The Port of Kaohsiung lies on the southwestern shores of the island of Taiwan about 180 kilometers south of the Port of Taichung. Taiwan's principal port and the sixth largest container port in the world, Kaohsiung City is an important industrial center as well, with the 2.2 thousand hectare Linhai Industrial Park located on the waterfront near the Port of Kaohsiung. The industrial park contains a shipyard, a petrochemical complex, a steel mill, and many other industries. In 2008, the municipality of Kaohsiung City was home to over 1.5 million people, and more than 2.7 million lived in the metropolitan area.

Kaohsiung City is also home to many manufacturing plants and an oil refinery. Manufacturers produce aluminum, cement, refined sugar, salt, brick and tile, fertilizer, and paper. The Port of Kaohsiung is an export center for agricultural products produced across southern Taiwan, and it is also an important fishing port. The city also supports a major canning industry that processes both fish and fruit.

Called Ta-kou by the Chinese who settled the area in the later Ming Dynasty, the site of the Port of Kaohsiung was a small fishing village and home to the indigenous Makato tribe. It was known as Tancoia by the Dutch who dominated from 1624 to 1660 and began to develop the harbor. Real growth of the Port of Kaohsiung began in the late 1600s when it was called Ch'i-hou after the Chinese had regained the island.

By 1684 under the Qing Dynasty, the harbor for the Port of Kaohsiung had been improved dramatically, and the port was an important distribution center for the Kaohsiung and Pingtung areas.

The Port of Kaohsiung became a treaty port (open to foreign trade) in 1863 and a customs station in 1864. After that, it grew steadily in importance as a port for south Taiwan. Growth was only slowed by the rocky harbor entrance that has to be dredged for vessels to enter its excellent natural harbor. A lighthouse was built atop Chihou Mountain in 1883. In 1891, one sailboat and eight ships used the Port of Kaohsiung harbor.

When the Japanese occupied Taiwan after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, the Port of Kaohsiung became one of Taiwan's most important ports because it could provide the raw materials and food needed in Japan. The country's main north-south railway line ended there.

The harbor was developed by the Japanese from 1904 to 1907, and they named it Takao in 1920, making the Port of Kaohsiung a municipality at the same time. In 1904, they installed pilings for the warehouse, dredged the sandbar, and reclaimed a large area of land for the railway. By 1912, the Port of Kaohsiung had wharves that could receive seven three thousand DWT ships.

The Port of Kaohsiung was quickly overcome with commercial traffic and expansions were begun. In 1924, 904 ships called at the Port of Kaohsiung carrying almost 1.4 million tons of cargo. By 1937, the Port of Kaohsiung had a total of 1878 meters of wharves with alongside depth of 8.2 meters, and the harbor could accommodate 26 ships from three to ten thousand DWT. The wharves could berth 16 ships at one time, and there were 25 warehouses. In 1937, the Port of Kaohsiung handled 2.5 million tons of cargo.

The Port of Kaohsiung was used by Japan as an important military base for its World War II campaigns in the Pacific and Southeast Asia, and they created a huge modern port to serve their needs. Near the end of the war, the Japanese established an aluminum industry in the Port of Kaohsiung. For almost a year in 1944-45, the Allies continuously bombed the Port of Kaohsiung. To slow the Allied advance, the Japanese destroyed the warehouse and cargo-handling equipment in the Port of Kaohsiung and sank five ships in the harbor. The Port of Kaohsiung became a ghost port.

When Japan surrendered to end World War II, Taiwan came under the administration of the Republic of China (later the People's Republic of China), and the Port of Kaohsiung began to grow quickly. The port had been seriously damaged during the war, but it was quickly restored.

When the Chinese Nationalist Party under Chiang Kai-shek lost the Chinese Civil War, they moved the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan with Taipei as its capital. In 1955, the reconstruction of the Port of Kaohsiung was complete. In 1958, a new expansion project began that added 544 hectares of shoreline for new facilities and increasing trade. Fishing boats joined its busy commercial traffic.

The second harbor at the Port of Kaohsiung was completed in 1975 to accommodate the larger modern vessels. In 1980, the Chungtao New Commercial Harbor Area added 27 deep-water wharves and two shoal wharves to the Port of Kaohsiung, and work began on the industrial park that includes a million-ton ship-building yard and new container terminals. In 1990, the Port of Kaohsiung's fifth container terminal went into operation.

The government of Taiwan promotes the Port of Kaohsiung as a major transshipment center for the Asia Pacific, a global logistics center, and a free port. With a favorable climate, the Port of Kaohsiung overtook the Port of Keelung as Taiwan's premiere port. Serving a rich agricultural region, the Port of Kaohsiung exports large volumes of rice, bananas, sugar, peanuts, pineapples, and citrus fruit.

The Kaohsiung Harbor Bureau is the port authority for the Port of Kaohsiung. In late 2008, President Ma met with city and port officials and shipping company heads to discuss the future of the Port of Kaohsiung. Several proposals resulted from the meeting that included:

• expanding internationalization and liberalization of the Port of Kaohsiung
• restricting use of the commercial wharves to maintain the port's integrity
• expansion of the container yards and improvements to connections between container terminals

In 2008, the Port of Kaohsiung handled a total of 146 million tons of cargo, including 44.4 million tons of exports and 102.3 million tons of imports. Foreign cargoes of 130.2 million tons included 100.2 million tons of exports and 30 million tons of imports. Domestic cargoes of 16.5 million tons included 14.5 million tons of exports and 2 million tons of imports.

