Travel Date: 2019/07/19
Moon World (月世界)
This time we visited Tianliao Moon World (田寮月世界) located between Chongde Village and Gutin Village in Tianliao, Kaohsiung. The entrance to the park is completely free, and finding parking space here is quite easy. Upon entering, you can find some food and drinks available, and along the nearby road, there are many shops selling chicken.
Additionally, you can also visit the Moon World Mud Rock Geological Center. Inside, you can see pictures of Moon World in the past before it became a tourist attraction. From these pictures, you can notice that people and many goats used to inhabit this area. Now, it has been transformed into a landscaped park with temples nearby and a hidden mud volcano in the vicinity. At the visitor center, a friendly man treated us to some mango juice and gave us two postcards. He also took pictures with us and had a notebook where every foreigner visiting the place could write their name and country of origin.
The park is quite large, and it took us over an hour to walk around. Near the entrance, there is a larger pond, creating a beautiful landscape with white bare hills in the background. On the right side of the trail behind the pond, there was some construction taking place, so the entrance to that area is currently closed. However, you can follow the road on the left, which leads you behind the hills where there are stairs that take you to the top. From there, you can see a smaller pond as well as a panoramic view of the park from above. At night, the park is illuminated with lights, creating a magical atmosphere.
A similar landscape to Moon World can be seen in other places near the central mountains, such as Tainan or Taidong.
See also: Caoshan Moon World
Tianliao Moon World is located between Chongde Village and Gutin Village in Tianliao, Kaohsiung. This place is a barren land tract and has the beauty of a desolate desert. It is famous for its similarity to the landscape of the Moon.
This unique terrain is called "badlands" in geography, which is an adverse landscape caused by strong erosion from rain and streams over the years due to the "rejuvenation" of the Earth's crust. Tianliao Moon World is situated in the valley of a small tributary of the Erren River and used to have a dam for sediment storage during the rainy season. The harsh mudstone terrain has been eroded by rain and river water for many years.
Moon World is part of a stretch of badlands that cover a large area of southern Taiwan near the central mountain range. Typical badlands are found in drier climates and are composed of sedimentary rocks. These hills usually have very little vegetation and feature deep valleys or ravines. The badlands in Taiwan are unique because they are found in a tropical rainforest.
The rocks in this area are composed of mudstone, sandstone, shale, and chalk. Mudstone is a fine-grained sedimentary rock that can split into layers called shale. Shale is composed of mud, clay minerals, and other minerals like quartz and calcite. Sandstones are composed of quartz and are highly resistant to weathering. Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite (calcium carbonate).
Due to the high alkaline levels caused by chalk in the soil, trees and grass cannot grow, and the only plant that can thrive in the soil is spiny bamboo. The lack of vegetation, combined with high rainfall, leads to the rapid erosion of hills, creating the unique badlands landscape. The Caoshan River and the Ganglin Rivers have also played a role in carving out the landscape and creating the bare hills.
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| Mudstone Ice Creams |
Mud Volcanoes (月世界泥火山)
Mud Volcanoes (月世界泥火山) can be found in the nearby area, although not within the park itself. A mud volcano (or mud dome) is a landform created by the eruption of mud, slurries, water, and gases. Several geological processes can cause the formation of mud volcanoes. Unlike regular volcanoes, mud volcanoes do not produce lava and are not necessarily driven by magmatic activity. The Earth continuously exudes a mud-like substance, which contributes to the formation of mud volcanoes. They can range in size from a few meters high and wide to several hundred meters high and kilometers wide. The mud produced by mud volcanoes is mostly formed by hot water, which has been heated deep below the Earth's surface, mixed and blended with subterranean mineral deposits. The temperature of an active mud volcano generally remains fairly steady and is much lower than the typical temperatures found in igneous volcanoes. Mud volcano temperatures can range from near 100 °C to occasionally 2 °C. Some mud volcanoes are even used as "mud baths."
In the nearby area, there are two mud volcanoes, a smaller one and a larger one, and their activity can be seen from time to time. The mud volcano is composed of faults, natural gas, and mud, which create an outward eruption force. The gushing mud, accompanied by a water-like sound, is a spectacular and interesting sight. The mud has also formed a pond in the area. The sign on the road also mentioned the presence of hot springs when following another road, although we walked for a while and didn't see anything.
See also: Wushanding Mud Volcano Natural Reserve
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