Tainan, officially Tainan City, is a city in southern Taiwan. The city proper is a special municipality facing the Formosan Strait or Taiwan Strait in the west and south. Tainan is the oldest city on the island of Taiwan and also commonly known as the "Capital City" for its over 200 years of history as the capital of Taiwan under Koxinga and later Qing rule. Tainan's complex history of comebacks, redefinitions and renewals inspired its popular nickname "the Phoenix City". Tainan is classified as a "Sufficiency" level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.

As Taiwan's oldest urban area, Tainan was initially established by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a ruling and trading base called Fort Zeelandia during the period of Dutch rule on the island. After Dutch colonists were defeated by Koxinga in 1661, Tainan remained as the capital of the Tungning Kingdom until 1683 and afterwards the capital of Taiwan Prefecture under Qing Dynasty rule until 1887, when the new provincial capital was moved to Taipei. Tainan has been historically regarded as one of the oldest cities in Taiwan, and its former name, Tayouan, has been claimed to be the origin of the name "Taiwan". It is also one of Taiwan's cultural capitals, for its rich folk cultures including the famous local street food and traditional cuisine, extensively preserved Taoist rites and other living local traditions covering everything from child birth to funerals. The city houses the first Confucian school–temple in Taiwan, built in 1665, the remains of the Eastern and Southern gates of the old city, and countless other historical monuments. Tainan claims more Buddhist and Taoist temples than any other city in Taiwan.

• 1 History
  • 1.1 Early history
  • 1.2 Dutch colony
  • 1.3 Kingdom of Tungning
  • 1.4 Qing dynasty
  • 1.5 Japanese rule
  • 1.6 Republic of China
• 2 Culture
  • 2.1 Folk cultures
  • 2.2 Cuisine
  • 2.3 Temples
  • 2.4 Music
  • 2.5 Museums and parks
• 3 Tourism
  • 3.1 Taiwan Confucian Temple
  • 3.2 National Museum of Taiwan History
  • 3.3 National Museum of Taiwan Literature
  • 3.4 National Cheng Kung University Museum
  • 3.5 Fort Provintia
  • 3.6 Shopping and recreation
  • 3.7 Beehives
• 4 Climate
• 5 Cityscape
  • 5.1 The Great Cross Street
  • 5.2 Japanese Redevelopment Program
  • 5.3 Three Ring Belts
  • 5.4 The River South Region
  • 5.5 The River North Region
• 6 Government and politics
  • 6.1 City mayor
  • 6.2 Presidential elections
    • 6.2.1 1996 Presidential election
    • 6.2.2 2000 Presidential election
    • 6.2.3 2004 Presidential election
    • 6.2.4 2008 Presidential election
    • 6.2.5 2012 Presidential election
• 7 Administrative districts
• 8 Economy
  • 8.1 Industry
  • 8.2 Agriculture
  • 8.3 Tourism
  • 8.4 Retail
• 9 Transportation
  • 9.1 Rail
  • 9.2 Public transport
  • 9.3 Road
  • 9.4 Air
• 10 Education
  • 10.1 Junior high schools
  • 10.2 Senior high schools
• 11 Notable natives
• 12 Sports
• 13 International relations
  • 13.1 Twin towns — Sister cities
    • 13.1.1 Friendship cities
    • 13.1.2 Domestic
• 14 Relative location
• 15 See also
• 16 Notes
  • 16.1 Words in native languages
• 17 References
• 18 External links

History

Early history

Archaeological excavations in Zuojhen District suggest that the Tainan region has been inhabited for at least 20,000 to 31,000 years. The indigenous Siraya tribe dominated the region by the 16th century. The Sakam people of the Sinkan sub-tribe inhabited the area of the present-day city. Other Sirayan sub-tribes, including the Soelangh, Mattauw and Baccloangh inhabited the surrounding area.

By the late 16th century, Chinese merchants and fishermen had set up several bases along the west coast of the island, including a sandbar across the Taikang Inner Sea (Chinese: 臺江內海; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-kang lāi-hái) off the bay of Sakam village (modern-day Fort Provintia). The Chinese adopted Taioan [zh] (modern-day Anping) as the name of the sandbar. Slightly north of Taioan, along the shoreline near Bassemboy (北線尾; Pak-siàn-bóe), Japanese traders established bases for trade with China. The early Chinese and Japanese also traded with the Sirayan people. Salt and food was exchanged for deer hides and dried deer meat. The Siraya people were influenced by both Chinese and Japanese cultures and lifestyles. They started to use Chinese words in their language, use Japanese tantō in ritual events, and also migrated inland due to the influx of newcomers. By the time the Europeans arrived, the influence of Chinese and Japanese traders and fishermen was already prominent.

