A county-administered city is a unit of
administrative division
Administrative division, administrative unit,Article 3(1). country subdivision, administrative region, subnational entity, constituent state, as well as many similar terms, are generic names for geographical areas into which a particular, ind ...
in
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
.
Under the administrative structure of Taiwan, it is at the same level as a
township
A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries.
Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, ...
or a
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...
. Such cities are under the jurisdiction of
counties
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
. It is also the lowest-level city of Taiwan, below a
city
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...
and a
special municipality. There are 14 county-administered cities currently.
History
The first administrative divisions entitled "city" were established in the 1920s when Taiwan was
under Japanese rule. At this time cities were under the jurisdiction of
prefectures
A prefecture (from the Latin ''Praefectura'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain international ...
. After the
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, nine (9) out of eleven (11)
prefectural cities established by the Japanese government were reorganized into provincial cities based on the ''Laws on the City Formation'' ().
However, the populations of
Hualien (Karenkō) and
Yilan
Yilan may refer to:
China
* Yilan County, Heilongjiang (依兰县), county of central Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China
* Yilan Town, Heilongjiang (依兰镇), seat of Yilan County
* Yilan, Jilin (依兰镇), town in Yanji
Taiwan ...
(Giran) were too low to become a provincial city, but they were of more importance than
urban townships. Thus the ''Scheme on the Local Rules in Various Counties and Cities of Taiwan Province'' () provided for the creation of county-administered cities along with
urban townships and
rural townships.
In 1951, a large scale administrative division reorganization took place in
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the no ...
. The size of
counties
A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...
shrink and the county-administered districts were abolished. This puts county-administered cities and townships into the same level in the hierarchy. Four
provincial cities were also downgraded to county-administered cities after this reorganization. Since county-administered cities are based on the law for
Taiwan Province
Taiwan Province (; PFS: ''Thòi-vàn-sén'' or ''Thòi-vân-sén'') is a nominal administrative division of the Republic of China (ROC). Its definition has remained part of the Constitution of the Republic of China, but the province is no lo ...
,
Kinmen
Kinmen, alternatively known as Quemoy, is a group of islands governed as a county by the Republic of China (Taiwan), off the southeastern coast of mainland China. It lies roughly east of the city of Xiamen in Fujian, from which it is separat ...
and
Lienchiang Counties of
Fukien Province do not have any city under their jurisdiction.
The population criterion was originally 50,000 in the 1940s, but was raised to 100,000 in 1959, again in 1977 to 150,000, and in 2015 it was lower back to 100,000. Under the current. Currently, the ''Local Government Act'' regulates the creation of a county-administered city, in which a city needs to have a population between 100,000 and 500,000 and occupies major political, economical and cultural roles. Note that not all existing county-administered cities are qualified for the population test, they were built for historical reasons.
Current county-administered cities
There are currently fourteen (14) county-administered cities, all in
Taiwan Province
Taiwan Province (; PFS: ''Thòi-vàn-sén'' or ''Thòi-vân-sén'') is a nominal administrative division of the Republic of China (ROC). Its definition has remained part of the Constitution of the Republic of China, but the province is no lo ...
:
Each county-administered city has its own local self-government bodies as stipulated in the ''Local Government Act'': a city office () and a city council (). The mayor () and members of the city council () are elected by the residents of the city. A county-administered city is further divided into
urban villages ().
Timeline
Below, unless noted otherwise in parenthesis, the newly created cities were towns that exceeded the 150,000 criteria.
Populous Townships
Townships with population more than 90,000, close to the upgrading criterion (as of March 2017)
*
Caotun
Caotun Township, formerly transliterated as Tsaotun Township, is an urban township in the northwest of Nantou County, Taiwan. It is the largest township in Taiwan by population.
History
The area was historically known as ''Chháu-ê-tun'' () w ...
(草屯鎮; 98,330)
*
Zhudong
Zhudong Township is an urban township in central Hsinchu County, Taiwan. Part of Hsinchu Science Park is in Zhudong. Also located in Zhudong is the main campus of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). Zhudong is approximately 2 ...
(竹東鎮; 96,877)
*
Hemei (和美鎮; 91,159)
See also
*
Administrative divisions of Taiwan
The Republic of China (Taiwan) is divided into multi-layered statutory subdivisions. Due to the complex political status of Taiwan, there is a significant difference in the ''de jure'' system set out in the original constitution and the ''de ...
*
Political divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945)
*
Cities of Japan
A is a local administrative unit in Japan. Cities are ranked on the same level as and , with the difference that they are not a component of . Like other contemporary administrative units, they are defined by the Local Autonomy Law of 1947.
...
*
County (Taiwan)
A county, constitutionally known as a hsien, 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 cou ...
*
Township (Taiwan)
Townships are the third-level administrative subdivisions of counties of the Republic of China (Taiwan), along with county-administered cities. After World War II, the townships were established from the following conversions on the Japanese ...
Notes
Words in native languages
References
External links
*
{{Cities in Taiwan
Populated places in Taiwan