Taipei: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Alternative meaning: Taipei County

Taipei City
(臺北市)

City flag City logo
City nickname: the City of Azaleas
Capital District	Xinyi
Area  - Total  - % water	Ranked 16 of 25 271.7997 km² 1.0%
Population  - Total (May, 2004)  - Density	Ranked 2 of 25 2,625,512 9,660/km²
Districts:	12
Mayor:	Ma Ying-jeou
Symbols
City Flower:	Azalea
City Tree:	India laurel fig (Ficus microcarpa)
City Bird:	Formosan Blue Magpie (Urocissa caerulea)

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.

Geography and Location

Aerial map

Subdivisions

Taipei administers twelve districts (區):

Founded in the 18th century, Taipei began development only after 1885, when it replaced Tainan as the capital of the Chinese province of Taiwan. 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 Palace which was the former mansion of the Japanese governor and which faces Tokyo.

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 end Japanese Occupation in 1945, Taipei was part of Danshui District (淡水縣) of Taipei Prefecture (府). As approved on December 30, 1966 by the Executive Yuan, Taipei became a centrally administered municipality on July 1, 1967.

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.

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 Kaohsiung on the southern coast, even if only temporarily.

Taipei has at least seven universities:

• Chinese Culture University
• Ming Chuan University
• National Taipei Institute of Technology
• National Chengchi University
• National Taiwan Normal University
• National Taiwan University
• Soochow University

Taipei's public transport system uses both a light rail system based on VAL technology (known as TRTS) and a conventional metro. Unlike most trains in Taiwan which following Japanese practice, have trains running on the left, the Taipei public transport system, having been built by a French company, have 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 TRTS system. Some buses require payment per passenger at pick up time, and others at drop off time. Users of the city TRTS system are able to use their TRTS passes on buses for discounted rates, making the bus system effectively an extension of the TRTS system.

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.

• Taipei 101 is a new financial center in Taipei. By some measures it is considered the world's tallest building.
• The Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall.
• The Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall.
• National Palace Museum
• Longshan Temple
• Shilin Night Market

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.