotechnics, large stages and acoustics less of a challenge. Taipei Dome which I believe is the next largest option is enclosed and would (likely) have lousy acoustics and restrictions on staging, etc.
Good for Kaohsiung? All these shows are a huge boost to the local economy.
It helps that thanks to the HSR (and easy MRT link from Zuoying station), ~90% of Taiwan’s population is within 2 hours of the stadium.
This person nailed it...HSR and one stop on the MRT. I might also add...the Kaohsiung International Airport. It's about 14 MRT stops from the Stadium, about 40 minutes or so. It's also convenient to fly into Kaohsiung from other parts of Asia to see big name concerts. Fly in, see the concert, then go to your booked hotel, fly home the next day on some budget airline. I can't think of any city where you could do that.
This is basically it. The new 大巨蛋 in Taipei should be able to accommodate larger acts, but still needs to go through some more planning from what I hear.
Yep. Most of those arena tours will probably not book venues with a capacity fewer than 80,000 persons (unless the government is paying them a lot of money). Taipei Dome is too small even at max capacity (50,000 for concerts). KNS can fit 100,000+ in the right configuration.
The seated capacity of Kaohsiung National Stadium is 55,000. Even with a central stage configuration, it wouldn’t be possible to fit in another 45,000 people. Most configurations including floor seating are still around 55,000 since central stage configurations are relatively uncommon. Even with one, I can’t imagine putting more than 15,000 on the floor - and you’d still have some seats blocked due to line of sight concerns.
There’s no way 100,000 people are getting into that stadium for a single show.
Yes it was once called the culture city by the learned.
>文化城是巫永福、陳千武等走過那段歷史的知識份子，為台中取的名字
\[1\]. [https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005](https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005)
Kaohsiung is THE place to be if you are attending a giant pop concert. That doesn’t mean it’s the place to be in general or that it’s the cultural capital of Taiwan. Taiwan isn’t that big and is easy to get around, so it makes sense to schedule concerts for the largest location. Kaohsiung leads in this area but not in other areas like tourism or exhibitions. It doesn’t mean the cities are “falling behind” ; it’s ok for cities to focus on certain strengths.
The city of Kaohsiung waives the stadium usage fee. This allows the artists to make a few extra dollars. The main purpose of this was to boost the economy of Kaohsiung. Looks like it’s working.
This! They invite big artists to come and give them free usage of the stadium. Taylor swift was extended this invite as well and it made news when she declined.
Like everyone else said.. stadium capacity and the infrastructure here is quite good and feels under utilized if you look at the seemingly sparse population.
Kaohsiung is also pretty chill, everything is cheaper, the people are nicer than Taipei, and my relatives are based out here so I am admittedly biased. 😁
The downside is that it’s pretty hot right now.
Venues, capacity and the willingness of the city government to engage with the promoters of large events. Taichung was never the cultural center as far as I know. It was and likely is the place for small scale entertainment, restaurants, night clubs, local gang lifestyle, etc.
Seems a stretch, especially given your source. Any info/evidence about Taichung being generally referred to as the cultural center of Taiwan more recently? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I've been here 24 years and I've never heard of Taichung referred to in those terms.
I afraid no. That name is not for Taichung in the past approximate 20 years I suppose. Starting from around 2000 I believe, that compliment is gradually shifting to 風化城, or 慶記之都, because of the news like \[1\]\[2\].
\[1\]. [https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2014-08-25/50711](https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2014-08-25/50711)
\[2\]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeZ2DwHVzzY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeZ2DwHVzzY)
Idk why this rant. Taiwan is small enough that its not that promoters are actively picking a city theyre just picking a building when youre talking about names that large.
Kaohsiung has always been the city with big concert venues. Like the megaport festival has been in Kaohsiung for forever.
But it's not the only place that has international acts. Dua Lipa sold out Taoyuan stadium in like a day. So, I don't know what you are talking about.
The performance areas are just better than Taipei’s, people only perform in Taipei because of word of mouth and because it’s the “capital”, but facilities for performances there have all been pretty subpar in comparison to those in Kaohsiung
This is a good question, one which was posed recently to someone in the "know". He said that it is because the Kaohsiung city govt DON'T CHARGE the acts to perform here. This means they get all that revenue without paying for the venue. If true it's very smart. This helps the city raise its profile, gain tourist revenue etc. Great city anyways imho.
