Taitung

Taitung (台東) stretches along the southeast coast of Taiwan. It was the last area of the island to be settled by Han Chinese immigrants and remains sparsely populated, separated from the western plains by the Central Mountain Range. The Beinan Site, one of the largest prehistoric settlements ever discovered in Taiwan, attests to millennia of Indigenous habitation before Han arrival. Today the county’s mountain townships remain home to Bunun and Amis communities, while the Huadong Valley townships of Chishang and Luye draw visitors for their rice paddies, hot air balloons, and Japanese immigrant village heritage.

Taitung also administers two offshore islands: Lanyu (Orchid Island), homeland of the Tao people and their flying fish traditions; and Ludao (Green Island), known for its coral reefs and the prison camps that once held political dissidents during the White Terror.