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T'ai-pei)
- Alternative meaning: Taipei County
Taipei City (Chinese: 台北市, pinyin: Táibĕi Shì, tai.: Tâi-pak) is the provisional capital of the Republic of China and the largest city in Taiwan. Its population in 2000 is 2,600,543. Major industries include electrical and electronic equipment, textiles, metals, ship-building, and motorcycles.
Taipei City is a special municipality administered directly under the central government. It is not part of but surrounded entirely by Taipei County, which is administered as part of Taiwan Province.
Subdivisions
Taipei administers twelve districts (區):
History
The region of 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, Taipei gained its economic importance because of the trade of tea. In 1875, the northern part of Taiwan was separated from Taiwan Prefecture (台灣府) and became Taipei Prefecture (台北府). A new city was established in Taipei basin for the new bureaucracy. It located between two populous towns, Bangka (艋舺) and Dadaocheng (大稻埕). The new city was known as Chengnei (城內). Government buildings were built in Chengnei. Taiwan became a province of China in 1885. Taipei was a temporary capical of the province before it became the official one in 1894.
As settlement for losing the Sino-Japanese War, China ceded the entire island of Taiwan to Japan in 1895. Taipei was the political center of the Japanese Colonial Government. Much of the architecture of Taipei dates from the period of Japanese rule (during which the city was known in Japanese as Taihoku) including the Presidential Building which was the Office of the Taiwan Governor-General. See Taipei Prefecture (Japanese Rule).
In 1949, the Communists forced the Kuomintang government under Chiang Kai-shek to flee mainland China and establish Taipei as provisional capital of the ROC (Nanjing remains to this date the "official" capital). Taipei was also the capital of Taiwan Province until the 1960s when that was moved to Jhongsing Village.
From 1875 (during the Qing Dynasty) until the beginning of Japanese rule in 1895, Taipei was part of Danshuei County (淡水縣) of Taipei Prefecture (台北府). Taipei was incorporated in 1920 as part of Taipei Prefecture (台北州). It included Bangka, Dadaocheng, and Chengnei among other small settlements. The eastern village Songshan (松山庄) was annexed into Taipei City in 1938. As approved on December 30, 1966 by the 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, the 16 districts in Taipei City were consolidated into the current 12 districts.
Politics
The current mayor of Taipei is the Kuomintang's Ma Ying-jeou. The office of mayor of Taipei is seen as a stepping stone to higher office. Both the current and previous Presidents Chen Shui-bian and Lee Teng-hui were mayors of Taipei, and Ma Ying-jeou is widely regarded as the most likely Kuomintang candidate for President in 2008. Until 1994, the mayor of Taipei was an appointed position, but since then it has been elected.
Taipei city has a higher proportion of Mainlanders than average in Taiwan. This and the fact that the city is highly dependent on commerce and finance which would be disrupted in case of conflict with the People's Republic of China means that the city is more favorable to Chinese reunification than other areas of Taiwan. Indeed, it was the fact that Chen Shui-bian was able to win the mayorship in 1994, despite this tendency that made him the obvious DPP candidate for President in 2000.
Sister Cities
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Festivities in Taipei
The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall at night during the Taipei Lantern Festival.
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 15 universities:
In addition, there are nine colleges:
Transportation
A view of Taipei, with Shilin Night Market to the right, and the Jiantan metro station in the middle-left.
Taipei's public transport system MRT(Mass Rapid Transit)uses both a light rail system based on VAL technology (known as MRT) and a conventional metro. Unlike most railways in Taiwan which follows the Japanese practice, have trains running on the left, the Taipei public transport system has trains running on the right. See Taipei Rapid Transit System.
Nearby Taoyuan hosts Chiang Kai-shek International Airport, which serves Taipei for international flights. There is also Sungshan Domestic Airport in the heart of the city.
There is an extensive city bus system running throughout the city for areas not covered by the MRT system. Some buses require payment per passenger at pick up time, and others at drop off time. Users of the city MRT system are able to use their MRT passes on buses for discounted rates, making the bus system effectively an extension of the MRT system. The pass is called Easy card. It has credits previously stored in it and is counted each time a ride happens. The easy card is extremely convenient since it uses a sensory panel and the passengers can just put their wallots with easy cards in them close to the panel for payment.
Taxis are abundant and relatively affordable. It is well-known in the city that taxi cab drivers are very aggressive and fast. It is considered by some a harrowing experience to take a taxi, but after some time, you grow accustomed to it.
Attractions
Pronunciation note
The spelling Taipei derives from the Wade-Giles romanization T'ai-pei, in which "p" is pronounced more like an English "b". Thus "Taipei" should accurately be pronounced like the English words Tie-Bay, rather than Tie-Pay, its common English pronunciation.
Both Hanyu Pinyin which is used both in the PRC and in Taipei City itself, and Tongyong Pinyin which 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.
See also
External links
de:Taipei
ja:台北
pl:Tajpej
zh:台北市
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