Yehliu Geopark: Meet the Queen in Taiwan

There is a pale sun over the north of Taiwan the  where the peninsula of the Yehliu Geopark (Wanli District) stretches his legs 1.7 kilometers into the sea. Waves are rushing against the mostly yellow rocks and a cloudy sky looks like the heaven will fall to the earth.

Under this sky you get a good feeling for the power of nature to form the wildest dreams of things: rocks like mushrooms, mountains like deserts and stones like heads.

These are a few of the various geological formations were created at Yehliu Geopark, a must-see place in the very north of the island ofTaiwan. The rock formations here are all created by erosion into fantastic shapes. You walk between the rocks and needles who are extending over three sections directly by the sea. In the first two of them you will find most of the very interesting rocks. The other one is the long way to a lonely lighthouse out on the last cliff of the Yehliu cliff. 

Yehliu Promontory, forms part of the Daliao Miocene Formation. It stretches approximately 1,700 metres into the ocean and was formed as geological forces. Approximately 180 "mushroom rocks" or "mushroom rocks" shows what water can do with hard rock: Nowadays many of them are looking like figures, persons, flowers and other structures. The name for all of this strange things is "hoodoos", a word for magic - and magic the complete landscape seems für visitors.

Thats because the taiwaneses are all under umbrellas on their way between the rocks. No, no, it's not raining this day, but they are all fear the wet atmosphere from the ocean it seems. The strong waves who has formed the rocks into a sculpture park are blowing the humidity on the coast and over landmarks like Candle Rock, Ginger Rock, Little Princess Rock, Mushroom Rock and Ice Cream Rock. 

You need a little bit fantasy and imagination to see the things they are calling "eggs" or "slipper" or the bust of the Egyptian queen Nefertiti. But the wide, gently sloping coast is littered with strangely shaped lava and sandstones, a real stone bridge leads over a basin washed out by the ebb and flow of the tide to a narrow cape, from which one has a great view of the coast.

Underway you can see fossils too, million years old and backed in the surface now. In the park you can move freely and you can also go straight to the fields on which all the stone formations are located. But you never should cross the red line to the sea, because the waves of the Pacific Ocean are sometimes really high. 

Queen's Head, named after its similarity to Queen Elizabeth I, is the star under the stars of Yehliu. It took over 4000 years to form this rock with a length of its neck of 125 cm. Every year it weathered at a rate of 0.2 to 0.5 cm, only a few years left and the head will  break. They have build a necklace around it. So the popularity of the site draws increasing numbers of tourists, so many, that you have to queue for a picture infront of it.

But no hazzle: Not far from the entrance they build a 3D print of  Queens Head. Here you can touch and let yourself be photographed in all poses in front of the replica. 

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