Tianliao's mud volcano

Mud volcanoes enthrall me, so a little while back I rode my motorcycle out to Kaohsiung City's Tianliao District (高雄市田寮區) in search of a mud volcano marked on some maps of the area. En route, I passed through some of south Taiwan's most striking "moonworld" scenery; I took the photo above near where Freeway 3 goes under Zhongliaoshan (中寮山 ), a 421m-high peak topped by military and civilian telecommunications equipment.

The volcano itself is difficult to find if don't read any Chinese. From Tianliao itself, head east on Highway 28, over Freeway 3 to the community of Chongde (崇德). Then take Kaohsiung Road 141 on the right. After less than 1km, you'll see Chongde Elementary School (崇德國小). The mud volcano is a further 1.5km east; keep your eyes peeled for Chinese-language signs reading 泥火山. Opposite a chicken farm, you'll find some rough concrete steps going up into a bamboo forest on the right-hand side of the road. The volcano is less than 100m away.

In visual terms, Chongde's volcano is less exciting than the better-known eruption at Wushanding (烏山頂) about 9km to the south. There's no cone as such, rather a 1m-wide belching hole in the ground. I picked up a bamboo almost as long as I am tall and stirred the hole. This seemed to cause an outbreak of bubbling; the stick wasn't long enough to probe the bottom of the vent, pictured below.