Guess where we went... ?!
Yesterday I posted this photo collage of us on vacation last week. If you can read Chinese, then it's not much of a guess because the answer is written under the photo! But, for those of you who don't read Chinese, we took a midnight trip out to what I like to call the mini door to hell. Actually, it's not nearly as epic as the actual Door to Hell in Turkmenistan (which I also hope to visit on our 'round the world tour), but it's made from the same stuff, just in smaller quantities- plus, you can roast some pretty kick ass marshmallows on it; try doing that over the Door to Hell:
Basically, these amazing phenomena happen when natural gas is released continuously from an underground source and gather in pools around the ground. In the case of the Door to Hell, a Soviet Natural Gas drilling team accidentally released the gas while doing exploratory drilling. The smell alerted workers to the presence of gas and it was decided that the best option was to let the gas burn off, so they lit it up. Unfortunately for them (but awesome for the rest of us), that was in 1971, almost 50 years ago, and the seeping gas is still burning strong. For more information and the credits to this awesome photo by , have a look at the wikipedia article.
Chuhuo （出火）or Rising Fire, the smaller but delicious cousin, is exceptional in that people will buy a variety of food at night and use the fires as a sort of natural barbeque space. People bring sausages, popcorn, and marshmallows, and take great delight in roasting up a midnight snack while they take tons of photos. As you can imagine, this kind of behavior is greatly discouraged by the park staff since it can leave the area a mess (and can be dangerous!), but as there is as of now no night watch, roasting various snacks remains a night time delight enjoyed by many tourists.
Note: if you don't want to fork out an exorbitant price at the fully-stocked carts parked in the parking lot (manned by very nice shopkeepers), stop at a local grocery store on the way over- Chuhuo is only a 10 minute drive from Hengchun city and it's well marked.
Needless to say, we gave in to the gaieties this time and decided to buy a pack of marshmallows and try our hand at roasting them over the open flames (the last time we went, we decided to play by the rules.. but we were truthfully quite hungry after scuba so we said, what the heck!). I've got to say that roasting marshmallows over a natural open flame is not the easiest thing in the world to do: the flames are quite high, maybe a foot or two, and they aren't consistent because there's no protection, so if the wind changes even slightly, the flames dance around like crazy and it's easy to get burned (or to set your marshmallow on fire). In the end, I roasted two good marshmallows (one of which I gave to Jenny), and Jenny roasted 4 bad marshmallows, which she blames on her impatience and hunger- she just couldn't wait for them to cook all the way!
I would definitely recommend popping by Chuhuo if you're in the Hengchun area- make sure you go at night though for the best dramatic effect, although trying to roast your own marshmallows is definitely tricky- best leave it to the professionals.
Yesterday I posted this photo collage of us on vacation last week. If you can read Chinese, then it's not much of a guess because the answer is written under the photo! But, for those of you who don't read Chinese, we took a midnight trip out to what I like to call the mini door to hell. Actually, it's not nearly as epic as the actual Door to Hell in Turkmenistan (which I also hope to visit on our 'round the world tour), but it's made from the same stuff, just in smaller quantities- plus, you can roast some pretty kick ass marshmallows on it; try doing that over the Door to Hell:
Basically, these amazing phenomena happen when natural gas is released continuously from an underground source and gather in pools around the ground. In the case of the Door to Hell, a Soviet Natural Gas drilling team accidentally released the gas while doing exploratory drilling. The smell alerted workers to the presence of gas and it was decided that the best option was to let the gas burn off, so they lit it up. Unfortunately for them (but awesome for the rest of us), that was in 1971, almost 50 years ago, and the seeping gas is still burning strong. For more information and the credits to this awesome photo by , have a look at the wikipedia article.
Chuhuo （出火）or Rising Fire, the smaller but delicious cousin, is exceptional in that people will buy a variety of food at night and use the fires as a sort of natural barbeque space. People bring sausages, popcorn, and marshmallows, and take great delight in roasting up a midnight snack while they take tons of photos. As you can imagine, this kind of behavior is greatly discouraged by the park staff since it can leave the area a mess (and can be dangerous!), but as there is as of now no night watch, roasting various snacks remains a night time delight enjoyed by many tourists.
Note: if you don't want to fork out an exorbitant price at the fully-stocked carts parked in the parking lot (manned by very nice shopkeepers), stop at a local grocery store on the way over- Chuhuo is only a 10 minute drive from Hengchun city and it's well marked.
Needless to say, we gave in to the gaieties this time and decided to buy a pack of marshmallows and try our hand at roasting them over the open flames (the last time we went, we decided to play by the rules.. but we were truthfully quite hungry after scuba so we said, what the heck!). I've got to say that roasting marshmallows over a natural open flame is not the easiest thing in the world to do: the flames are quite high, maybe a foot or two, and they aren't consistent because there's no protection, so if the wind changes even slightly, the flames dance around like crazy and it's easy to get burned (or to set your marshmallow on fire). In the end, I roasted two good marshmallows (one of which I gave to Jenny), and Jenny roasted 4 bad marshmallows, which she blames on her impatience and hunger- she just couldn't wait for them to cook all the way!
I would definitely recommend popping by Chuhuo if you're in the Hengchun area- make sure you go at night though for the best dramatic effect, although trying to roast your own marshmallows is definitely tricky- best leave it to the professionals.
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