Kaohsiung is the second largest city, the island's most important port and one of the biggest container ports in the world. Taiwan is dominated by the Central Range of mountains which run north to south. The tallest peak is nearly four thousand metres high. Much of the island is forested. The climate is subtropical in the north and tropical in the south.
Snow falls in the mountains in winter.
There are oak trees, cedars, cypresses, banyans and camphor trees, bamboo forests and rattan. The Island has sixty species of mammals. Wildlife includes deer, pigs, bears, the Taipei tree frog and the Formosan Salamander. The larger animals such as bear and deer have suffered greatly from disruption of their habitat. Taiwan has over four hundred species of butterflies and four hundred and fifty species of birds.