The lighthouse was built in 1967 with steel-reinforced concrete and stands 34 meters tall. Its working life was brief: fifteen years of operation before its navigational equipment was relocated to the Port of Taichung's lighthouse in 1982, rendering it functionally obsolete. The Port of Taichung, which expanded significantly through the latter half of the twentieth century to become one of Taiwan's major commercial harbors, required more powerful and strategically placed lighting equipment than the Gaomei structure could provide. The original lighthouse was not demolished — Taiwan has generally been willing to preserve coastal infrastructure — but it sat unused for decades before the Maritime and Port Bureau undertook its renovation. It is now managed by the Ministry of Transportation and Communications.

Visually, the Gaomei Lighthouse is immediately recognizable: painted in alternating red and white horizontal bands, it rises from the flat coastal plain of Qingshui District at a point where the land gives way to the tidal flats of the Gaomei Wetlands. The 34-meter height, modest by international lighthouse standards, is sufficient to make it visible from a considerable distance across the wetlands, particularly at low tide when the mudflats extend outward and the tower's reflection pools in the still water. The surrounding landscape is deliberately flat — this part of Taiwan's western coast is low-lying, without the dramatic headlands that dramatic lighthouse settings usually require. The tower compensates with color and verticality, a bold mark against the sky whether under the subtropical sun or caught in the amber light of a wetlands sunset.

There is something pleasantly ironic about the Gaomei Lighthouse's second life. It served as navigational infrastructure for fifteen years, guiding ships through the strait. It has now been a visitor attraction for over a decade, which means it has already outlasted its operational period as a public destination. The renovation that reopened it in 2014 preserved the original structure rather than rebuilding it, and visitors can view the lighthouse up close as part of the larger Gaomei Wetlands area. The Taiwan Strait coastline here is not dramatic in the manner of rocky Atlantic shores — the tidal wetlands create a different kind of beauty, horizontal and atmospheric — and the lighthouse provides the vertical counterpoint that anchors the landscape visually. Its original purpose was to be seen from the sea. Now it is seen from the land, and the sea is the backdrop.

The lighthouse sits in Qingshui District, accessible from Taichung Port Station on the Taiwan Railway, with the structure located to the west of the station. Qingshui is one of the coastal districts of Taichung City, set between the mountains that form the city's eastern backdrop and the Taiwan Strait to the west. The area around the lighthouse and the adjacent Gaomei Wetlands has become a coherent destination — visitors typically combine the lighthouse with the wetland boardwalk, particularly in the late afternoon when the light over the tidal flats shifts through the spectrum of a Taiwan Strait sunset. The lighthouse, dark since 1982, has found its role.