Exploring Kaohsiung's Hou Shan Yan Natural Cave

The woodland rising behind the temple buildings hides a low but very steep rocky ridge, and the extraordinary rock formation known variously as Hou Shan Yan Natural Cave (後山岩天然洞窟) or, more colorfully, Shimuru (石母乳: “stone breasts,” supposedly after the curvaceous forms of some of the stalactites here!).

It’s hard to imagine, but this whole area was once under the sea, which was responsible for laying down the limestone that forms the hills in this area. A glance at the sheer walls of Hou Shan Yan Natural Cave reveals telltale evidence of its underwater creation: Bits of broken seashell are clearly visible embedded in the rock.

It’s an easy 20-minute walk from the car park in front of the temple to the cave. During our visit on a fine Sunday afternoon in October, our scooters are, amazingly, the only vehicles parked in a huge area obviously intended to accommodate big crowds that never seem to come. Walking up to the main temple building we turn right, and clear signposts immediately guide us down a rather narrow, overgrown trail that soon widens into a stone path, later joining a track that runs along the base of the escarpment.

Following the track ahead along the foot of the steep slope, it soon turns into sheer cliffs emerging from a dense covering of forest. The track soon passes the first of a series of intriguing black holes bored into the rock—probably old mine shafts, though it’s anyone’s guess what was mined here.

Strolling another couple of minutes along the base of the cliff, past several more mine entrances, we soon stumble across another temple—far more inviting than the one back on the road despite its utilitarian iron roof—standing in a clearing beside the track on the right at the foot of a sheer cliff of limestone tinted yellow and gray by moss. Ignoring it for now, a little further along the track we examine several large clusters of stalactites, formed over countless years by drops of water rich in dissolved minerals, that adorn the overhanging cliff face.

Sadly, nature’s painstaking work has been ruined by thoughtless trophy hunters who have broken off the stalactites close to the wall, leaving nothing but their discolored stumps behind.

1|2|Next Page>>

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email