Travel Date: 2024/04/05
* It was pretty long post, thus I separated it into 2 parts - check out part 2 - LINK *
Check out also our first day travel, where we visited Shoushan Zoo and Zuoying Old Town
It's the first day of our 3-day, 2-night trip to Kaohsiung. Interestingly, it happened to be just 2 days after the strongest earthquake in 25 years struck Hualien, but most of the places we planned to visit are in the mountains. The earthquake's impact wasn't as significant here, considering the distance and the relatively small size of the mountains. Surprisingly, we encountered plenty of people traveling here as well, showing that life goes on despite natural events.
During our trip, we revisited some places that we had seen 4 years ago, and they were vastly different from before.
Four years ago, we went to check out Tianliao Moon World, a unique place in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. It looked totally different from what we saw when we went there recently. The pond in front of the mountains was all dried up. I suggest visiting in the summer when there's more rain. Now, it's all dry and not that nice.
It's free to get in, and finding a spot to park is pretty easy. It used to be a place where people and goats lived. Now, it's a park with temples and a mud volcanoes hiding nearby.
The park is pretty big, it more than an hour to walk around. At night, they light up the park with lights, making it look magical.
Moon World is part of a big area in southern Taiwan that looks like a desert. It's called "badlands" because of how the land got all rough from rain and streams over a long time. The rocks there are mudstone, sandstone, shale, and chalk. Only spiny bamboo can grow there. Because there's not much growing, the rain makes the hills change a lot, and that's why they look so interesting.
We visited here just two days after a recent massive earthquake struck Hualien, so we decided not to climb up the stones, opting instead to only walk around.
Our next destination was Tianliao Stone Temple (石頭廟). The temple's story dates back to 1973 when its construction began, lasting a span of 12 years. Its origins can be traced to the ancient Putuo Mountain Temple, a small hidden temple in the grasslands.
During our visit four years ago, the temple seemed relatively unknown, with few visitors. However, it's remarkably different now. We encountered a significant influx of people, including tour buses. Additionally, while parking was limited in the past, there's now a sizable parking lot available.
The temple is structured into a front hall, rear hall, and museum. The museum exhibits various household items and crafts from earlier times.
The name "Stone Temple" is derived from its unique hall constructed with stones and shells, resembling an underwater palace. Tianliao Stone Temple venerates several Taoist gods, with the main deity being the Cundi Bodhisattva.
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