Eastern Taiwan's inconvenient transportation is well-known, especially the railroad. Because the east is obstructed by the double barrier of the central mountain range and the coastal mountain range, beginning work on the railroad was extremely difficult. The earliest constructed stretch was a simple narrow gauge line from Hwalien to Taitung.
東部的交通不便眾所周知，尤其鐵路，東部由於受中央山脈和海岸山脈的雙重阻隔，施工非常困難，最早只建了從花蓮到台東的一段窄軌鐵路線（花東線）。