Dutch colony

Early Dutch colonists had attempted but failed to control Macau and the Penghu islands. In July 1622, the Dutch East India Company textile merchant Cornelis Reyersz sailed to Taiwan in search of a suitable location to build a trading post. In 1624 he established a small fort named 'Orange' on the sandy peninsula they called Tayouan (modern-day Anping). The fort was then expanded and renamed Fort Zeelandia. The settlement was initially designed as a base to attack their Spanish rivals and as a trading post between China and Batavia in Indonesia. Later the post became the center of Dutch trade between China, Japan and Europe. During the governorship of Pieter Nuyts (1627–29), there was hostility between the Dutch and Japanese merchants, leading at one point to Nuyts being held hostage by a Japanese trader, Hamada Yahee.

The Dutch pacification campaign on Formosa was a series of military actions and diplomatic moves undertaken in 1635 and 1636. They aimed at subduing hostile aboriginal villages in the south-western region of the island. In 1642 the Dutch seized the Spanish garrison at Santisima Trinidad in Keelung. The Dutch East India Company became the first authority to claim control of the whole of Formosa, with Fort Zeelandia as the seat of government.

Tensions arose between the Dutch and the Chinese inhabitants of Taiwan due to heavy Dutch taxation and Dutch participation in plunder during the collapse of the Ming dynasty. Eventually, this led to the brief, but bloody, Guo Huaiyi Rebellion in 1652. The Dutch crushed the revolt only with the help of the local Sinkanese.

The settlements near to Fort Zeelandia expanded as a result of the Dutch trading post in the area. In 1653, the Dutch built a new fort, Fort Provintia, in the Sakam area as a center for an agricultural colony. The Dutch encouraged Chinese farmers to migrate to Taiwan to grow rice and sugar cane. The Dutch settlement in southern Taiwan was so successful that, by the 1650s, it had overtaken Batavia.

Kingdom of Tungning

Koxinga (also known as Zheng Chenggong) was a Ming loyalist and chief commander of the Ming troops on the maritime front for the later emperors of the withering dynasty. In 1661, Koxinga attacked the Dutch colonists in Taiwan. After a nine-month siege, the Dutch Governor of Taiwan, Frederik Coyett, surrendered Fort Zeelandia to Koxinga on 1 February 1662. This effectively ended 38 years of Dutch rule on Taiwan. Koxinga then devoted himself to transforming Taiwan into a military base for loyalists who wanted to restore the Ming Dynasty.

Koxinga set about making Taiwan a base for the Ming loyalist movement. Fort Provintia was renamed Tungtu, and Fort Zeelandia became Anping. Koxinga set up military colonies on the surrounding plains to help feed his forces. Many suburbs surrounding Tainan City today include in their names "Ying", "Jia", and "Tian", all derived from this event. After the death of Koxinga in 1662, his son, Zheng Jing, changed the name of Dongdu to Dong Ning. His chief minister, Chen Yonghua [zh], introduced Chinese bureaucracy, built the first Confucius temple on the island, and introduced the method of salt production to coastal areas. The British were invited to set up a trading post in Anping to continue trade between Taiwan, Japan, and South East Asia. This helped to maintain the region as a center of trade.

Qing dynasty

The death of Zheng Jing in 1681 was followed by a struggle for succession. Seizing the advantage presented by the infighting, on July 17, 1683, Qing naval commander Shi Lang defeated the Tungning fleet in the Battle of Penghu. Two days later, Qing troops landed at Tungning and encountered little resistance. In 1684 the kingdom was incorporated into the Qing Empire as part of Fujian province, ending two decades of rule by the Zheng family. Taiwan Prefecture was established, with its prefectural seat Taiwanfu at modern-day Tainan.

In 1721, Chinese peasants and indigenous tribes rose in rebellion against Qing misrule. The rebels, led by Zhu Yigui, captured Tainan without a fight. Turmoil ensued as the rebels soon fought amongst themselves. It was only after a Qing army was dispatched from mainland China that order was restored. Zhu was captured and executed. As Qing law prohibited the building of city walls in Taiwan, Qing authorities decided to create a defensive boundary around the city by growing bamboo around the perimeter. After several further uprisings across the island, work on a city wall began in the late 1780s.

