During the Spring Festival self-driving tour in Taiwan, I arrived at Hengchun Township, Pingtung County, the southernmost tip of Taiwan Island on the sixth day of the first lunar month. The first stop was to visit the famous Hengchun Old Town. When I was still shooting at the east gate of the ancient city, I saw a signboard on the side of the road, which said: Go out of the Huo Special Scenic Area, proceed from here. I heard a long time ago that Hengchun has a "Chuhuo Scenery", and even added the word "special", so after taking pictures of the ancient city gate, I immediately drove to the Chuhuo Special Scenic Area.
Out of Hengchun East Gate, there is a straight road, not wide enough for two cars to drive side by side, it is called "County Road 200" locally. This road can reach Manzhou Township in the east and the east coast of Kenting, go west, pass through Hengchun Old Town, and reach the west coast of Pingtung County. In fact, drive along the county road 200, less than 5 kilometers away, you can reach the "Chuhuo Special Scenic Area". The scenic spot is on the side of the county road, where there is a small parking lot.
The area of Chuhuo Special Landscape Area is not large. On one side of the parking lot, there is a huge brick wall, dark green, with "Chuhuo Special Landscape Area" written in Chinese and English on it. From the edge of the brick wall, through the wooden plank road built along the road, you can walk to an open field below, where the fire broke out on the ground. It's just that there are tall bushes on both sides of the boardwalk, and it's hard to see what's there when standing on the boardwalk.
Only after walking a wooden plank road 50 to 60 meters long can we go down to the place where the fire broke out on the ground. This is a flat land surrounded by iron chains. The area enclosed is less than half the size of a basketball court. Come the flames. Although the height of the flames is only about ten centimeters, even in the daytime, standing outside the iron chains, one can clearly see the continuously burning flames.
There is a small inconspicuous warning sign on the periphery of the iron chain, which means: high temperature, do not cross the iron chain and enter inside. But tourists who come here don’t care about this, because there are no staff in the entire scenic area, so many people will enter the inside surrounded by iron chains, the purpose is to have a closer look at the flames on the ground, and the other is to use the ground fire to cook Rice crackers, sweet potatoes or eggs.
When you were still in the parking lot, there were local hawkers selling popcorn and other food to tourists. A box of popcorn was 70 Taiwan dollars, and then they gave you a one-meter-long bamboo pole to string it on the box of popcorn. Toast the popcorn so it won't burn your hands. In the past, there was a saying in the local area that eating food roasted on the ground could help people "change their luck". Therefore, many local farmers will come here to do business, sell the food baked on the spot to tourists, and call this food "changed eggs".
The flames coming out of the ground are actually not very hot. It takes about five or six minutes to bake a box of popcorn and make the popcorn in the box swell, and it takes longer to cook a sweet potato. Anyway, for those who come here to play, grilling food on the spot with the ground fire is also a pleasure, so it doesn't matter if you spend more time.
Kenting is really a place full of wonders. Not to mention the beautiful scenery, in winter there is a downhill wind, which can make people unable to straighten up; blown. This fire scene is also a great spectacle in Kenting. It is said that it is a naturally formed ground fire that has been burning from ancient times to modern times, and it has not yet been extinguished.
In the Hengchun county annals in the Qing Dynasty, there is a record of the fire: the fire is five miles east of the city, to the left of Santai Mountain. Books earlier than the county annals also wrote: there is no place for fire disciples, but they are not far away, there are winter and spring, but no summer. It means that the place where the fire comes out is not one place, but many places where fire will come out. It is said that several years ago, this place surrounded by iron chains was absolutely inaccessible, because there were too many fire points, and sparks could be emitted by simply scratching the ground with a wooden stick.
Of course, this kind of magic has become very common under modern science. It is because there is natural gas underground in Hengchun, and the soil in the fire area is mudstone with many natural cracks. When natural gas emerges from cracks in the ground, it burns forever after being ignited. It is recorded in books: there are winter and spring, but no summer. It is because there is little rain in Hengchun in winter and spring, the ground is dry, and natural gas is easy to come out of the cracks; in summer, when there is a lot of rain, the mud will block the cracks, and the natural gas will not come out, so it cannot be burned.
The local people told me that the early fire was not in this fenced area, because after drilling companies came to drill, the cracks in this area were enlarged, so all the underground natural gas came out here. It is said that after drilling, it was discovered that the underground natural gas has no value for exploitation, so it can only be allowed to continue burning every day.
There are no tickets for the Chuhuo special landscape area, and tourists can enter at will. Many tourists who live in the ancient city of Hengchun will use the night time to come here to watch "Night Fire". Because I was rushing to other places in Kenting, I stopped watching "Night Fire". As a thought, go back to Hengchun and stay for one night, and then go to see the "night fire" landscape in the evening. About the author: Lu Jianhua Photography (photographer, traveler, self-media person)
