Kaohsiung Electronics

DIY is big in Taiwan, it stands for Do It Yourself. For women this means making your own jewelry, knitting, sewing, ... For guys it means building your own computer, electronics, framing pictures, ...

For me, I've had a chance to self learn some electronics here in Taiwan, there are lots of electronics stores selling electronic tools, kits and components. (You can never have too many tools.)

I used to think the Guan Hua district in Taipei was just the best place in the world for electronic stuff, but Kaohsiung has an even better place, Jianguo Road and Ming Chang Road. For me in Tainan,  this is a great improvement.

As you can see from the map, Tainan(T'ai-nan) is much closer to Kao-hsiung than Taipei. The bus ride to Taipei is about 4.5 hours and 350 NT whereas to go to Kaohsiung is less than 1 hour and at most 106 NT.

Arriving in Kaohsiung, there are great maps in the subway system telling you where you are, but Jianguo Road is right next to the train station.

Jianguo Road has tons of computer and camera stores.
On one street you can do comparison shopping.

At the far Eastern edge of Jianguo Road there is the SunFair store with 5 or 6 floors of all the computer equipment that you might every want.

A little cheesecake always helps.

For me, the interesting road is parallel to Jianguo, one block to the North, Ming Chang road. This road have the electronic components and tools. There are at least 5 stores like this one.

For the hobbyist these places are like Heaven.