A flood in 1823 brought rich silt from nearby rivers, which formed a widespread new fertile plain across the Taijiang bay area between Tainan and Anping. A canal system called Go-tiau-kang (五條港; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Gō͘-tiâu-káng) was built to keep the port in Tainan functioning but prevented large ships from entering the bay.

After 174 years of restrictions on trade with the Europeans, the Qing reopened Anping port as part of the Tianjin treaty following the Second Opium War in 1858. The Anping Customs house was established in 1864. Western merchants built trading posts near the remains of Fort Zeelandia.

Following the murder of 54 Japanese sailors by Paiwan aborigines near the southwestern tip of Taiwan in 1871, the punitive Japanese Expedition of 1874 to Taiwan revealed the fragility of the Qing dynasty's hold on Taiwan. As a result, the Qing sent the imperial commissioner Shen Baozhen to Taiwan to strengthen its defense. In Tainan, Shen made several efforts to modernize the defenses including inviting French engineers to design the Eternal Golden Castle in Erkunshen. He also recommended setting up a telegraph cable link between Tainan and Amoy. Some parts of the castle were built using bricks taken from Fort Zeelandia.

After over 200 years of development, Tainan had become the largest city in Taiwan and a Chinese city with foreign influence. The following is a description of the city by the Scottish missionary William Campbell upon his first arrival to the island in 1871:

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.

In 1885, the Qing government commenced work to develop the island into Taiwan Province. The capital of the island (and its designation as "Taiwanfu") was moved to Toatun (modern-day Taichung). The name of the old Taiwanfu was changed to Tainanfu, the seat of Tainan Prefecture.

Japanese rule

As a consequence of the Chinese losing the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Taiwan and the Penghu Islands were ceded to Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki. The Republic of Formosa was proclaimed in Tainan in May 1895, in an effort to forestall the incoming Japanese occupation. A Japanese army arrived at Tainan in October 1895. Liu Yongfu and the other Republican leaders fled, leaving the city in disarray. A Scottish missionary, Thomas Barclay, was chosen by local elites and foreign merchants to negotiate the Japanese entry into the city. As a result, Tainan was taken without resistance. Under Japanese rule, Tainan was initially administered under Tainan Ken (臺南縣). With a population of about 50,000 in 1904, Tainan was Taiwan's most populous city.

The anti-Japanese uprising known as the Tapani Incident began in Ta-pa-ni (modern-day Yujing) on April 9, 1915. The revolt, led by Yu Qingfang [zh], spread quickly across the whole island and was supported by both Chinese and indigenous Taiwanese. The Japanese crushed the uprising. Many villages were destroyed and thousands of people were killed during the repression which followed. Yu Qingfang was captured on August 22, 1915. More than 800 people were sentenced to death in Tainan. Over 100 of them were executed while the rest were pardoned by the new Taishō Emperor. The place where the rebellion began, Xilai Temple in Tainan (臺南西來庵), was demolished. The event marked a turning point in Japanese policy from forced pacification to full integration of Taiwan into the Japanese Empire.

The Japanese renamed the city to Tainan Chō (臺南廳) in 1901, and then Tainan Shū (臺南州) in 1920. Tainan Prefecture included modern-day Yunlin, Chiayi, and the wider region of Tainan. Tainan served as the capital city. The Japanese transformed Tainan by building modern infrastructure, including schools, a courthouse, city hall, new telecommunication facilities, an extensive freight and passenger rail network, a new Anping canal replacing the Go-tiau-kang, an airport, and an irrigation system across the Tainan and Chiayi regions. Modern urban designs were introduced; old narrow streets and city walls were demolished and replaced with wide streets that form the cityscape of the modern-day Tainan city center. They also introduced much needed sanitary reforms.

Republic of China

The Republic of China (ROC) took over Taiwan on 25 October 1945 after World War II. Tainan City and Tainan County were established and became separate local entities under Taiwan Province in 1946. There was civil unrest in Tainan as part of the February 28 Incident in 1947. Tang De-Jhang, a Japanese descent and Japanese educated lawyer, was a member of government which set up "The February 28 Incident Commission" and a popular candidate for city mayor, was accused of being a separatist and arrested by the ROC army on March 11. He was tortured and executed the next day in the park in front of Tainan City Hall (now named Tang Te-chang Memorial Park). Tang was posthumously pronounced not guilty by court later in March. Like other regions in Taiwan, many people in Tainan suffered for their real or perceived opposition to the Kuomintang (KMT, Chinese Nationalist Party) during the autocratic era.