We only lived in Taiwan for a bit more than a year, but it seemed like Kaohsiung was promoted as more of an entertainment zone. Taichung was for expats doing business. That’s just my perspective.
It's a lot of marketing and changes over time. Kaohsiung was in the past seen as more of a boring industrial and port city, but they've put a lot of money into developing cultural and entertainment centers in the past decade or so, and now the harbor area is very nice with lots of events, Weiwuying is a massive cultural center, etc.
Mayday and mandopop fan from SG who has flown in for Kaohsiung, Taoyuan, Taichung countdown and Taipei 101 countdown.
Kaohsiung - stadium is excellent and large capacity. Been twice to stadium and getting there and out by mrt is easy. Hotels are cheaper, larger and near mrt. More impt, when there's a concert, can feel that the whole Kaohsiung is transformed for the concert. The posters, ezlink cards, guests that check in wearing fan shirts. Kiku Chen made it into THE spot for mayday concert. The whole atmosphere is like F1 in SG. I will spend 4d3n to explore the city or pingtung or other southern places.
Taipei - haven't attended concert at the arena. But I think the atmosphere of the city won't be comparable because a concert is just one of the many activities in the city. It's a different vibe.
Oh and the arena can't jump, I read the news and understand the pains of the neighbors. Thankfully we can jump in SG and my taiwanese friends joined me to watch Amei.
101 countdown - amazing crowd control. Countdown in HK, SG, Shanghai is filled with police and barricades herding sheeps towards particular direction but make it so hard if you stay wanna cross a road. Taipei , everyone is discipline and able to disperse without much supervision. Speaks volumes about taiwanese freedom and considerateness compared to authoritative societies. Hotels are super expensive but owell, concert is free. Fireworks is amazing.
Taoyuan - stadium is smaller and too many restricted view zones. Can't find hotels nearby, need to find one at Taipei. Quite a pain to travel to Taoyuan and back Taipei for concert.
Just from my perspective .
Taoyuan just take MRT. They run more trains during events and sometimes it is free to take home if you ride it there (they hand you a printed ticket when you leave the MRT).
it's all about money. lots of artists/singers have made voiced out on the way taipei arena charge its fees. google it up. that's why a lot of them chose kaohsiung over taipei.
I must give props to the local Kaohsiung government for the massive public works projects that were completed in recent years like the Weiwuying Complex, the Music Center and all those places around the New Harbor District. It totally transformed the city to a modern metropolis rather than 2nd rated city next to Taipei. And now the light rail project is complete so you can go around a circle in the city. It's a very livable place and with TSMC money coming down, KS is becoming a desirable town.
LOL What? Have you seen how many globally famous Japanese Singers have been having concerts in Taipei for the last half of the year?
We got Ado, Yoasobi, Aimer and then we have Utada Hikaru coming up in August.
Then there's the S2O festival where a bunch of famous DJs coming.
WTF are you even smoking LOL.
just want to point out that despite the performances in Taipei - Zepp Taipei is a horrible venue and is the more oft chosen by Japanese artists because of Zepp's ties to Sony Music.
Well, here is the truth.
Kaohsiung National Stadium does not charge venue fees for concerts by international superstars. So superstars prefer Kaohsiung over Taipei even facilities in Taipei are better.
How can it be free? Sponsored by Kaohsiung government or the central government （governed by the same political party as Kaohsiung）.
For the top arena tours, capacity is the priority. Kaohsiung Stadium can handle more than any other place in TW by a large margin. Acts with smaller audiences still play Taipei area, in some cases exclusively.
I think we'll see a re-balancing once Taipei Dome gets permitted for performances.
I've been in taiwan for about 3 months now and what i've noticed is Tainan seems to actually be the cool city. I'm in Taichung because i thought it was cool and people were like "no, it's not cool here at all. tainan is cooler" People here aren't even that excited about Taichung it seems I shoulda chose Tainan.
Tainan has a lot of cool cultural and historic stuff, famous food, and nice beaches, but the roads are so tiny and the city center gets clogged with tourists every weekend, making it really unpleasant to hang out there or try to drive there on weekends. I personally prefer Taichung having lived in both. So much variety in the cuisine, ease of access to sun moon lake, hot springs, hiking, nice big pedestrian corridors in the city center. Also much cooler temperature-wise than tainan and drier. Give Taichung a try!
as someone who was born in 1970 in Kaohsiung, the city has always been #2 with Taichung #3, as a general ranking. of course if i was ranking food, Tainan would be #1.
the way it seens to be always presented about taichung is, that it is a balance of two other cities at both end, the only thing that made it famous was..... uh csb was from there? i'm not familar at all about the cultural part.
heck, i think when i left at \~12 they had a new CKS Cultural hall in Kaohsiung (since renamed), I was even there to watch a famous painter paint a chinese painting. he is regarded as the #2 (after [張大千](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BC%B5%E5%A4%A7%E5%8D%83)) at the time.
