⭐ Highlight
Fo Guang Shan Buddha Museum
Vast Buddhist complex with a giant bronze Buddha, eight pagodas and free museum halls.
Typical duration
180 min
Price
Free
From port
30 km / 18.6 mi
Transfer time
50 min
Indoor / Outdoor
mixed
Queue risk
low
🕐 Best time to visit
Arrive at 09:00 opening; closed on Tuesdays
Fo Guang Shan was founded in 1967 by the monk Hsing Yun and is the largest Buddhist monastery in Taiwan. The Buddha Museum, opened in 2011, is the part most visitors come for: an avenue of eight pagodas leads to a huge main hall, and behind it sits the bronze Fo Guang Big Buddha, visible from far across the valley. Inside are galleries on the life of the Buddha, shrines, a tea room and a vegetarian restaurant. Admission is free. It is open 09:00–18:00 (to 19:00 at weekends) and closed every Tuesday; a shuttle runs to the older monastery next door.
Getting there from the port
Taxi or Uber about 50 minutes; or bus 8010 from Kaohsiung Main Station, about an hour