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. Anyone who’s motored along freeway one between Miaoli and Taichung cities will have passed and maybe admired the magnificent moonscape of Fire Mountain (火炎山), just south of the town of Sanyi, while there are several examples in the east-coast county of Taitung. To see Taiwan’s most impressive, photogenic and extensive “lunar world” landscapes, however, look no further than the Kaohsiung/Tainan county border area.

Perhaps the best known of all is the area called Tianliao Moon World (田寮月世界), on route 184, three kilometers east of Tianliao village. This area is easily accessible (there’s no need to even leave the car, as there’s a good view of the entire landscape from the busy main road), but various ungainly additions to the landscape, such as wide, elevated concrete walkways and ornamental concrete pavilions crowned with sickle moons, rob the landscape of its natural beauty. The place more resembles a children’s playground built in an old quarry than the fascinating natural curiosity that it is.

Head instead for Caoshan (草山), 15 kilometers north, and Taiwan’s largest expanse of badlands landscape. Caoshan is a small settlement at the northern end of an isolated, five-kilometer-long ridge rising out of the otherwise featureless lowlands of southern Tainan County. The area is very popular with tourists, most of whom head for the 308 Viewpoint (308高地, named after its height, in meters, above sea level). This is as good a place as any to begin an exploration of the bizarre landscape that lies just to the north.

The viewpoint (and adjacent coffee shop, an ugly, two-story monstrosity of exposed metal girders) commands a magnificent panorama over a huge area of barren, eroded soil—a deeply wrinkled landscape eroded into countless mini gullies, ravines and peaks. Vegetation hangs on in places, softening the landscape a little, but this place still looks like nowhere else in Taiwan.

Enjoy the view for a few minutes, but if time is short, leave this tourist trap behind and head down into the heart of the badlands themselves. The direct way is via a narrow lane that fearlessly plunges straight down the very steep northern escarpment of the ridge. Take care if going this way, as it’s very steep. In a couple of kilometers, the road levels out temporarily. Look out here for a sign in Chinese to the “Grand Canyon” (大峽谷).

Turn right and follow the dusty lane for a couple of hundred meters until photogenic pinnacles of earth loom above the road on either side, for all the world like miniature mountain ranges. Park in the car park at the end of the road, and walk towards the metal fence in front, until the “Grand Canyon” is suddenly revealed as the ground in front drops away into a deep ravine.

The silly name does this beautiful place no favors. It’s neither a spectacular nor a massive landform, but the countless formations of the rain- and wind-carved ravine walls—impressive, exquisite, delicate, often appearing to defy gravity—make a wondrous sight. This place is especially magical come late afternoon as the sun sinks low in the sky, casting a rich orange light over the cliffs.

The Grand Canyon of Caoshan makes for some great photo ops and the developed area around Tianliao Moon World is perfect for the kids, but my own favorite area of badlands is the one we stumbled across on our scooters at the beginning of this article: a little-known one lying about midway between them.

Take route 28 from Tianliao, and about two kilometers after Moon World, turn left onto a narrow lane known as route 39-1. Motor along this quiet, winding road for a spell, and once again thick undergrowth and trees make way for those strange hillsides of crumbling earth.

The landscape here looks no more like the surface of the moon, for all I know, than the nearby Grand Canyon resembles its namesake in the U.S. but one thing is for certain: This is the closest thing we have in Taiwan to a lunar landscape.