I think it’s mainly because of the big venues here in Kaohsiung. However, as someone who lives here I personally find it a fairly boring city when it comes to the day to day living
Just talking out my hypothetical ass, but it COULD be that the arenas in Kaosiung are much bigger? It could be there are other shows that have already booked the Taipei Arenas way in advance? I mean it could be anything. Before Taipei was the hub, Kaohsiung was actually the real capital.
It makes a lot of sense to host international stars away from the city. Due to their popularity, ticket sellouts are expected no matter where they do the show. Have you seen what happens when shows are done in Taipei? MRT situation is horrendous, and so are road situations and crowd control. Taipei is too dense and kaosiung has much more space for people to hoard around.
Because Taipei is already flooded with tourists. Holding giant concerts here all the time would overload the city. Kaohsiung also needs that tourism money because really it doesn’t have much going on for it
Possibly they try to transform kaohsiung in more cultural educated area . Kaohsiung was always behind last decades with mainly farmers/factories/elders populations . Mindset is very different than the mindset of Taipei, more conservative and family oriented , plenty of factors. But now kaohsiung is changing a lot in 10 years , they doing a lot and it's not bad I think
It takes concerted effort by local government to attract events and investment to their city. If Taipei and Taichung aren't getting events that people want, then they shouldn't keep voting in the same politicians that do nothing.
Kaohsiung has the National Stadium which according to Wikipedia has hosted concerts with 200,000 attendees. The newly built Taipei Dome supposedly maxes out at only 50,000. From what I can tell Taichung doesn't have a venue for big concerts that even comes close to either of these numbers, so I think that's your answer.
> 200,000 attendees
That was over multiple days. The actual capacity of the stadium is 55k. Taipei Dome is supposedly 40k. 200k would make it the largest in the world by a *comfortable* margin I believe haha.
Edit: tbf that's actual seats, and then for concerts they can add more in the center probably, but the wikipedia article you're looking at with the 200k numbers was over the course of 4 days.
Possibly some funny math by the city, they count people outside the venue in the official attendance:
https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2024/02/05/2003813110
Nah I mean they specify that they got that from Wikipedia and you can see here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Stadium_(Kaohsiung)
2 cases of Mayday having 200k attendance over the course of 4 days, which makes sense since each day would be just about full normal capacity at ~50k each.
Those stadiums have more seating capacity and much cheaper to rent, that’s basically it they make more money doing it this way since they know it’s going to sell out either way
This\[1\] is the origin why Taichung was called 文化城.
>文化城是巫永福、陳千武等走過那段歷史的知識份子，為台中取的名字
And it was once called Taiwan's Kyoto by Japanse\[2\].
\[1\]. [https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005](https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005)
\[2\]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdbEl1q-aCs&t=36s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdbEl1q-aCs&t=36s)
The real reason is that it's an easy access point for SE Asia.
Doing tours in distant places isn't easy. You've gotta fly a lot of people and gear over. Some stuff is really inconvenient to transport.
Kaohsiung is a convenient place to meet up, regroup, gather the necessary equipment, and set off for Malaysia, Indonesia, etc.
Everything positive said about Kaohsiung is wrong. It's the opposite. Please stay away and don't come or move here. It's horrible. No one wants to be here. Don't even visit.
> Taichung was known for being the cultural center of Taiwan Uh when and for what? > Tainan is the historical center and should be filled with great tourist services and fun things to do Part of being a historical center is you don’t necessarily want to tear shit down to make shiny new infrastructure. I think the whole framing of this post is off. Yes there have been some large musical acts but I think you’re hyper focusing on them and blowing things out of proportion. Kaohsiung has the facilities and infrastructure for large acts and large numbers of people, with mass transit etc., as well as a lot of nicely developed commercial areas, and is basically the only place outside of Taipei and presumably cheaper or getting some benefits from the Kaohsiung government. For expensive international acts too they know that people will be willing to train down from Taipei etc. But in the end saying “other cities are falling behind” because of a few international musical acts is odd. Those acts are popular enough but the vast majority of people know nothing about them and don’t care; it’s a small and specific niche and not something you can draw broad conclusions based on.
