The Mailiao and Haifong Zones that accommodate No.6 Cracking Project are situated at the estuary of Chuoshui Creek at the northern end of Yunlin County. Approximately 8 km long from south to north, the area extends more than 4 km along the coastline out toward the sea. A great portion of the land lies below sea level most of the time and one can observe some sandy land at low tide which is totally submerged during high tide. The Cracking Project required massive land reclamation efforts to create 2,255 hectares of new land. Since the two sections have a waterway segregating them from the fish farms along the coast, geological improvement to shore up the foundation was required before the plants could be built.

Land reclamation was carried out by first constructing dike of stone in the sea and enclosed the area expected to be the base of plant, then sand was extracted from government-sanctioned waters to level up the area inside the embankment.

Mailiao is located in a region that is commonly dubbed " head of the windstorm and end of the waterflow," with the northeast monsoon blowing half of the year. Inconvenient transportation and poor weather made the reclamation work doubly formidable. It is truly a giant undertaking to turn sea into mulberry fields.