Yehliu

Yehliu

 野柳

The weekend before last, my friend and I went to a place known as Yehliu Geopark, a small area in Taiwan known for its very unusual, otherworldly rock formations. Yehliu is on the coast just North of Taipei and is easily reachable within an hour and a bit from the centre of Taipei. 

The surface of Yehliu resembles that of another planet, with large, oddly shaped rocks of all shapes rising out of the smooth, rolling ground. You can imagine that if the area were a little bigger, it would be a prime location for filming science fiction movies.

When living in Taiwan, it quickly becomes apparent that people like to queue here for popular attractions, be it famous restaurants and night market stands or the Jade Cabbage and Meat Shaped Stone in the National Palace Museum. Yehliu Geopark is no exception, boasting its most famous stone which is known as 'The Queen's Head'. The Queen's Head is said to resemble the head of a queen wearing a crown, and admittedly does, at the right angle, remind me of the bust of Queen Nefertiti.

This particular rock can be seen on many of the advertisements for the park, and attracts long queues of people who want to take a picture of the rock. We decided not to wait in line, but I did manage to snap a picture which was mostly devoid of people (although admittedly not at the rock's best angle). It was definitely a cool rock, but probably not worthy of all the attention it gets.

The Queen's Head

The park also had numerous fossils of flowers scattered around, which were fun to keep an eye out for!

The park also had a small path up a hilly peninsula which we decided to take.

The path was through some pretty lush greenery and pretty flowers.

A view of the park from above.

The path was fairly straightforward, but gave some pretty nice views of the ocean and the surrounding area. After about twenty minutes of walking, the sweltering heat was becoming unbearable but fortunately the path ended at the end of the peninsula which, due to its placement on the side of a cliff, treated us to very heavy winds that quickly cooled us down. A sort of natural air conditioning.

After enjoying the breeze and cooling down a little, we headed back to the rock area of the park for a few more pictures.

The rocks emerging out of the ocean. The water in the area was crystal clear!

My friend Franzi posing with a rock.

I think this rock is known as the 'Candle', but please don't quote me on that...

As you can see, the rocks could provide a perfect location in films for bizarre aliens to emerge from behind rocks and ambush the film's heroes.