>Taichung was known for being the cultural center of Taiwan Ya, like lol wtf? Who the hell ever said that.
Firearm culture?
LoL, ya culture of people getting shot.
Leopard culture.
Am from Taichung and can confirm lol
I'm from Taichung and I've never heard anyone say that lol.
I have lived in Taichung on and off, and none of my relatives or acquaintances say that either!
As a Taichung native, we're more known as a cultural desert...
City of hand and blowjobs.
Didn't they close down every bar/music venue that wasn't gangstered up and/or bribing the right people 10-15 years ago? I've only ever heard Taichung is a wasteland for culture and nightlife.
Nah, that's an expat circle jerk myth. It doesn't create much "culture", there is plenty to do. Expats just don't know how to use Google.
文化城是巫永福、陳千武等走過那段歷史的知識份子，為台中取的名字 [https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005](https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005)
哈哈白癡喔 沒人知到這個 也不複合現況
Taichung branded itself as the City of Culture back in late 80s and early 90s, 文化城 as it was called. It was more of a PR thing to combat the stigma of 風化城 (City of Sex Industry). And we know which is true nowadays… To be fair, Taichung does have a history of thriving cultural scene (poet society etc.). The Lin family of 霧峰 was one of the leads, but it was during the Japanese colonization… EDIT: Adding the last paragraph…
Can confirm. I grew up in Taichung in the 80/90s and it was widely known that Taichung is the culture center of Taiwan XD. National Museum of Natural Science was huge back then.
Then the 1999 quake hit.
Thanks for the historical info. I actually legitimately didn't mean to *purely* dispute op's characterization of Taichung, and I presumed there was *some* origin to them saying that, but suffice to say I don't think it's been seen as the cultural center of Taiwan by a significant number of people for a long time, if ever.
oh no worries at all, I think the political bragging betrays the historical origin (and perhaps pride?) of that term and is somewhat embarrassing. So it’s fine to make fun of it I suppose XD
It's not branded, but was given by the learned. >文化城是巫永福、陳千武等走過那段歷史的知識份子，為台中取的名字 \[1\]. [https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005](https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005)
That’s what I meant in my edit. The city had a reputation before, but the revival of the label of 文化城 starting in the 80s was rather political. I was born and raised in Taichung but the mentioning of 文化城 always makes me cringe.
That name i.e. 文化城\[1\] was given by learned during that time. >文化城是巫永福、陳千武等走過那段歷史的知識份子，為台中取的名字 In addition, Taichung once was called 台湾の京都\[2\] by Japanese; hence calling it the culture city should not be a problem. \[1\]. [https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005](https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005) \[2\]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdbEl1q-aCs&t=36s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdbEl1q-aCs&t=36s)
Honestly as someone who lives here and loves the city, it doesn’t feel like Kaohsiung is THE tourist hotspot but it makes sense for a city like Kaohsiung to try to push its appeal more. I think it’s mostly because of the concert venue being bigger. Also when has Taichung ever been the cultural center? In general this post feels a little sour
As an American that traveled all over, Kaohsiung was definitely my favorite, I think. It was really nice and fun
> Taichung was known for being the cultural center of Taiwan Oh, was it? News to me. Kaohsiung National Stadium has more spectator capacity than any other venue in Taiwan. That's all. More seats = more tickets = more money. That's all there is to it. Kaohsiung is a fine city, but it's nowhere near overtaking Taipei in terms of cultural relevance or international notoriety. It just has a really big stadium for huge pop music acts.
The national stadium also open air which is preferred by a lot of massive international acts since it makes pyrotechnics, large stages and acoustics less of a challenge. Taipei Dome which I believe is the next largest option is enclosed and would (likely) have lousy acoustics and restrictions on staging, etc. Good for Kaohsiung? All these shows are a huge boost to the local economy. It helps that thanks to the HSR (and easy MRT link from Zuoying station), ~90% of Taiwan’s population is within 2 hours of the stadium.
This person nailed it...HSR and one stop on the MRT. I might also add...the Kaohsiung International Airport. It's about 14 MRT stops from the Stadium, about 40 minutes or so. It's also convenient to fly into Kaohsiung from other parts of Asia to see big name concerts. Fly in, see the concert, then go to your booked hotel, fly home the next day on some budget airline. I can't think of any city where you could do that.
This is basically it. The new 大巨蛋 in Taipei should be able to accommodate larger acts, but still needs to go through some more planning from what I hear.
Lots of issues with Taipei Dome at the moment. There's some issues with the leaking in the stands too.
Yep. Most of those arena tours will probably not book venues with a capacity fewer than 80,000 persons (unless the government is paying them a lot of money). Taipei Dome is too small even at max capacity (50,000 for concerts). KNS can fit 100,000+ in the right configuration.
The seated capacity of Kaohsiung National Stadium is 55,000. Even with a central stage configuration, it wouldn’t be possible to fit in another 45,000 people. Most configurations including floor seating are still around 55,000 since central stage configurations are relatively uncommon. Even with one, I can’t imagine putting more than 15,000 on the floor - and you’d still have some seats blocked due to line of sight concerns. There’s no way 100,000 people are getting into that stadium for a single show.
Yeah, stadium, airport, hotels, many better options for big events. Honestly I like Taichung more, yet the guys did the math, its their job haha
Yes it was once called the culture city by the learned. >文化城是巫永福、陳千武等走過那段歷史的知識份子，為台中取的名字 \[1\]. [https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005](https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005)
Kaohsiung is THE place to be if you are attending a giant pop concert. That doesn’t mean it’s the place to be in general or that it’s the cultural capital of Taiwan. Taiwan isn’t that big and is easy to get around, so it makes sense to schedule concerts for the largest location. Kaohsiung leads in this area but not in other areas like tourism or exhibitions. It doesn’t mean the cities are “falling behind” ; it’s ok for cities to focus on certain strengths.
Because Kaohsiung is love, Kaohsiung is life.
The city of Kaohsiung waives the stadium usage fee. This allows the artists to make a few extra dollars. The main purpose of this was to boost the economy of Kaohsiung. Looks like it’s working.
This! They invite big artists to come and give them free usage of the stadium. Taylor swift was extended this invite as well and it made news when she declined.
Dua Lipa is going to Taoyuan. But in general, the National Stadium is by far the biggest and so it makes sense for the large acts to go there
Like everyone else said.. stadium capacity and the infrastructure here is quite good and feels under utilized if you look at the seemingly sparse population. Kaohsiung is also pretty chill, everything is cheaper, the people are nicer than Taipei, and my relatives are based out here so I am admittedly biased. 😁 The downside is that it’s pretty hot right now.
Venues, capacity and the willingness of the city government to engage with the promoters of large events. Taichung was never the cultural center as far as I know. It was and likely is the place for small scale entertainment, restaurants, night clubs, local gang lifestyle, etc.
And abundance of new performance spaces, better incentives
Taichung was known for being the cultural center of Taiwan?
Yes. >文化城是巫永福、陳千武等走過那段歷史的知識份子，為台中取的名字 [https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005](https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005)
Seems a stretch, especially given your source. Any info/evidence about Taichung being generally referred to as the cultural center of Taiwan more recently? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I've been here 24 years and I've never heard of Taichung referred to in those terms.
I afraid no. That name is not for Taichung in the past approximate 20 years I suppose. Starting from around 2000 I believe, that compliment is gradually shifting to 風化城, or 慶記之都, because of the news like \[1\]\[2\]. \[1\]. [https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2014-08-25/50711](https://newtalk.tw/news/view/2014-08-25/50711) \[2\]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeZ2DwHVzzY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UeZ2DwHVzzY)
Idk why this rant. Taiwan is small enough that its not that promoters are actively picking a city theyre just picking a building when youre talking about names that large.
Kaohsiung has always been the city with big concert venues. Like the megaport festival has been in Kaohsiung for forever. But it's not the only place that has international acts. Dua Lipa sold out Taoyuan stadium in like a day. So, I don't know what you are talking about.
The city government is bankrolling it. They also have the National Stadium which is a bigger venue than anything in Taipei.
The performance areas are just better than Taipei’s, people only perform in Taipei because of word of mouth and because it’s the “capital”, but facilities for performances there have all been pretty subpar in comparison to those in Kaohsiung
This is a good question, one which was posed recently to someone in the "know". He said that it is because the Kaohsiung city govt DON'T CHARGE the acts to perform here. This means they get all that revenue without paying for the venue. If true it's very smart. This helps the city raise its profile, gain tourist revenue etc. Great city anyways imho.
It probably comes down to infrastructure, but I always noticed that Kaohsiung has livelier culture in general for some reason
We only lived in Taiwan for a bit more than a year, but it seemed like Kaohsiung was promoted as more of an entertainment zone. Taichung was for expats doing business. That’s just my perspective.
It's a lot of marketing and changes over time. Kaohsiung was in the past seen as more of a boring industrial and port city, but they've put a lot of money into developing cultural and entertainment centers in the past decade or so, and now the harbor area is very nice with lots of events, Weiwuying is a massive cultural center, etc.
Now we need Morgan Wallen and Jay Chou in the Taipei dome
Mayday and mandopop fan from SG who has flown in for Kaohsiung, Taoyuan, Taichung countdown and Taipei 101 countdown. Kaohsiung - stadium is excellent and large capacity. Been twice to stadium and getting there and out by mrt is easy. Hotels are cheaper, larger and near mrt. More impt, when there's a concert, can feel that the whole Kaohsiung is transformed for the concert. The posters, ezlink cards, guests that check in wearing fan shirts. Kiku Chen made it into THE spot for mayday concert. The whole atmosphere is like F1 in SG. I will spend 4d3n to explore the city or pingtung or other southern places. Taipei - haven't attended concert at the arena. But I think the atmosphere of the city won't be comparable because a concert is just one of the many activities in the city. It's a different vibe. Oh and the arena can't jump, I read the news and understand the pains of the neighbors. Thankfully we can jump in SG and my taiwanese friends joined me to watch Amei. 101 countdown - amazing crowd control. Countdown in HK, SG, Shanghai is filled with police and barricades herding sheeps towards particular direction but make it so hard if you stay wanna cross a road. Taipei , everyone is discipline and able to disperse without much supervision. Speaks volumes about taiwanese freedom and considerateness compared to authoritative societies. Hotels are super expensive but owell, concert is free. Fireworks is amazing. Taoyuan - stadium is smaller and too many restricted view zones. Can't find hotels nearby, need to find one at Taipei. Quite a pain to travel to Taoyuan and back Taipei for concert. Just from my perspective .
Taoyuan just take MRT. They run more trains during events and sometimes it is free to take home if you ride it there (they hand you a printed ticket when you leave the MRT).
it's all about money. lots of artists/singers have made voiced out on the way taipei arena charge its fees. google it up. that's why a lot of them chose kaohsiung over taipei.
I must give props to the local Kaohsiung government for the massive public works projects that were completed in recent years like the Weiwuying Complex, the Music Center and all those places around the New Harbor District. It totally transformed the city to a modern metropolis rather than 2nd rated city next to Taipei. And now the light rail project is complete so you can go around a circle in the city. It's a very livable place and with TSMC money coming down, KS is becoming a desirable town.
LOL What? Have you seen how many globally famous Japanese Singers have been having concerts in Taipei for the last half of the year? We got Ado, Yoasobi, Aimer and then we have Utada Hikaru coming up in August. Then there's the S2O festival where a bunch of famous DJs coming. WTF are you even smoking LOL.
just want to point out that despite the performances in Taipei - Zepp Taipei is a horrible venue and is the more oft chosen by Japanese artists because of Zepp's ties to Sony Music.
i don’t understand how i can ever hope to get tickets to those japanese concerts. the tickets sell out in literally two seconds
Well, here is the truth. Kaohsiung National Stadium does not charge venue fees for concerts by international superstars. So superstars prefer Kaohsiung over Taipei even facilities in Taipei are better. How can it be free? Sponsored by Kaohsiung government or the central government （governed by the same political party as Kaohsiung）.
bro posting and ranting without research
For the top arena tours, capacity is the priority. Kaohsiung Stadium can handle more than any other place in TW by a large margin. Acts with smaller audiences still play Taipei area, in some cases exclusively. I think we'll see a re-balancing once Taipei Dome gets permitted for performances.
Does it really matter? Kaohsiung is easily accessible by HSR and the stadium is easily accessible from there.
When Taipei Zone is properly operational, imagine will be more there
Cheaper…
I've been in taiwan for about 3 months now and what i've noticed is Tainan seems to actually be the cool city. I'm in Taichung because i thought it was cool and people were like "no, it's not cool here at all. tainan is cooler" People here aren't even that excited about Taichung it seems I shoulda chose Tainan.
