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 (107.2-117.1 mu gm(-3)), being the highest in winter (143.9-182.9 ng m(-3)) and lowest in summer (81.4-95.2 ng m(-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. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.