Tainan City
Tainan City
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| Tainan City
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| Traditional Chinese: | 臺南市 or 台南市 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese: | 台南市 | ||||||||||||
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| Tainan City 臺南市 |
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 Downtown Tainan |
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 City Flag |
 City Seal |
| Abbreviation | Southern City 南市 |
| Nickname | The Phoenix City,[1] The Prefecture City 府城 |
| Capital | Anping District (安平區) |
| Region | Southwestern Taiwan |
| Mayor | Hsu Tain-tsair (許添財) |
| Area | 175.6456 km² (Ranked 17 of 25) |
| Population (Jan, 2009) | |
| - Population | 768,739 (Ranked 11 of 25) |
| - Density | 4,376.65 /km² |
| Districts | 6 |
| Website | English Trad. Chinese |
| Symbols | |
| - Bird | Black-billed magpie [1] |
| - Flower | Royal Poinciana (Delonix regia) |
| - Tree | Royal Poinciana (Delonix regia) |
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| Template ■ Discussion Parameter ■ WikiProject Taiwan |
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Tainan City (traditional Chinese: 臺南/台南; simplified Chinese: 台南; pinyin: Táinán; Wade-Giles: T'ai-nan; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-lâm, literally "Southern Taiwan") is the fourth largest city in Taiwan after Taipei, Kaohsiung, and Taichung. By the end of 2010 the city and the adjacent Tainan County will merge to form a single municipality.[2]
Tainan was established as the capital of Taiwan in 1661 and remained the capital until 1887 during the Qing Dynasty. In fact, "Tayoan"/"Tayouan" is the old name of Tainan and became the name of the island later. The city is famous for its abundant historical buildings and relics.
Contents[hide] |
History
Little is known about Tainan prior to the Dutch rule except that it was a settlement of Han Chinese immigrants in the 14th and 15th centuries[citation needed] and was named Tayoan (大員, POJ: Tāi-ôan, from Sirayan). The Dutch established a trading post in 1624 at present-day Anping[3], and used it as a base of operation for a variety of business they conducted in the region. However, in 1661 the outpost was under siege by a fleet of Ming Dynasty remnants led by Koxinga, who established his own kingdom on Taiwan and renamed the city Tungtu (traditional Chinese: 東都; literally "East Capital") after the Dutch capitulated and withdrew from the island. In 1684, the Qing Dynasty conquered Taiwan and established Taiwan-fu (Taiwan Government) as the first official local government in Taiwan.[4]
William Campbell described the city in the 1870s:
As to Taiwan-fu itself, I may say that the brick wall which surrounds it is about fifteen feet in thickness, twenty-five in height, and some five miles in circumference. Lofty watch-towers are built over the four main gateways, and large spaces within the city are given to the principal temples and yamens—or quarters occupied by the civil and military mandarins. There is much need in Taiwan-fu for the carrying out of a City Improvement Scheme. Pleasant walks, no doubt, there are, and some of the shops have an appearance which is decidedly attractive; but, as a rule, the streets are narrow, winding, ill-paved, and odorous.[5]
Taiwan-fu was later renamed to Tainan-fu in 1885 when Taiwan was established as a province. Because it was formerly the capital of Taiwan, Tainan is also called Fu-cheng (traditional Chinese: 府城; literally "Government City"). Tainan also served as the capital of the Republic of Formosa after the Japanese took Taipei bloodlessly.
Tainan has been historically regarded as one of the oldest cities in Taiwan, and its former name, Tayoan, has been claimed to be the source of the name Taiwan. It is also one of Taiwan's cultural capitals, as it houses the first Confucian School/Temple, built in 1665 on the island[6], the remains of the Northern and Southern gates of the old city, and countless other historical monuments.
