Love River

Please visit my flickr for more photos.

When I was a child, nobody wanted to go to love river because of not only the smell around Love River but also the prostitution industry (most are unlicensed prostitute) there.

However, the Kaohsiung City Government promulgated policies to clean up the pollution in Love River, and also promised to make Love River kind of family park in 1979. Until now, Love River is an excellent place that people relax and have fun here.

Also, Kaohsiung holds international dragon boat competition every year during Dragon Boat Festival (you would see photos about the competion in 2006 in my flickr). Cheerio will definitely make you excited and nervous!


The source of Love River in practice is Pa-kua-liao-pei (pond) in Jen-wu Hsiang, Kaohsiung Hsien (County). However, since the construction of the Tsao-kung Waterway in Ching Dynasty times, the pond has been partially fed from the Kao-ping River.

The 12 kilometre long waterway, which originally had wharfs for riverine transportation, passes through a basin that includes several 'pei' (or, wetland ponds) and the heights of Ape Hill and Pan-ping-shan before flowing into Kaohsiung Harbour.

Near its mouth, Love River actually divides into two waterways just before it meets the Ta-kang River (today's No2 Canal) in front of Chi-hsien Junior High School. The first is the obvious mainstream which flows under Kaohsiung Bridge and into the harbour. This stretch was previously known as Tau-tchim-kang to Taiwanese. The now nearly-hidden, and vastly shrunken, second leaves the mainstream at Chi-hsien Bridge and passes along between Lai-nan Street and Chi-hsien Road before flowing into the harbour.