![[ Mud Volcano! ] Kaohsiung Moon World Badlands Ride 月世界惡地騎](http://modernblackhand.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/kaohsiung-moon-world-badlands-ride.jpg "[ Mud Volcano! ] Kaohsiung Moon World Badlands Ride 月世界惡地騎")
- Kaohsiung Moon World Badlands Ride Summary
- Background
- Start: Moon World Landscape Park
- Agongdian Reservoir (阿公店水庫)
- Sun Valley and Mud Volcano
- To QiShan (旗山)
- NeiMen & 308 Highland
- GangLin & Back
- Also Recommended:
- Taiwan Bike Routes Map
- [ Bike n Hike ] CaoLing X 10000 Year Gorge 草嶺X萬年峽谷 (Self)
- [Mountain Firecrackers!] Cycling HsinChu Route Sixty to Cinsbu 竹60鎮西堡
- Like My Posts? Subscribe below and Get Latest Post Email Update!
Kaohsiung Moon World Badlands Ride Summary
- Caution: not recommended for riding alone! Skills required:
- Water management.
- Steep hill intervals.
- Narrow, bad road riding experience.
- Starting/ending Location: Moon World Landscape Park, Kaohsiung (月世界地景公園)
- Bike Length: ~ 107 km.
- Hill profile: Two small hills with short steep intervals.
- Good for: Adventure, hill interval training.
- Cautious:
- Bad roads in this area.
- Heavy, speeding motorcycle traffic 4 lane crossing at here.
- Route Highlights:
- Moon World Landscape Park (月世界地景公園)
- Stone Temple (石頭廟)
- Agongdian Reservoir (阿公店水庫)
- WuShanDing mud volcano natural area (烏山頂泥火山自然保留區)
- QiShan Old Street (旗山老街)
- NeiMen ZiZhu Temple (內門紫竹寺)
- ErLiao Sunrise Pavilion (二寮觀日亭)
Background
The Kaohsiung Moon World Badlands Ride explored the “badlands” area at the east side of Tainan City and northern Kaohsiung City.
In this area the soil is composed of high alkalinity chalk, which prohibits plant growth except bamboos. Therefore, the area is filled with sharp, gray bare hills similar to the bare landscape of a moon.
The bare chalk ridge.
Another cool geology in this area is the mud volcano formation. The muddy soil together with the pressure of fault pushes the muddy water mixture upward, forming the cone shape structure.
A small mud volcano. The brown liquid was crude oil.
Start: Moon World Landscape Park
Our Kaohsiung Moon World Badlands Ride started at Moon World Landscape Park (月世界地景公園) for its easy parking and close proximity to National Highway. This time we will also be testing my upgraded Sony Action Cam (AS300).
More bulky but larger lens.
On the other hand, the live view kit was lighter.
Chalk hills and muddy ponds.
Taking left.
Red-face ducks, popular for making into a winter dish called “ginger duck (薑母鴨)”
Cute little chicken house.
National Highway #3.
At first there was a “Stone Temple” next to the road.
Stone temple road entrance.
Very interesting combination: cement structure with stone as surface decoration, plus Buddhism elements and a flag station…
Agongdian Reservoir (阿公店水庫)
At first our Kaohsiung Moon World Badlands Ride headed south to visit the Agongdian Reservoir.
The famous DaGang Mountain (大岡山) wall in northern Kaohsiung City.
West end of reservoir’s walkway.
See closely: there was a white structure at the left hill side. That was called “The Eye of Gang Shan (岡山之眼)”, a skywalk.
A cool thing about the reservoir was its “floating solar power plates” at reservoir’s right side, to use the water surface area for solar powering.
Sun Valley and Mud Volcano
Shortly after the reservoir our Kaohsiung Moon World Badlands Ride began heading east towards QiShan. A small detour was made to visit a local badlands valley and mud volcano.
Kirin statue.
Big old tree.
Along the way there was a badlands valley area called “Sun Valley (太陽谷)”. Time for some drone flying!
Further into the local roads, we reached the WuShanDing Mud Volcano Natural Area (烏山頂泥火山), a protected area close to a university.
Entrance.
Venting hole at the ground.
The main volcano structure.
The largest structure had mud flowing continuously.
The three cones aligned to a line.
At the far right of the mud volcano structure there were also some filled venting holes on the ground.
Lastly, the guide took us to see a nearby newly formed cone inside the woods.
Brown stuff was crude oil.
To QiShan (旗山)
Having enough of mud volcano, our Kaohsiung Moon World Badlands Ride climbed over the popular local cycling peak JongLiaoShan (中寮山), eventually into QiShan (旗山), a famous old town at east side Kaohsiung.
From JongLiaoShan peak you could see National Highway #3 passed through the badlands.
The east side.
Bananas!
Old QiShan station.
Old street.
WuDe Hall (武德殿), an old martial art practice center during Japanese Era.
At QiShan’s nearby hill there was a big Confucius temple.
Old Japanese shrine stairs. The shrine was gone.
Kaohsiung Confucius Temple.
QiShan town view.
NeiMen & 308 Highland
After QiShan, our Kaohsiung Moon World Badlands Ride began going north into the badlands area again. We first passed through the famous 300 years old ZiZhu temple near NeiMen (內門紫竹寺)
One of the temple’s gates.
Depiction of local martial art performance called “NeiMen SongJiang Jen”(內門宋江陣).
After NeiMen, we climbed up from Route 182, and went onto the local road near the Tainan/Kaohsiung boundary towards 308 Highland. The local road was cool as it followed the hill ridge, thus you could see great views from both sides.
Dragon boat temple.
Big QuanYin statue.
The “first” 308 Highland sign.
Real free range chicken.
Starting to see badlands again.
The “second” 308 sign. This was the authentic one with a high viewing pavilion.
After 308 Highland, we began our descending and passed through yet another badlands area.
GangLin & Back
As our Kaohsiung Moon World Badlands Ride reached the north most point, we headed back towards Moon World Landscape Park starting point.
GangLin Church, a church with more than 150 years history.
Local community center.
Along the way there was a famous Erliao pavilion for sunrise watching. Not so impressive in the afternoon.
The pavilion.
