1 / 7Zhongzheng Park & the GuanyinPhoto: Wikimedia contributor / CC BY-SA 4.0
Tap a photo to see it large. 7 photographs, every one credited.
Checked against official sources · updated · Takumi Yamada
The white goddess of mercy has watched Keelung’s harbor since 1969 — climb through the temple terraces for the full panorama of your ship below.
- Short enough to be certain of: 1 hr 30 min door to door, so even a tender day works.
- Free to visit.
- On a 4–6h ashore call our verdict is "Easy addition" — add zhengbin harbour by taxi and the day is full.
- It is not only a photo stop: spain, the dutch, the qing, france and japan all took this harbour, and it is only a few kilometres wide.
- Always — ghost festival hall tue–sun 9:00–17:00, closed mon and national holidays (listed as under renovation).
- 1 hr 30 min door to door needs a 3.5-hour call: a 2–3 hour stop cannot hold it. Pick something closer instead.
- It is a view, so it is weather. Check the morning sky before you commit the hours.
- No single published ride covers this one. Budget for a taxi both ways, or fold it into a guided day.
Why Zhongzheng Park & the Guanyin is famous
Spain, the Dutch, the Qing, France and Japan all took this harbour, and it is only a few kilometres wide
A hillside park above the harbour with a 22.5-metre white Guanyin statue, raised in 1969, that you can climb inside. The park also holds a memorial to the 1884 French siege of Keelung. The view takes in the whole port, including your own ship.
Keelung is a deep natural harbour at the northern tip of Taiwan, facing the shipping lanes to Japan and the Chinese coast. Between 1626 and 1945 it was taken by the Spanish, the Dutch, the Qing, the French and the Japanese — and each of them left something you can still see.
The park climbs the hillside directly behind the harbour and is topped by a white Guanyin statue about 22 metres tall, flanked by two large lions, looking straight down at the cruise berths.
The same hillside holds the Keelung Midsummer Ghost Festival Museum, which explains the city's Zhongyuan festival — the oldest and largest ghost month ceremony in Taiwan, running since 1855 as a deliberate replacement for lethal fighting between two immigrant communities.
On what is now Heping Island
Back again 1664–68, then gone for good
And loses ~700 men, mostly to disease
Keelung becomes the gateway to Japan for fifty years
Walk up to Ershawan Fort and look down at your own ship. Every power that took this harbour wanted that view.
Things worth knowing
- It is a genuine hill. Take a taxi up and walk down if the heat is serious.
- The Keelung Tower lift up from Yi 2nd Road (free) reopened on 22 August 2026 after renovation: 09:00–21:00 daily, closed on the last Monday of each month.
- The ghost festival museum is listed by the city as closed for renovation, with no reopening date. Check the listing before counting on it.
- Ershawan Fort, taken by the French in 1884, is on the same ridge.
- Jilong基隆 — Keelung. The older name, Kelang, referred to the local Ketagalan people.
- Ershawan二沙灣砲台 — The fort above the harbour, built in 1840. The French took it in 1884.
Zhongzheng Park & the Guanyin and your ship
Both pins on one map, so the distance is a fact rather than a feeling.
Questions people send us
What is at Zhongzheng Park in Keelung?
A hillside park behind the harbour topped by a white Guanyin statue about 22 metres tall, looking directly down at the cruise berths. The same ridge holds the Keelung Midsummer Ghost Festival Museum and Ershawan Fort, taken by the French in 1884.
How hard is the walk up to Zhongzheng Park?
About fifteen minutes uphill from the berths, and it is a real hill in Keelung's humidity. Taking a taxi up and walking down is the sensible order, especially in summer.
Routes that already include it
Each one is a finished day timed from the official timetables, with this stop in it. Read the route rather than assembling it yourself.
What to put beside it
Each of these still lands you back aboard with the hour to spare.
2 hr 30 min for bothLee Hu pastry, since 1882
Keelung’s own century-old bakery — pineapple cakes and curry pastries the locals queue for instead of the Taipei brands.
See the detail
3 hr for bothMiaokou Night Market crawl
Taiwan’s street-food canon ten minutes from the gangway — crab thick soup, one-bite sausages, the "nutritious sandwich" fried to order.
See the detail