When researching Kaohsiung’s top attractions, we stumbled across a few images of Moon World Landscape Park, a dramatic, lunar-esque geographical park located within driving distance of the city. Not ones to pass up some unique landscapes, we decided to take a quick trip to the moon.
HOW TO GET THERE
There are two way to get to Moon World from Kaohsiung City:
1) If you have a car, getting to Moon World is a quick forty-five minute drive.
2) If you’d rather take public transportation, you can either take the Kaohsiung City Bus 70B from the Gangshan MRT station, or KBus 8042 from Tainan HSR station, and get off at the Moon World Stop…. easy peasy!
WHAT TO EXPECT
The park is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week and is completely free to enter! Keep in mind that public transport doesn’t run all day so make sure you check the schedule to avoid being stranded!
Moon World Landscape Park is part of a stretch of “badlands” that cover a large portion of south-central Taiwan. These badlands consist of super-dry sedimentary rocks on which plant growth is nearly impossible, resulting in the park’s desolate, white/grey cliffs. Badlands are fairly common in dryer climates, but Moon World is unique in that it is located smack-dab in the middle of a tropical forest, completely surrounded by lush green forest. This makes for a really beautiful, dramatic contrasting landscape.
The park is beautiful, but tiny. We were able to walk the entire thing in about an hour, meandering about and spending copious amounts of time taking pictures. Make sure to bring comfortable shoes, as you have to climb a formidable staircase in order to get to the best view in the park.