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This article is about the capital city of the Republic of China (Taiwan). For the county, see Taipei County.

Taipei () is the capital city of the Republic of China (Taiwan) and the largest city on the Republic of China(Taiwan). It is the Republic of China (Taiwan)'s political, commercial, mass media, education, and pop cultural center, and also is widely considered to be one of the "Gamma world cities".

The City of Taipei, Taipei County surrounding it, and nearby Keelung City form Taipei metropolitan area but are administered under different local government bodies. Taipei City is a special municipality administered directly under the ROC central government, while Taipei County and Keelung City are administered as part of Taiwan Province. Therefore, although Taipei is used to refer the whole metropolitan, Taipei City specifically means the city proper only.

According to the census data collected in March of 2006, the total population in Taipei City (excluding Taipei County) is 2,618,058. The major industries in the city include electrical and electronic equipment, textiles, metals, ship-building, and motorcycles.

Subdivisions

Taipei City administers twelve districts (區):

Hanyu Pinyin Hanzi Wade-Giles Tongyong Pinyin
-- 		Sōngshān 松山區 Sung-shan Songshan
-- 		Xìnyì 信義區 Hsin-yi Sinyi
-- 		Dà'ān 大安區 Ta-an Da-an
-- 		Zhōngshān 中山區 Chung-shan Jhongshan
-- 		Zhōngzhèng 中正區 Chung-cheng Jhongjheng
-- 		Dàtóng 大同區 Ta-t'ung Datong
-- 		Wànhuá 萬華區 Wan-hua Wanhua
-- 		Wénshān 文山區 Wen-shan Wunshan
-- 		Nángǎng 南港區 Nan-kang Nangang
-- 		Nèihú 內湖區 Nei-hu Neihu
-- 		Shìlín 士林區 Shih-lin Shihlin
-- 		Běitóu 北投區 Pei-t'ou Beitou

Geography

Taipei City is located in the Taipei Basin (台北盆地) in northern Taiwan and is bordered on the south by the Sindian (Hsintien) River (新店溪), and the Danshuei (Tamsui) River (淡水河) on the west. The northern districts of Shilin and Beitou extend north of the Keelung River (基隆河) and are bordered by Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園).

Because of its location in a valley, the city commonly experiences high temperatures and humidity during the summer months, a problem enhanced by the high population density and the use of air conditioning. The climate is subtropical.

History

The region known as the Taipei basin was home to Ketagalan tribes before the 18th century. Han Chinese began to settle in Taipei Basin in 1709.

In the late 19th century, the Taipei area, where the major Han settlements in northern Taiwan and one of the designated foreign trade port, Tamsui, were located, gained economic importance due to the boosting foreign trade, especially that of tea exportation. In 1875, the northern part of Taiwan was separated from Taiwan Prefecture (臺灣府) and incorporated into the new Taipei Prefecture (臺北府). Having been established adjoining the flourishing townships of Bangka and Dadaocheng, the new prefectural capital was known as Chengnei (城內), "the inner city", and government buildings were erected there. From 1875 (during the Qing Dynasty) until the beginning of Japanese rule in 1895, Taipei was part of Danshui County (淡水縣) of Taipei Prefecture and the profectural capital. Taipei remained a temporary provincial capital before it officially became the capital of Taiwan in 1894.

As settlement for losing the Sino-Japanese War, China ceded the entire island of Taiwan to Japan in 1895. After the Japanese take-over, Taipei, called Taihoku in Japanese, emerged as the political center of the Japanese Colonial Government. Much of the architecture of Taipei dates from the period of Japanese rule, including the Presidential Building which was the Office of the Taiwan Governor-General (台灣總督府). See Taipei Prefecture (Japanese Rule).

During the Japanese rule, Taihoku was incorporated in 1920 as part of Taihoku Prefecture (台北州). It included Bangka, Dadaocheng, and Chengnei among other small settlements. The eastern village Matsuyama (松山庄) was annexed into Taipei City in 1938. Upon the Japanese defeat in the Pacific War and its consequent surrender in August 1945, Taiwan was taken over by Chinese troops. Subsequently, a temporary Office of the Taiwan Province Adminstrative Governor (臺灣省行政長官公署) was established in Taipei City.

In 1949, the Communists forced the Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-shek to flee mainland China and establish Taipei as the provisional capital of the ROC. Taipei was also the capital of Taiwan Province (臺灣省) until the 1960s when the provincial administration was moved to Jhongsing Village (中興新村) in central Taiwan.

As approved on December 30, 1966 by Executive Yuan, Taipei became a centrally administered municipality on July 1, 1967. In the following year, Taipei City expanded again by annexing Shilin, Beitou, Neihu, Nangang, Jingmei, and Muzha. In 1990, 16 districts in Taipei City were consolidated into the current 12 districts.

Politics

The current mayor of Taipei City is Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who is also the chairperson of the Central Committee of the Kuomintang (中國國民黨; KMT) and widely regarded as the strongest candidate for his party to run in the next presidential election in 2008.

The mayor of Taipei City had been an appointed position since Taipei's conversion to a centrally-administered municipality in 1967 until the first public election was held in 1994. The position is of a four-year term. The first elected mayor was Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of Democratic Progressive Party (民主進步黨; DPP), who is currently the president of Taiwan. Ma Ying-Jeou took the office in 1998 and is now in his second term as mayor.

