From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

Provincial city (Taiwan)

Type of administrative division of the Republic of China (Taiwan)

Field	Value
name	Autonomous municipality{{efn native lang	tw	name=word1
t	市
p	Shì
m	Chhī
s	Sṳ}}
map	[[File:Subdivision types of the Republic of China (2014).svg	250px]]
caption
category	Special municipalities, counties, and cities
territory	Republic of China
current_number	3
number_date	2019
population_range	267,772–448,207
area_range	60–133 km2
government	{{bulleted list
subdivision	District

|City government |City council}}

An autonomous municipality, county-level city or city, previously provincial city, is a de jure second-level administrative division unit in the Republic of China (Taiwan).

The provincial cities were formerly under the jurisdiction of provinces, but the provinces were streamlined and effectively downsized to non-self-governing bodies in 1998, in 2018 all provincial governmental organs were formally abolished. Provincial cities along counties, are presently regarded as de facto principal subdivisions directed by the central government of the ROC.

History

Main article: Sub-provincial division, History of the administrative divisions of China (1912–1949)

The first administrative divisions entitled "city" were established in the 1920s when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. At this time cities were under the jurisdiction of prefectures. After the World War II, nine (9) out of eleven (11) prefectural cities established by the Japanese government were reform into provincial cities. Their roman spellings are also changed to reflect the official language shift from Japanese to Mandarin Chinese, but characters remain the same.

Character	Japanese
(before 1945)	Chinese
(after 1945)	Character	Japanese
(before 1945)	Chinese
(after 1945)
zh-tw	臺北}}	Taihoku	Taipei	zh-tw	嘉義}}	Kagi	Chiayi
zh-tw	基隆}}	Kīrun	Keelung	zh-tw	臺南}}	Tainan	Tainan
zh-tw	新竹}}	Shinchiku	Hsinchu	zh-tw	高雄}}	Takao	Kaohsiung
zh-tw	臺中}}	Taichū	Taichung	zh-tw	屏東}}	Heitō	Pingtung
zh-tw	彰化}}	Shōka	Changhua

The reform was based on the Laws on the City Formation (市組織法) of the Republic of China. This law was passed in the early 20th century. The criteria for being a provincial city included being the provincial capital as well as having a population of over 200,000, or over 100,000 if the city had particular significance in politics, economics, and culture. The division reform in 1945 had some compromises between the Japanese and the Chinese systems, some of the cities with population under the criteria were still be established as provincial cities.

After the government of the Republic of China relocated to Taipei, Taiwan in 1949, the population criterion for provincial cities was raised to 500,000 in the Guidelines on the Implementation of Local Autonomy in the Counties and Cities of Taiwan Province (臺灣省各縣市實施地方自治綱要), which was passed in 1981. It was later raised again to 600,000. Since the streamline of provinces in 1998, provincial cities are all directly under the central government, and are simply referred to as cities.

The People's Republic of China (PRC), which claims Taiwan as its 23rd province, has all of its provincial cities classified as county-level city.

Date	Addition	Removal	No.	Description
1945-10	Changhua, Chiayi, Hsinchu,
Kaohsiung, Keelung, Pingtung, Taichung, Tainan, Taipei		9	Reorganised from the prefecture-administered cities in the period under Japanese rule.
1950-08-16		Chiayi	8	Merged into Chiayi County and became a county-administered city
1951-12-01		Changhua, Hsinchu, Pingtung	5	Downgraded to county-administered cities
1967-07-01		Taipei	4	Upgraded to a special municipality
1979-07-01		Kaohsiung	3	Upgraded to a special municipality
1982-07-01	Chiayi, Hsinchu		5	Upgraded from county-administered cities
2010-12-25		Taichung, Tainan	3	Merge with Taichung County and Tainan County, and upgraded to special municipalities
Current cities: Chiayi, Hsinchu, Keelung (3).

Current cities

Currently, the Local Government Act of the Ministry of the Interior applies for the creation of a city, in which a city needs to have a population between 500,000 and 1,250,000 and occupies major political, economical and cultural roles. Note that all three existing cities are not qualified for the population test, they were built for historical reasons.

There are currently three cities, all in Taiwan Province:

title=Glossary of Names for Admin Divisions	url=http://placesearch.moi.gov.tw/translate/Admin1010320.pdf	archive-url=http://www.webcitation.org/6athTxlTm?url=http://placesearch.moi.gov.tw/translate/Admin1010320.pdf	url-status=dead	archive-date=19 August 2015	website=Taiwan Geographic Names Information Systems	publisher=The Ministry of Interior of ROC	access-date=6 June 2015}}	Chinese	Hànyǔ
Pīnyīn	Wade–Giles	Tongyòng
Pinyin		Hokkien
Pe̍h-ōe-jī	Hakka
Pha̍k-fa-sṳ	Area	City Seat	Establishment
Chiayi	zh-tw	嘉義市}}	Jiāyì	Chia¹-i⁴	Jiayì	Ka-gī	Kâ-ngi	60.03 km2	East District
Hsinchu	zh-tw	新竹市}}	Xīnzhú	Hsin¹-chu²	Sinjhú	Sin-tek	Sîn-chuk	104.10 km2	North District
Keelung	zh-tw	基隆市}}	Jīlóng	Chi¹-lung²	Jilóng	Ke-lâng	Kî-lùng	132.76 km2	Zhongzheng District

Their self-governed bodies (executive and legislature) regulated by the Local Government Act are:

Name	Executive	Legislature	Government	Mayor	Current Mayor
Chiayi	Chiayi City Government	Mayor of Chiayi	Huang Min-hui	Chiayi City Council	24
Hsinchu	Hsinchu City Government	Mayor of Hsinchu	Ann Kao	Hsinchu City Council	33
Keelung	Keelung City Government	Mayor of Keelung	George Hsieh	Keelung City Council	32

Notes

Words in native languages

References

(March 28, 2023). "POLITICAL SYSTEM".
"Local governments".
Sarah Shair-Rosenfield. (November 2020). "Taiwan combined".
Chao, Yung-Mao. (January–February 2011). "Taiwan Review - Rezoning Taiwan".
(25 May 2022). "Local Government Act".
"Glossary of Names for Admin Divisions". The Ministry of Interior of ROC.

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

provincial-cities-of-taiwan

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about Provincial city (Taiwan) — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report