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The concentrations of 21 individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and total suspended particles (TSPs) were measured using high-volume air samplers at Tzuo-Yin and Hsiung-Kong sites in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan, for four seasons from 2005 to 2006. The gaseous and particulate phases of individual PAHs were identified using a gas chromatograph with a flame-ionization detector (GC/FID). Measurements show that the concentrations of total (gas+particulate) PAHs generally followed the seasonal variations of the concentrations of TSP (107.2–117.1μgm−3), being the highest in winter (143.9–182.9ngm−3) and lowest in summer (81.4–95.2ngm−3) at both sites. Most PAH species were low-weight PAHs (approximately 80.8–82.0%), followed by high-weight PAHs (10.5–14.6%) and medium-weight PAHs (6.5–6.8%). The fractions of gaseous PAHs decreased with molecular weight or ring number. The particle phase (60.2(73.5%) dominated the high-weight PAHs. Results of receptor model show that industrial combustions (49.1–63.7%) contributed most to ambient PAHs, followed by restaurant emissions (18.4–39.7%) and mobile sources (11.3–22.8%) at the Tzuo-Yin site. At the Hsiung-Kong, mobile sources (49.5–63.3%) contributed most to ambient PAHs, followed by restaurant emissions (19.8–36.6%) and industrial combustions (13.7–27.1%). The differences in the results at the two sites are mainly attributed to the different industries at each site. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]