Based on the outcomes of previous elections in the past decade, the vote of the overall constituency of Taipei City shows a slight inclination towards the pro-KMT camp (so-called the "Blue" camp); however, the supporters of the pro-DPP camp (so-called the "Green" camp) also represent a considerable section of the whole constituency.

As the city that hosts the presidential office, the central legislature, and other major administrations, Taipei is intermittently tormented with the frequent occurrence of large-scale political campaigns and fortuitous clashes between supporters of different camps. The mass movement and consequent disorder on Katagalan Boulevard in front of the presidential office building after the 2004 presidential election is a representative instance that reflects such a political tension.

Festivities

There are many yearly Taiwanese festivals that commonly are held in Taipei including the Lantern Festival and Double Tenth Day. A common location for festivities in Taipei is the square in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Recently, some of the major festivals normally held in Taipei(specifically, the Double Tenth Day fireworks) have been moved to others cities in Taiwan.

Education

Taipei has eighteen universities:

In addition, there are six colleges:

Major Chinese Language schools:

Transportation

All scheduled international flights are served by Chiang Kai-shek International Airport in nearby Taoyuan County. And Songshan Airport at the heart of the city serves mostly domestic flights, with the exception of some charter flights.

Taipei's public transport system MRT (Mass Rapid Transit), now also known as Metro Taipei, incorporates a light rail system based on VAL technology with its conventional metro. Both are currently undergoing significant expansion. Unlike most rail transport in Taiwan which follow the Japanese practice and have trains running on the left, the Taipei public transport system runs its trains on the right.

Taipei Main Station is the largest Taiwanese railway station and also functions as the nexus for the MRT system.

An extensive city bus system runs throughout the city to serve areas not covered by the MRT system. Sometimes buses require payment upon boarding, sometimes upon exiting. Many routes, due to their length, could require payment upon both boarding and exiting. Riders of the city MRT system are able to use their MRT passes on buses, making the bus system effectively an extension of the MRT system. The pass, known as an Easy Card, contain credits that are deducted each time a ride is taken. The Easy Card, Taipei's equivalent to Hong Kong's Octopus Card, is extremely convenient since it is read via proximity sensory panels on buses and in MRT stations, thus eliminating the need for the passenger to remove the card from his or her wallet or purse.

A quintessential form of transportation in Taipei (and much of Taiwan) is the ubiquitous motor-scooter, somewhat analogous to the motorcycles found in other industrialized nations. However, motor-scooters are not subject to all conventional traffic laws, and generally thread between cars and occasionally through oncoming traffic. A loophole in Taipei's motor vehicle laws ensures that in any accident between a motor-scooter and another vehicle, the other vehicle is at fault. For these reasons, scooters are perhaps the most convenient way for locals to navigate through their city.

Attractions

Pronunciation note

The spelling Taipei derives from the Wade-Giles romanization T'ai-pei, in which "p" is pronounced like the English "p" in the word "spay" (the unaspirated "p" may sound like a "b" to the layman).

Both Hanyu Pinyin, which is used both in the PRC and in Taipei City itself, and Tongyong Pinyin, which is mandated by the central government, reflect this pronunciation, romanizing Taipei as Taibei, a spelling that is closer to the Mandarin pronunciation. However, this romanization is very rarely seen.

Though Taipei City has converted many of its street signs to Hanyu Pinyin, it has retained the original spelling of "Taipei" as an exception since this form has been well-known and heavily used.

Sister cities and regions relationships

Houston, USA (1961) Lome, Togo (1966) Manila, Philippines (1966) Cotonou, Benin (1967) Seoul, South Korea (1968) Quezon city, Philippines (1968) Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (1968) San Francisco, USA (1970) Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (1970) Guam, USA (1973) Tegucigalpa, Honduras (1975) Cleveland, USA (1970) Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (1978) Indianapolis, USA (1978) Marshall, USA (1978) Phoenix, USA (1979) Los Angeles, USA (1979) Atlanta, USA (1979) Oklahoma City, USA (1981) Johannesburg, South Africa (1982) Gold Coast, Australia (1982) Pretoria, South Africa (1983) San José, Costa Rica (1984)

Lilongwe, Malawi (1984) Versailles, France (1986) Asunción, Paraguay (1987) Panama City, Panama (1989) Managua, Nicaragua (1992) San Salvador, El Salvador (1993) Warsaw, Poland (1995) Ulan-Ude, Russia (1996) Boston, USA (1997) Dallas, USA (1997) Dakar, Senegal (1997) Banjul, Gambia (1997) Bissau, Guinea-Bissau (1997) Mbabane, Swaziland (1997) Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia (1997) San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico (1997) La Paz, Bolivia (1997) Guatemala City, Guatemala (1998) Monrovia, Liberia (1998) Vilnius, Lithuania (1998) Majuro, Marshall Islands (1998) Riga, Latvia (2001)

The large number of sister cities, possibly the most of any city, may be due to the Republic of China's lack of formal diplomatic relations with most states in the world, necessitating international relations to be performed at the municipal level.

See also

External links

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Taipei".

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