Tianliao Moon World Introduction
The "Moon World" in Tianliao is a unique landscape referred to as "badlands" in geography. It has formed over the years due to the "regenerative action" of the earth's crust, where rainwater and river water have intensely eroded the surface, depositing sand on mudstone. After geological changes, the sand further mixed with mudstone, and through weathering and sedimentation, the current landforms were created. This area is only suitable for drought-resistant and salt-tolerant shallow-rooted plants (such as Arundinaria) and coastal plants. Along the route from Tianliao to Cijian on Provincial Highway 28, in addition to the Moon World landscape, there are more than twenty mud volcanoes of varying sizes, often exhibiting intermittent eruptions. The scale of the eruptions depends on the accumulation pressure of natural gas and mud underground. The areas where mudflows accumulate after eruptions experience erosion from rainfall, resulting in unique small landforms; among them, Dagun Water and Xiaogun Water are the most convenient observation points for mud volcanoes. Mud volcanoes are "pseudo-volcanoes" created when natural gas and mud underground are expelled to the surface through cracks in shallow rock layers under high pressure. It is also a type of badland formation. Tianliao is the region in Taiwan with the most developed badland formations and mud volcanoes, with the badland landscape composed of the Guting Keng formation highlighting a desolate beauty, resembling a geological ecology classroom untouched by human intervention. This area has also developed unique products and cuisine. In October 2021, the Kaohsiung City Tourism Bureau held a hot air balloon event at the Love River and Moon World in Tianliao, which received enthusiastic responses from various sectors, attracting many tourists from different places, allowing the public to satisfy their desire for a pseudo-overseas experience and enjoy the beauty of Kaohsiung. The unique mudstone terrain of Moon World is comparable to Cappadocia in Turkey, making it an exceptional hot air balloon tethering experience for the first time locally, with breathtaking photos generating high inquiries online.
