Tunghai University was founded on the Dadu Plateau, west of Taichung City, in 1955 by Methodist missionaries.[36] The sitting US Vice President, Richard Nixon, had spoken at the ground-breaking ceremony in 1953.[37] The school was named "Tunghai" ("east sea") based on its position east of the Taiwan Strait.[38] In 1950, the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia (UBCHEA) established the university in Taiwan in order to pass the torch on the thirteen church universities in mainland China.[39]