Taiwan is located in the Northwest Pacific where the frequency of tropical cyclones is the highest around the globe. The frequency and intensity of typhoons vary substantially among different parts of Taiwan due to the complex topography in relation the movement of typhoons. Ecosystems in northern and eastern Taiwan experience two times the frequency of typhoon disturbance compared to central-west Taiwan (1.4 vs. 0.7 typhoon per year) and typhoon intensities were higher in the former than the latter. Such differences in frequency and intensity have major effect on forest dynamics. Stature of forest of the same elevation, which is highly related to typhoon-induced physical damage, is taller in central-west than northeastern Taiwan (>13 m vs. 11 m). Both in northeastern and central Taiwan, natural forests seemed to have lower typhoon induced mortality than forest plantations with non-native tree species. Possibly because nature forests are developed with long-term typhoon disturbance and as such have also developed characteristics such as high underground biomass and short stature that help to minimize typhoon-induced damage/mortality. There is a good agreement in patterns of typhoon damage between results gained from ground survey and satellite images suggesting that remotely sensed data could be used to assess large-scale patterns of forest dynamics in relation to typhoon disturbance.