The city held its first councilor and mayoral elections in 1950. In the 1960s, Tainan was overtaken by Kaohsiung as the economic center of southern Taiwan due to the redevelopment of Kaohsiung port. While Tainan City struggled through the second half of twentieth century, the county, especially the river south region, benefited from prioritization by national programs. The completion of the National Highway No. 1 was followed by the building of many industrial parks and other road improvements. As a result, the city sprawled inland into North, East and then the Yongkang and Rende districts.

In 1992, a redevelopment plan in the West district, to widen Haian Rd and build an underground plaza proved a failure as lack of geological surveying and overall planning meant that the works ran into a layer of groundwater. The development destroyed part of the historic Go-tiau-kang area. As a consequence, the Zhongzheng Road district, previously the most popular shopping precinct in Tainan since Japanese rule, went into decline due to the poor quality of the environment. By the mid-1990s, there was a growing awareness of the need to protect Tainan's historical and cultural treasures. Since then, the government and civil societies have worked to protect Tainan's heritage. It is an ongoing issue for Tainan to protect its past while reviving its old business center.

Following the establishment of the Southern Taiwan Science Park in 1995, the outskirt of the city saw a rapid growth in population through the 2000s. The city became more prosperous after the completion of several major transport infrastructure plans. The city center shifted eastward in the mid-1990s, closer to the densely populated Yongkang, East and North districts. There are several redevelopment plans to transform these districts into the new business centers of the city.

On March 19, 2004, President Chen Shui-bian was shot while campaigning for reelection in Tainan, a city that has been a major center for the pro-independent movement since the end of Japanese rule. On October 21, 2008, Chinese ARATS Vice President Zhang Mingqing was injured when he encountered protesters in Tainan Confucius Temple.

In June 2009, the Executive Yuan approved the plan to merge Tainan County and Tainan City to form a larger municipality of Tainan City. On 25 December 2010, Tainan County and Tainan City merged to become Tainan special municipality.

On February 6, 2016, the area was hit by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake, causing 116 fatalities and major damage, including building collapses (see 2016 Kaohsiung earthquake).

Tainan claims its name as one of the Taiwanese cultural capitals for its abundant historic monument and citizen lifestyle. The city is dotted by Taoist temples, Buddhist temples and churches. Many of them are among the oldest in Taiwan. The city also has its own unique traditions and cuisines developed by Chinese frontiers over its long history.

Folk cultures

The lives of Tainan citizens are closely related to many Chinese gods and temples. Parents bring their children to the "Weaving Maid goddess" (Chinese: 七娘媽; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Chhit-niû-má), the children's goddess, to wish for good will. Traditionally Chinese people step into adulthood when they are 20. In Tainan, there is a large ritual celebration for all 16-year-olds on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the goddess's birthday. This extended celebration is unique to Tainan: In the past, families with children working in the harbor took the advantage of this ceremony to show the employers that their children should be paid in adult rate after this day.

Before any form of exam people visit a temple of Wenchangdijun, the literacy god, to pray for good luck. One of the Wenchang temples is on the top floor of the Fort Provintia. Many final year high school students preparing for university exams visit the temple in June, before the exam. Those asking for marriage visit Yuelao, the god for marriages. People also visit temples for many reasons, from simply praying for good luck to celebrating god's birthday to even consulting with the other world.

A wedding ceremony in Tainan is a series of complex processes that are very exact and detailed. Both groom and bride need to prepare 12 specific gifts representing different meanings during their engagement ceremony with more to come in the wedding. People believe this complexity is a sign of being civilized.

Anping residents use a special symbol called Sword Lion to keep bad spirits away. During Zheng's regime, Anping was one of Koxinga's main naval stations. When returning home from military drills, soldiers would put lion-face shields on the main gates of their houses and insert their swords crosswise in the lion's mouth. Locals incorporate this symbol into the design of their houses as a symbol of security.

Cuisine

Many well-known Taiwanese food dishes originated in Tainan. Since Tainan was a center of sugar production, Tainan cuisine tends to be sweeter than other Taiwanese cuisines. For example, eel noodle soup has a distinctive sweet and sour taste. Milkfish dishes are very popular in Tainan, where locals also call it "Koxinga's fish" (Chinese: 國姓魚; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: kok-sèng-hî). People believe the Chinese name of the fish (虱目魚; sat-ba̍k-hî) was given by Koxinga, and this name has been loaned into Japanese as sabahī (サバヒー). The fish are bred in farms located in the coastal outskirts of the city. Many Tainan restaurants and snack stands have histories that trace back to the Qing or Japanese eras.

