Counties of Taiwan
County[I] | |
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Category | Special municipalities, counties, and cities |
Location | Republic of China (Taiwan) |
Number | 13 |
Populations | 13,089–1,272,939 |
Areas | 29–4629 km2 |
Government |
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Subdivisions |
Counties of Taiwan | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Traditional Chinese | |||||||||||||||||||||
Simplified Chinese | 县 | ||||||||||||||||||||
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This article is part of a series on |
Administrative divisions of Taiwan |
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Centrally-governed |
Township-level |
Village-level |
Neighborhood-level |
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Historical divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945) Republic of China (1912–49) |
A county,[I] constitutionally known as a hsien,[1] is a de jure second-level administrative division unit in the Republic of China (Taiwan). Under the administrative structure of Taiwan, it is with the same level of a provincial city.
The counties 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.[2][3] Counties along with former "provincial cities" which alternately designated as simply "Cities", are presently regarded as principal subdivisions directed by the central government of Taiwan.
History[edit]
Hsien have existed since the Warring States period, and were set up nation-wide by the Qin dynasty. The number of counties in China proper gradually increased from dynasty to dynasty. As Qin Shi Huang reorganized the counties after his unification, there were about 1000. Under the Eastern Han dynasty, the number of counties increased to above 1,000. About 1400 existed when the Sui dynasty abolished the commandery level (
The first administrative divisions named "county" (
Taiwan was ceded to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. The hierarchy of divisions also incorporated into the Japanese system in the period when Taiwan under Japanese rule. By September 1945, Taiwan was divided into 8 prefectures (
After the retrocession to the China on 25 October 1945, the prefectures were reformed into eight counties (
Changes of location and names of counties in Chinese history have been a major field of research in Chinese historical geography, especially from the 1960s to the 1980s.
Japanese prefecture (before 1945) |
County (1945–1950) |
Counties in 1950 | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kyūjitai | Rōmaji | Character | Wade–Giles | ||
Taihoku | Taipei | Taipei, Yilan | |||
Shinchiku | Hsinchu | Hsinchu, Miaoli, Taoyuan | |||
Taichū | Taichung | Changhua, Nantou, Taichung | |||
Tainan | Tainan | Chiayi, Tainan, Yunlin | |||
Takao | Kaohsiung | Kaohsiung, Pingtung | |||
Karenkō | Hualien | Hualien | |||
Taitō | Taitung | Taitung | |||
澎湖 |
Hōko | 澎湖 |
Penghu | Penghu |
In late 1949, the government of the Republic of China lost the Chinese Civil War and was relocated to Taipei, Taiwan. In 1950, the counties in Taiwan were reorganized. Counties in populous western Taiwan were split into two to three counties. This pushed the number of counties up to 16. After the war, the government only controlled a few offshore islands of mainland China. Among them are two of the 67 counties of the original Fujian Province: Kinmen and Lienchiang. The number of counties under jurisdiction, 16 in Taiwan and 2 in Fujian, remained stable until the early 1990s.
Name | Chinese | Name | Chinese | Name | Chinese | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Changhua | Lienchiang | Tainan | |||||
Chiayi | Miaoli | Taipei | |||||
Hsinchu | Nantou | Taitung | |||||
Hualien | Penghu | 澎湖 |
Taoyuan | ||||
Kaohsiung | Pingtung | Yilan | |||||
Kinmen | Taichung | Yunlin |
Following the democratic reforms in the early 1990s, more proposals of administrative division reforms were widely discussed and ultimately caused some populous counties be reformed to special municipalities in the 2010 and 2014. These counties are:
- Kaohsiung County (1945–2010), now part of Kaohsiung special municipality; the county seat was at Fengshan City
- Taichung County (1945–2010), now part of Taichung special municipality; the county seat was at Fengyuan City
- Tainan County (1945–2010), now part of Tainan special municipality; the county seat was located at Xinying City
- Taipei County (1945–2010), now New Taipei special municipality; the county seat was located at Banqiao City
- Taoyuan County (1950–2014), now Taoyuan special municipality; the county seat was located at Taoyuan City (county-controlled)
