Taiwan's east coast

摘要

With a maximum length of about 395 km and a maximum width of 144 km, Taiwan (Formosa) is a relatively small island with extremely steep topography - the Yu-shan mountain reaches 3,952 m, which is 176 m higher than Mount Fuji in Japan. On the east coast, the mountains rise straight out of the ocean, but for three main coastal plains in Taitung, Hualien and Ilan (Fig. 7). The east coast is scarcely populated and isolated. Communication with the rest of the island was primarily by searnuntil the completion, in the 1980s, of the railway link between Taipei and Ping-tung, via tlan, Hualien and Taitung.