The eastern part of Taiwan has always been known as "the other side of the mountains" seeing as how it's never been easy to get there. Recently, however, the "Plan to Move Industry East" program has caused the value of eastern Taiwan to be on the rise.
In fact, eastern Taiwan has been "on the rise" since the dawn of time. Each hundred years it rises up to 200 centimeters, which is the main reason the east coast topography is as it is.
Also, because it is cut off from the rest of Taiwan by mountains that run right down to the coast, the east developed relatively late. Many valuable cultural artifacts have thus been preserved up to the present, and there are many archaeological sites from former cultures that settled here. Every time a road is opened, a bridge built, or a house constructed, there is the possibility of laying eyes on human cultures that are thousands or even tens of thousands of years old.
Here's a bit of advice: Use a scientific spirit of seeking truth from facts when checking out evidence of shifts in the earth's crust and of changes in the land and seas; use a robust imagination to reconstruct how prehistoric people lived here. You will discover that the earth is really very endearing, that history is really not so remote, and that they are vibrantly alive—right on the coast of eastern Taiwan.