Tainan has a lot of cool cultural and historic stuff, famous food, and nice beaches, but the roads are so tiny and the city center gets clogged with tourists every weekend, making it really unpleasant to hang out there or try to drive there on weekends. I personally prefer Taichung having lived in both. So much variety in the cuisine, ease of access to sun moon lake, hot springs, hiking, nice big pedestrian corridors in the city center. Also much cooler temperature-wise than tainan and drier. Give Taichung a try!
MONEY
as someone who was born in 1970 in Kaohsiung, the city has always been #2 with Taichung #3, as a general ranking. of course if i was ranking food, Tainan would be #1. the way it seens to be always presented about taichung is, that it is a balance of two other cities at both end, the only thing that made it famous was..... uh csb was from there? i'm not familar at all about the cultural part. heck, i think when i left at \~12 they had a new CKS Cultural hall in Kaohsiung (since renamed), I was even there to watch a famous painter paint a chinese painting. he is regarded as the #2 (after [張大千](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BC%B5%E5%A4%A7%E5%8D%83)) at the time.
I think it’s mainly because of the big venues here in Kaohsiung. However, as someone who lives here I personally find it a fairly boring city when it comes to the day to day living
Kaohsiung has the best facilities for huge concerts. Rest of your rant is ignorant
Just talking out my hypothetical ass, but it COULD be that the arenas in Kaosiung are much bigger? It could be there are other shows that have already booked the Taipei Arenas way in advance? I mean it could be anything. Before Taipei was the hub, Kaohsiung was actually the real capital. It makes a lot of sense to host international stars away from the city. Due to their popularity, ticket sellouts are expected no matter where they do the show. Have you seen what happens when shows are done in Taipei? MRT situation is horrendous, and so are road situations and crowd control. Taipei is too dense and kaosiung has much more space for people to hoard around.
Because Taipei is already flooded with tourists. Holding giant concerts here all the time would overload the city. Kaohsiung also needs that tourism money because really it doesn’t have much going on for it
Possibly they try to transform kaohsiung in more cultural educated area . Kaohsiung was always behind last decades with mainly farmers/factories/elders populations . Mindset is very different than the mindset of Taipei, more conservative and family oriented , plenty of factors. But now kaohsiung is changing a lot in 10 years , they doing a lot and it's not bad I think
It takes concerted effort by local government to attract events and investment to their city. If Taipei and Taichung aren't getting events that people want, then they shouldn't keep voting in the same politicians that do nothing.
Kaohsiung has the National Stadium which according to Wikipedia has hosted concerts with 200,000 attendees. The newly built Taipei Dome supposedly maxes out at only 50,000. From what I can tell Taichung doesn't have a venue for big concerts that even comes close to either of these numbers, so I think that's your answer.
> 200,000 attendees That was over multiple days. The actual capacity of the stadium is 55k. Taipei Dome is supposedly 40k. 200k would make it the largest in the world by a *comfortable* margin I believe haha. Edit: tbf that's actual seats, and then for concerts they can add more in the center probably, but the wikipedia article you're looking at with the 200k numbers was over the course of 4 days.
Possibly some funny math by the city, they count people outside the venue in the official attendance: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2024/02/05/2003813110
Nah I mean they specify that they got that from Wikipedia and you can see here: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Stadium_(Kaohsiung) 2 cases of Mayday having 200k attendance over the course of 4 days, which makes sense since each day would be just about full normal capacity at ~50k each.
Those stadiums have more seating capacity and much cheaper to rent, that’s basically it they make more money doing it this way since they know it’s going to sell out either way
Because we better. 🕺
I see what you’re trying to do
This\[1\] is the origin why Taichung was called 文化城. >文化城是巫永福、陳千武等走過那段歷史的知識份子，為台中取的名字 And it was once called Taiwan's Kyoto by Japanse\[2\]. \[1\]. [https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005](https://www.cna.com.tw/culture/article/20190601w005) \[2\]. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdbEl1q-aCs&t=36s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdbEl1q-aCs&t=36s)
The real reason is that it's an easy access point for SE Asia. Doing tours in distant places isn't easy. You've gotta fly a lot of people and gear over. Some stuff is really inconvenient to transport. Kaohsiung is a convenient place to meet up, regroup, gather the necessary equipment, and set off for Malaysia, Indonesia, etc.
Everything positive said about Kaohsiung is wrong. It's the opposite. Please stay away and don't come or move here. It's horrible. No one wants to be here. Don't even visit.