Taitung County travel guide

Taitung County (台東縣; Táidōng Xiàn; Táidong Siàn; T`ai-tung Hsien; POJ: Tâi-tang-kōan) is a county in eastern Taiwan. The name means "Eastern Taiwan". Taitung is officially administered as a county of Taiwan Province, Republic of China.
Due in part to its remote location and isolation by mountains from Taiwan's main population centers, Taitung was the last part of the island to be colonized by Han Chinese immigrants (late 19th century). Throughout the 20th century Taitung remained an economic backwater. Sparsely populated even today, this isolation may have been a blessing in disguise, as Taitung mostly escaped the urbanization and pollution that have come to plague much of the island's lowland areas.
In addition to the area on Taiwan proper, the county includes two major islands, Green Island and Orchid Island. Green Island was home to an infamous penal colony used for political prisoners during the "White Terror" period of Chinese Nationalist (KMT) rule (from 1947 until the end of martial law in 1987). Orchid Island, home of the Tao people (Taiwanese aborigines closely related to the people of the northern Philippines), has become a major tourist attraction despite the the government-operated Taiwan Power Company's controversial use of part of the island as a nuclear waste dump. (...) more....