East Rift Valley

The East Rift Valley, also called the Huadong Valley, runs about 180 kilometres from Hualien City to Taitung City, between the Central Mountain Range and the Coastal Mountain Range. It is the northern end of the Philippine Mobile Belt, a fragment of plate boundary that surfaces on land. Three river systems, the Hualien, Xiuguluan and Beinan, drain the valley into the Pacific. The Huadong Highway runs its length, and the railway follows the same corridor. The valley is the agricultural heart of eastern Taiwan.