Qualla: Hai'an Range

Hai'an Range: Introduction

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fred Hsu (Wikipedia:User:Fred Hsu on en.wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0. Two tectonic plates are currently arguing, and eastern Taiwan is the disputed territory. The Philippine Sea Plate moves northwest at roughly 8 centimeters per year, pressing against the Eurasian Plate in a collision that began millions of years ago and shows no sign of resolution. The Hai'an Range — the Coastal Mountain Range — is one of the consequences: a spine of mountains that runs along Taiwan's eastern shore, still rising, still compressing, still geologically unsettled in ways the scenery only partially reveals.

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Image: Fred Hsu (Wikipedia:User:Fred Hsu on en.wikipedia) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hai'an Range: A Range With Oceanic Roots

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Fred Hsu (Wikipedia:User:Fred Hsu on en.wikipedia), CC BY-SA 3.0. The Coastal Mountain Range is geologically unlike the rest of Taiwan's mountains. Where the Central Mountain Range to the west is built largely from metamorphic and sedimentary rocks pushed up by the continent's edge, the Hai'an Range originated as the Luzon Arc — a chain of volc...

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Image: Fred Hsu (Wikipedia:User:Fred Hsu on en.wikipedia) | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hai'an Range: The Valley Between the Ranges

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Lord Koxinga, CC BY-SA 3.0. West of the Hai'an Range, between it and the Central Mountain Range, lies the Huadong Valley — one of the most dramatic geographic features in all of Taiwan. This long, flat-floored trough is not a river valley in the ordinary sense; it is a rift created directly by the collision...

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Image: Lord Koxinga | CC BY-SA 3.0

Hai'an Range: Rice Paddies and Rugged Terrain

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Σ64, CC BY 3.0. From a human perspective, the Hai'an Range functions primarily as a wall. It separates the inhabited rift valley from the Pacific coast, concentrating settlement on the valley floor and limiting east-west movement to a handful of passes and coastal roads. The mountains are forest...

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Image: Σ64 | CC BY 3.0

Hai'an Range: Small Basins, Hidden Corners

Sat, 13 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Everest me, CC BY-SA 4.0. Despite its overall ridge-and-slope character, the Hai'an Range contains several small intermontane basins where flat land briefly appears within the mountains themselves. The largest of these is Taiyuan Basin, a relatively protected area where settlement and agriculture have tak...

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Image: Everest me | CC BY-SA 4.0