Live cameras in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Kaohsiung is Taiwan's great southern port and, with about 2.7 million people, its third-largest city. Since merging with the old Kaohsiung County in 2010 it is also the largest municipality by area, stretching from the harbor and the Love River up into the mountains. The Port of Kaohsiung is the island's biggest harbor and handles the majority of its container trade, while steel mills, petrochemical plants and shipyards line the waterfront. Visitors know the city for the Dragon and Tiger Pagodas on Lotus Pond, the converted warehouses of Pier-2 Art Center, the 85 Sky Tower, the modern National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts and the ferry ride to Cijin Island, the long sandbar that shelters the harbor.

Port city roads on camera

Kaohsiung's feeds belong to the national freeway and highway CCTV network, which the transport ministry releases to the public as open data on TDX. They watch the roads that bring traffic into the south: National Freeway 1, which ends in the city after its run from Keelung, National Freeway 3 on the inland side, and National Freeway 10, the short east-west link between them. Because a camera belongs to the nearest place on our map, this page shows views around the urban core, while cameras in outer districts may sit on other pages. Each view is a snapshot replaced several times an hour, good for checking whether interchanges are flowing or backed up with port trucks.

Clocks in Kaohsiung stay eight hours ahead of UTC from January to December, since Taiwan dropped summer time decades ago. It is the sunniest of the big cities, with a tropical climate that stays warm all year. Most rain falls from June through August, often in short afternoon storms, and typhoons can pass between July and October. In midsummer the sun sets around a quarter to seven; in December it is gone by about twenty past five. During the Lantern Festival season the Love River banks fill with lights and crowds, and evening traffic grows accordingly.

Tainan, the old capital, is under an hour north by freeway, and Kenting on the southern tip of the island is the classic weekend drive from here.

Sources: Kaohsiung - Wikipedia · National Freeway 1 (Taiwan) - Wikipedia · National Freeway 3 (Taiwan) - Wikipedia.