Currently, the counties are established according to the Local Government Act under the supervision of the Ministry of the Interior. This act also endorses some special articles that grants counties with a population of over two million can grant some extra privileges in local autonomy that was designed for special municipalities. This type of counties are often called quasi-municipalities (
Current counties[edit]
There are currently 13 counties:
Name[6] | Chinese | Hànyǔ Pīnyīn |
Wade–Giles | Tongyòng Pinyin |
Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī |
Hakka Pha̍k-fa-sṳ |
County seat | Province (nominal) | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Changhua | Zhānghuà | Chang¹-hua⁴ | Jhanghuà | Chiang-hòa or Chiong-hòa |
Chông-fa | Changhua City | Taiwan Province | ||
Chiayi | Jiāyì | Chia¹-i⁴ | Jiayì | Ka-gī | Kâ-ngi | Taibao City | Taiwan Province | ||
Hsinchu | Xīnzhú | Hsin¹-chu² | Sinjhú | Sin-tek | Sîn-chuk | Zhubei City | Taiwan Province | ||
Hualien | Huālián | Hua¹-lien² | Hualián | Hoa-lian or Hoa-liân |
Fâ-lièn | Hualien City | Taiwan Province | ||
Kinmen | Jīnmén | Chin¹-mên² | Jinmén | Kim-mn̂g | Kîm-mùn | Jincheng Township | Fujian Province | ||
Lienchiang | Liánjiāng | Lien²-chiang¹ | Liánjiang | Liân-kang | Lièn-kông | Nangan Township | Fujian Province | ||
Miaoli | Miáolì | Miao²-li⁴ | Miáolì | Biâu-le̍k or Miâu-le̍k |
Mèu-li̍t | Miaoli City | Taiwan Province | ||
Nantou | Nántóu | Nan²-tʻou² | Nántóu | Lâm-tâu | Nàm-thèu | Nantou City | Taiwan Province | ||
Penghu | 澎湖 |
Pénghú | Pʻêng²-hu² | Pénghú | Phîⁿ-ô͘ or Phêⁿ-ô͘ |
Phàng-fù | Magong City | Taiwan Province | |
Pingtung | Píngdōng | Pʻing²-tung¹ | Píngdong | Pîn-tong | Phìn-tûng | Pingtung City | Taiwan Province | ||
Taitung | Táidōng | Tʻai²-tung¹ | Táidong | Tâi-tang | Thòi-tûng | Taitung City | Taiwan Province | ||
Yilan | Yílán | I²-lan² | Yílán | Gî-lân | Ngì-làn | Yilan City | Taiwan Province | ||
Yunlin | Yúnlín | Yün²-lin² | Yúnlín | Hûn-lîm | Yùn-lìm | Douliu City | Taiwan Province |
Under Article 9 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China, regulated by the Local Government Act, each county has a government headed by an elected county magistrate and an elected county council exercising legislative functions.[7] The governing bodies (executive and legislature) of the counties are:
See also[edit]
- Political divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945)
- Prefectures of Japan
- Counties of the People's Republic of China
- Notes
- ^ a b c d e f Has an elected executive and an elected legislative council.
- ^ a b c Has an appointed district administrator for managing local affairs and carrying out tasks commissioned by superior agency.
- ^ Has an elected village administrator for managing local affairs and carrying out tasks commissioned by superior agency.
References[edit]
- ^ "Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China". law.moj.gov.tw. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
- ^ "Local governments". Office of the President Republic of China (Taiwan). Retrieved 30 November 2020.
- ^ Sarah Shair-Rosenfield (November 2020). "Taiwan combined" (PDF). The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
- ^ Davidson, James W. (1903). The Island of Formosa, Past and Present: History, People, Resources, and Commercial Prospects: Tea, Camphor, Sugar, Gold, Coal, Sulphur, Economical Plants, and Other Productions. London and New York: Macmillan & Co. p. 93. OL 6931635M.
- ^ "Rezoning Taiwan". Taiwan Today. 1 February 2011. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
- ^ "Glossary of Names for Admin Divisions" (PDF). Taiwan Geographic Names Information Systems. The Ministry of Interior of ROC. Retrieved 6 June 2015.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "ROC introduction: Government organizations: Local governments: County (City) Level". Office of the President (Taiwan). Retrieved 2021-04-13.
Notes[edit]
- ^ Also known as the Taiwan area or Tai–Min area (Chinese:
臺 閩地區 ; lit. 'Taiwan–Fujian area') - ^ The mainland area consists of Mainland China, Tibet and (previously) Outer Mongolia
- ^ Special municipalities, cities, and county-administered cities are all called shi (Chinese:
市 ; lit. 'city') - ^ Nominal; provincial governments have been abolished
- ^ Constitutionally having the same structure as the free area, these are currently under the Chinese Communist Party control with a different structure
- ^ Sometimes called cities (Chinese:
市 ) or provincial cities (Chinese:省 轄市) to distinguish them from special municipalities and county-administered cities - ^ There are two types of townships: rural townships or xīang (Chinese:
鄉 ) and urban townships or zhèn (Chinese: 鎮) - ^ Villages in rural townships are known as tsūn (Chinese:
村 ), those in other jurisdictions are known as lǐ (Chinese:里 )