"Our ancestors naturally had their reasons for choosing places like Tainan, Lukang and Ilan as the first areas to develop," says Wu Chuan-an, a senior specialist at the Ministry of the Interior's Construction and Planning Administration. Seventy percent of Taiwan is mountainous, and the hinterland along the eastern coast is very narrow, so it was natural for the broad sedimentary plains to become the focus of early development.
「祖先最早選擇西岸台南、鹿港與宜蘭等地開發，當然有他們的道理」，營建署技正吳全安說，山地佔了台灣百分之七十，東岸又腹地狹窄，寬廣的沖積平原自然成了最早開發的精華區。