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Showing posts from July, 2009

Moonscape in Kaohsiung

The view of some rock formations that the locals refer to as "the moon," as seen from the window of a passing car on the Second Southern Highway. The Moon Worlds of Kaohsiung County China Post Article Speeding along a serpentine country road through the unexceptional, low rolling countryside of Kaohsiung County, our scooters round a corner when abruptly the mixed woodland bordering the lane ends, the ground on the left falls away steeply, and an extraordinary ravine of crumbly, light brown earth unfolds to the left. The Americans call this type of landscape “badlands,” but to the Taiwanese they’re more like the surface of the moon: “Lunar World,” as they call them. These strange landscapes of barren clay soil eroded into bizarre knife-edge ridges, sharp pinnacles and graceful, curved arcs are a strangely beautiful if surreal element of the landscape in parts of northern Kaohsiung and southern Tainan Counties. Badlands landscapes are by no means unique to this region of Taiwan