Old Gangshan Bus Station 高雄客運岡山舊站

I am mostly going to use this blog as a resource for people who are traveling in Taiwan and want to find some more obscure places or even obscure places that are in or around or near famous Taiwanese tourist destinations.

So most of the places that I will post about are still around, however, this is not one of them.

The Gangshan bus station was built in 1963 and was very reminiscent of the old Taiwan style bus stations that dot many small towns in Taiwan.

Gangshan is a small city about 30 minutes north of Kaohsiung. It has a cool old name 阿公店 which is translated as Grandfather’s Store. When the Japanese took over they changed the name to 岡山 Gangshan. Gangshan is certainly not my favorite area of Kaohsiung but it does have a cool old street 老街, some Japanese Era buildings and it’s famous for goat noodles羊肉炒麵(one of my favorite Taiwanese dishes) Anyway, back to the bus station.

The bus station followed the history of travel to and from Gangshan and the history of Gangshan’s downtown area. It was built near the edge of what was the center of town, but then in 1993, a new Gangshan Train Station opened south of the bus station and then, of course, the city center followed too. Then in 2008, the Gangshan South MRT line opened even more south of the Gangshan Train Station which spelled doom for the bus terminal.

It did stay open for about a decade after the opening of the Gangshan MRT station, but in 2017 it finally closed for good when the Kaohsiung Bus Company moved closer to the Gangshan South MRT Station.

I never actually used this bus terminal or knew much about it but I learned about its closing through some Facebook groups I am in. So I when I was in the area one day in 2018 I thought I should pop in and see what I could see before it’s gone for good.

Since it was the oldest still used bus terminal in Kaohsiung, there was some effort put forward to save it. The main building had a Modernist Style that was used around Taiwan after the Japanese left. The top of the main building also has a cool little Art Deco flare. But it was all for naught. The building was demolished sometime in 2019.

I never used this particular bus station in my years in Taiwan, but I used plenty like it more times than I can remember. I am sure all around Taiwan little bus stations are being moved, demolished or whatever. There wasn’t much use for this old building anymore, but still a little sad that it’s gone.

Next time I am in the area, I will get a picture of what it looks like now.

Finally went back and got a picture.