Taichung is a growing city squashed between the rough waters of the Taiwan Strait and the towering peaks of the Central Mountain Range.Sitting in a basin at the foothills of the mountains, Taichung is protected from the worst of the north west Pacific’s weather, making it a liveable city for nearly a million people.Taichung nestles at the foot of the sharply rising hills of Taiwan that begin only 30 kilometres from the coast.Looking inland from nearly anywhere in the city, the horizon is dark with the ever-present peaks of some of the tallest mountains in East Asia.The Central Mountain Range forms a spine down the centre of Taiwan, running nearly the entire length of the island.
These mountains were formed by the same tectonic activity that formed mainland Taiwan four million years ago.
The island was created by the collision of the Philippine Sea plate and the Eurasia plate, which caused uplift of land that became Taiwan and its spectacular mountains.The plates are still gradually pushing against one another, moving at a rate of around eight centimetres every year and continuing to shape the landscape.Plate movement causes hundreds of earthquakes here each year, and while most are too small to be noticeable, some cause huge damage for Taiwan’s inhabitants and even change the structure of the island.Constant seismic activity has created a series fault lines – cracks in the Earth’s crust – that run lengthways through the island.These fault lines have divided the Central Mountain Range into five smaller ranges; the Jade Mountains are the most famous, home to the highest peak in Northeast Asia, Yushan (Jade) Mountain at 3,952 metres.