The Port of Kaohsiung contains over one hundred berths with a total length exceeding 23.4 thousand meters that handle all types of cargo. The Port of Kaohsiung has 65 warehouses and transit sheds that can store over 929 thousand tons of cargo and seven outdoor yards that can handle more than 35 thousand tons.

In the Port of Kaohsiung, 27 berths totaling 5373 meters handle general merchandise and include over 117 thousand square meters of warehouse space and over 15 thousand square meters of outdoor yard. Of the 27 berths, 24 have alongside depth of 10.5 meters. One berth is 13 meters deep, one is 14 meters deep, and one is 6.5 meters deep. The Port of Kaohsiung's general merchandise berths range from 151 to 375 meters in length, with an average length of 222 meters. Three berths are 151 meters long, nine berths are from 196 to 205 meters long, two berths are 214 and 215 meters long, one berth is 298 meters long, and three berths are over 300 meters long.

The Port of Kaohsiung contains 25 special use berths that are a total of 5.4 thousand meters long and have almost 32 thousand square meters of warehouse space and almost 400 thousand square meters of yards. Some of these special use wharves handle oil tankers and coal carriers as well as port vessels. With alongside depths from five to 16 meters, depths average 10.5 meters, and berths range from 118 to 384 meters long, averaging 215 meters in length.

Three of the Port of Kaohsiung's 25 special use berths are 118 meters long with alongside depth of 7 meters. Two berths are 139 meters long with alongside depth of 9 meters. Five berths are between 150 and 200 meters long with alongside depths ranging from 4.5 to 11.8 meters. Seven berths are between 200 and 250 meters long, most with alongside depth of 10.5 or 11.5 meters. Five berths are between 250 and 300 meters, and alongside depths range from 6.5 to 16.5 meters (only one berth with less than 10.5 meters depth).

Twenty-three berths in the Port of Kaohsiung with a total length of 6897 meters serve containerized cargo. The container wharves also have more than 710 thousand square meters of yards. Port of Kaohsiung container berth lengths range from 120 to 440 meters, and alongside depths range from 10.5 to 15 meters.

Twelve of these Port of Kaohsiung container berths are 320 meters long with alongside depth of 14 meters. Two berths are less than 200 meters with alongside depths of 14 and 10.5 meters. Five berths are from 230 to 277 meters long with alongside depths of 10.5, 12, and 14.5 meters. One berth is 340 meters long with alongside depth of 14 meters, and two are 355 meters long with alongside depth of 15 meters. The largest berth is 440 meters long with alongside depth of 14.5 meters.

The Port of Kaohsiung has 11 dry bulk berths with a total length of 2350 meters, all of which have alongside depth of 10.5 meters, and more than 3.4 thousand square meters of warehouse space. Two of these wharves (at 184 and 306 meters long) handle dangerous cargo and bulk. Eight of the 11 wharves are 200 meters long, and one is 260 meters long.

The Port of Kaohsiung has two cement berths with silos. Each of them is 200 meters long with alongside depth of 10.5 meters. The Port of Kaohsiung also has two grain berths, each of which is 200 meters long with alongside depth of 14 meters. Four "other use" berths total 517 meters in length and have depths from 5 to 10.5 meters. Kaohsiung City has seven dedicated wharves with a total length of over one thousand meters and 12.9 thousand square meters of warehouse space.

Two passenger berths in the Port of Kaohsiung are a total of 629 meters long, and they have 2.1 thousand square meters of warehouse space. The Passenger Berths are 250 and 378 meters long with alongside depths of 9 and 4.5 meters, respectively.

Kaohsiung City is an industrial town with heavy industry and relatively poor air pollution. It is a planned city with wide streets and less congested traffic than in Taipei. The Port of Kaohsiung has been working at making the city more attractive, and several new areas within the city have undergone major projects in the past few years. It is also a maritime city with one of the world's busiest ports. The Port of Kaohsiung has a wonderfully comfortable climate, with average lows of 15 ºC (59 ºF) in January and average highs of 32 ºC (90 ºF) in July. The rainiest months are May through September, and it is not as rainy as Taipei or Hualien. Visitors to the Port of Kaohsiung will want to check out these attractions.

The Former British Consulate at Takou is on a hilltop overlooking the bay. It was the first British consulate in Taiwan, and its western style reflects its British history. A museum today, the building holds many historic artifacts. The views are wonderful, with Hsizuhwan Bay on one side and the Port of Kaohsiung on the other. There are also dining areas where visitors can enjoy a quiet meal or tea.

The True Love Harbor, the old Pier 12, is lined with walkways and riverside parks, and it is one of the most popular places to go to enjoy the sea and the city sights. Visitors can see the entire city skyline from the harbor, and the night brings a dazzling display of lights.

The Cijin District, on the slender island that protects the Port of Kaohsiung, is filled with seafood restaurants serving freshly-caught fish. Connected to the city by underwater tunnels, you can also ride the ferry across the harbor. A popular family weekend spot, the Cijin District also contains the port's 1883 lighthouse.