More than 300 aftershocks rocked part of Taiwan as emergency services continue to search for dozens still missing.
Multiple people slept overnight in tents in Hualien city - the epicentre of the quake - to avoid being near any falling structures.
Hendri Sutrisno, a 30-year-old professor at Hualien Dong Hwa University, spent Wednesday night in a tent with his wife and baby, fearing aftershocks.
"We ran out of the apartment and waited for four to five hours before we went up again to grab some important stuff such as our wallet. And then we're staying here ever since to assess the situation," he said. Others also said they didn't dare to go home because the walls of their apartments were cracked and they lived on higher floors.
Taiwanese Primer Chen Chien-jen visited some earthquake evacuees in the morning at a temporary shelter. Emergency services had lost contact 38 hotel workers who got stuck on their way to a resort in Taroko National Park but they have been located now.
Rescuers are expected to reach them by Thursday evening, Interior Minister Lin Yu-chang said.
More than 50 people were still missing in the strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in a quarter century on Wednesday morning.
Taiwan's fire department said the number of injuries had reached 1,058, while the death toll has remained at nine.
Work continues to open up the road into Taroko, which is known as the cross-island highway and traverses the gorge connecting Hualien with Taiwan's west coast.
A further 646 people are still trapped, mostly in hotels in the park due to the road being cut off, the fire department said.
The Central Weather Administration has recorded more than 300 aftershocks from Wednesday morning into Thursday. The railway line to Hualien re-opened ahead of schedule on Thursday, although one rural station north of Hualien city remains closed due to damage, the railway administration said.
In Hualien city, dozens of residents queued outside a severely damaged 10-story building to get inside and retrieve belongings.
Having to wear helmets and accompanied by government personnel, they were given a 10 minute window to collect valuables in huge garbage bags, though some opted to throw belongings outside windows into the street to save time.
Tian Liang-si, who lived on the fifth floor, scrambled to collect her laptop, family photos and other items.
She recalled the moment of the earthquake, rushing to save her four puppies at the building lurched and furniture moved.
Read More
"I'm a native Hualiener. I'm supposed not to fear earthquakes. But this is an earthquake that frightened us," she told Reuters.
"This building is no longer liveable."