On Guo Hua Street (國華街), a lot of restaurants and street vendors sell local cuisine, including such dishes as "savory rich pudding" (碗粿), o-a-tsian (oyster omelet), gua bao, and popiah. Local people tend to have these dishes either in the morning or at noon.^{[citation needed]}

Temples

Tainan is famous for its diversity and density of temples and shrines. Some of them are the only of its kind on Taiwan Island. In all, there are officially listed seven Buddhist temples and eight Taoist shrines (七寺八廟). As of 2015, Tainan has the most numbers of registered temples among other municipalities, cities or counties in Taiwan, reaching 1,613 temples.

The seven Buddhist temples are:

• Kaiyuen Temple, originally the royal gardens of the Tungning Kingdom, became a Buddhist temple in 1690.
• Zhuxi Temple, founded in the Tungning Kingdom period.
• Fahua Temple, founded in the Tungning Kingdom period.
• Mituo Temple, founded in the Tungning Kingdom period.
• Longshan Temple, founded in the Qing Dynasty.
• Chongqing Temple, founded in the Qing Dynasty.
• Huangbo Temple, founded in the Qing Dynasty but demolished by the Japanese. The worshiped statues were migrated to the Altar of Heaven temple.

The eight Taoist shrines are:

• Grand Matsu Temple (大天后宮), in honor of the sea goddess Mazu. Originally the residence of the King Ningjing of the Tungning Kingdom.
• Sidian Wumiao (祀典武廟), the Official God of War temple, built in 1665.
• Dongyue Dian (東嶽殿), the God of Hell temple, built in 1673.
• Fuchenghuang Temple (府城隍廟), the temple of the Prefecture City God, built in 1669.
• Longwang Temple (龍王廟), the shrine of the East Sea Dragon God, built in 1716 but demolished by the Japanese.
• Fongshen Temple (風神廟), the Wind God temple, built in 1739. It is the only Wind God temple on Taiwan Island.
• Yaowang Temple (藥王廟), the Medicine God temple, built in 1685.
• Shuisian Temple (水仙宮), the Water Gods temple, built in Qing Dynasty after Go-tiau-kang was constructed.

There are many other well-known temples and shrines not on this list, such as Anping District's Tianhou Temple (supposedly the oldest on Taiwan proper), the Altar of Heaven temple (天壇), and the re-built Xilai temple (西來庵) etc. They are all the centers of religion in Tainan.

Due to its abundant numbers of temples and shrines, the traditional temple decoration crafters and their business flourishes in Tainan. There are masters still passing their knowledge to maintain the temples in the traditional way.

Music

Nanyin and Shisanyin were the first types of Chinese music introduced to Tainan; Nanyin is performed mostly for entertainment while Shisanyin is performed in the Confucius worship ceremony. There are two Nanyin clubs in Tainan: Zhenshengshe, a 200-year-old club once dissolved in the 1980s for ten years which then returned with the support from younger generation musicians and Nanshengshe, a 95-year-old club performing globally.

Music performance is being promoted in Tainan. Tainan City has its own Chinese orchestra and symphony orchestra. There are also private performance groups such as Chimei Mandolin Performance Group, Chimei Philharmonic Orchestra and Chang Jung Christianity University Symphony Orchestra.

Ten Drum Art Percussion Group (十鼓擊樂團) is a percussion performance group established in the year 2000. The group is dedicated in producing percussion performances that highlights the history, the culture and the image of Taiwan. The group first performed internationally in the festivals during the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Following this event, the group has performed in many occasions both internationally and domestically. The group has its own campus located in an old sugar factory in Rende District. The campus provides education on percussion performances at all levels and regular performances to general public.

Museums and parks

On top of its plentiful living culture, Tainan host several museums and parks. The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is in the former city hall; National Museum of Taiwan History is in the Annan district; Chimei Museum is in the Rende district; Taijiang National Park follows the coast; Anping Historic Scenic Park includes the entire old Anping town and the north ward of Anping harbor; and Siraya National Scenic Area includes the Wusanto Reservoir built by Yoichi Hatta. In the city center, many historic monuments from Zheng's regime, Qing dynasty, and the Japanese colonial era are preserved including the Confucius temple, two major city gates and former city hall.

Tainan has a tropical savanna climate, The city is characterized 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).