Tainan claims more Buddhist and Taoist temples than any city in Taiwan. Tainan City (台南市) is administratively a municipality of Taiwan Province of the Republic of China. It is surrounded by Tainan County to the north and east and the South China Sea to the west and south. Tainan's complex history of comebacks, redefinitions and renewals inspired its popular nickname "City of the Phoenix."[1]
Climate
Tainan has a sub-tropical maritime climate characterised by year-round high relative humidity and temperatures (although temperatures do dip somewhat in the winter months), with a rainy season (April to September) and a dry season (October to March).
[hide] Weather averages for Tainan, Taiwan (1971-2000)  |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 23.0 (73) |
23.8 (75) |
26.6 (80) |
29.4 (85) |
31.3 (88) |
32.2 (90) |
32.9 (91) |
32.3 (90) |
32.2 (90) |
30.8 (87) |
27.7 (82) |
24.3 (76) |
28.9 (84) |
| Daily Mean °C (°F) | 17.4 (63) |
18.2 (65) |
21.1 (70) |
24.5 (76) |
27.0 (81) |
28.4 (83) |
29.0 (84) |
28.5 (83) |
28.0 (82) |
25.9 (79) |
22.4 (72) |
18.8 (66) |
24.1 (75) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 13.7 (57) |
14.5 (58) |
17.1 (63) |
20.8 (69) |
23.8 (75) |
25.5 (78) |
26.1 (79) |
25.7 (78) |
24.9 (77) |
22.6 (73) |
18.9 (66) |
15.2 (59) |
20.7 (69) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 19.9 (0.78) |
28.8 (1.13) |
35.4 (1.39) |
84.9 (3.34) |
175.5 (6.91) |
370.6 (14.59) |
345.9 (13.62) |
417.5 (16.44) |
138.4 (5.45) |
29.6 (1.17) |
14.7 (0.58) |
11.3 (0.44) |
1,672.5 (65.85) |
| Sunshine hours | 182.4 | 158.7 | 187.3 | 188.7 | 192.0 | 190.6 | 221.5 | 195.7 | 200.5 | 197.7 | 174.9 | 173.7 | 2,263.7 |
| % Humidity | 78.3 | 78.7 | 77.4 | 77.3 | 78.0 | 80.1 | 78.8 | 81.2 | 78.6 | 77.4 | 77.0 | 77.5 | 78.4 |
| Avg. precipitation days | 4.5 | 5.4 | 5.1 | 7.2 | 9.9 | 13.1 | 13.4 | 16.7 | 9.3 | 3.6 | 2.5 | 3.3 | 94 |
| Source: [7] 2009-05-15 | |||||||||||||
Government
Administrative districts
| Tainan has 6 districts (區 qu): | District | Population | Land area | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
as of 2009 | km² | ||
| ■ Anping-qu | 安平區 | 60,701 | 11.0663 | |
| ■ Annan-qu | 安南區 | 176,015 | 107.2016 | |
| ■ East-qu | 東區 | 194,436 | 13.4156 | |
| ■ West Central-qu | 中西區 | 80,578 | 6.2600 | |
| ■ South-qu | 南區 | 127,121 | 27.2681 | |
| ■ North-qu | 北區 | 130,538 | 10.4340 |
Tainan City currently has 6 districts: Anping, Annan, East, West Central, South, and North districts.
Annan district was originally the An-Shun township of Tainan County, and was merged into Tainan City in 1946. In 2004, Central District and West District were merged into the new West Central district.
Foreign relationships
Sister cities
The following places are sister cities to Tainan City[8]:
Monterey, California United States (1965)
Gwangju, South Korea (1968)- San Jose, California United States (1977)
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Kansas City, Missouri United States (1987) 
Pasay City, Philippines (1980)- Cavite City, Philippines (1980)
- Tagaytay City, Philippines (1980)
- Trece Martires, Philippines (1980)
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Columbus, Ohio United States (1980) 
Kinmen, Republic of China (1981)
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia (1981)
Port Elizabeth, Eastern Cape, South Africa (1982)Next post: