Jiadong

Jiādōng (佳冬) is a small coastal township in southwestern Pingtung and part of the Liudui (六堆) region. The name is a Japanese colonial era adaptation of the Taiwanese word ka-tang, autumn maple, after the trees that once grew here. Xiao Family Residence (蕭宅), a grand five-hall Hakka compound dating to the 1850s, is one of the best-preserved traditional residences in the county, and the West Gate (西隘門) is the last surviving gate of the old walled settlement. Several ritual paper incinerators (敬字亭) can be found across the township, reflecting the Hakka tradition of reverence for the written word. Coastal areas suffer from severe land subsidence caused by excessive groundwater pumping.