Checheng Township is a rural township in

Pingtung County Pingtung () is a County (Taiwan), county located in southern Taiwan. It has a warm tropical monsoon climate and is known for its agriculture and tourism. Kenting National Park, Taiwan's oldest national park, is located in the county. The county ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

Names and etymology

The name of the town. Checheng () combines the Chinese character for "cart", today used to refer to cars and other motorized transport, and which is used in words for walled fortresses and cities, but which in the Taiwanese historical context refers to a town with an earthen security berm. With the arrival of ethnic Chinese on Taiwan, the native Paiwan name of ''Kabeyawan'' was

transliterate Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one script to another that involves swapping letters (thus '' trans-'' + '' liter-'') in predictable ways, such as Greek → and → the digraph , Cyrillic → , Armenian → or L ...

d as ''Ku-piah-oan'' () in the

Taiwanese Hokkien Taiwanese Hokkien ( , ), or simply Taiwanese, also known as Taigi ( zh, c=臺語, tl=Tâi-gí), Taiwanese Southern Min ( zh, c=臺灣閩南語, tl=Tâi-uân Bân-lâm-gí), Hoklo and Holo, is a variety of the Hokkien language spoken natively ...

language of these new settlers.">《歷史沿革》 ["History"
/nowiki>">History"">《歷史沿革》 ["History"
/nowiki>at 屏東縣車城鄉公所官方網站 [Checheng Township Government website]. . Following the Dutch Formosa, period of Dutch rule in the 17th century, the name ''Thóng-léng-po͘'' (; Hakka language, Hakka: ''Thúng-liâng-phû'') was used after Koxinga's son and successor

Zheng Jing Zheng Jing, Prince of Yanping (; 25 October 1642 – 17 March 1681), courtesy names Xianzhi () and Yuanzhi (), Art name, pseudonym Shitian (), was initially a Southern Ming military general who later became the second ruler of the Tungning King ...

stationed troops there under a (), a military officer with rank roughly equal to a battalion commander; The suffix ''po͘ '' () is often used for place names in Taiwan. A village gradually grew up in the area. Formosa Island and the Pescadores Le Gendre Bootang 1870

Formosa Island and the Pescadores Le Gendre Bootang 1870

After the Manchu

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

assumed control of the lowlands of western Taiwan, ethnic Chinese settlers wanted protection from aboriginal attacks. A wooden

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a row of closely placed, high vertical standing tree trunks or wooden or iron stakes used as a fence for enclosure or as a defensive wall. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymo ...

was built around the town giving rise to a new name, ''Chhâ-siâⁿ'' (; Hakka: ''Tshài-sàng''), using the character (''chhâ'') which is the Hokkien word for "wood". Thus ''Chhâ-siâⁿ'' has roughly the meaning of "

stockade A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls, made of logs placed side by side vertically, with the tops sharpened as a defensive wall. Etymology ''Stockade'' is derived from the French word ''estocade''. The French word was derived f ...

". In 1788, the fifty-third year of the

Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, personal name Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of China, emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China pr ...

's rule, Manchu general

Fuk'anggan Fuk'anggan (Manchu:, Möllendorff: fuk'anggan; ; 1748–1796), courtesy name Yaolin (), was a Manchu noble and general of the Qing Dynasty. He was from the Fuca clan () and the Bordered Yellow Banner of the Eight Banners. Fuk'anggan's father, ...

landed his army in the area to suppress the

Lin Shuangwen rebellion LIN or LIN may refer to: People *Lin (surname) (normally ), a Chinese surname * Lin (''The King of Fighters''), Chinese assassin character *Lin Chow Bang, character in Fat Pizza * Lin (NouerA) (Chinese name Lin Hanzhong Korean name Lim Hanjung), ...

. In commemoration, the town received yet another name ''Hok-an-chng'' (; also ''Hok-an-siâⁿ'' []), with from Fuk'anggan's Chinese name and for "pacified", plus , meaning "hamlet". The origin of the town's current name Checheng is disputed. Some such as Japanese anthropologist

Inō Kanori was a Japanese anthropologist and folklorist known for his studies in Taiwanese indigenous peoples. Inō was the first person who classified the aboriginal tribes into several groups, instead of the traditional classification, dating back to th ...

believe that it arose as a mispronunciation of ''Chhâ-siâⁿ'' (); the pronunciations of and are similar in both Hokkien and Hakka, ''chhâ/chhia'' and ''tshài/tshâ'' respectively. Another theory is that as an aboriginal army approached the town, the inhabitants used dozens of oxcarts carrying charcoal to lined up as a defense. Today, Hokkien-speaking inhabitants continue to pronounce the name of the town with the older ''Chhâ-siâⁿ'', though the written form is almost inevitably . English-language maps and sources have historically used spellings such as Chasiang that reflect this pronunciation.

Geography

Txu-pclmaps-oclc-6550512-koshun-2213-iii

Area:
Population: 8,002 (February 2024)

Administrative divisions

The township comprises 11 villages: Baoli, Fuan, Fuxing, Haikou, Houwan, Puqi, Sheliao, Tianzhong, Tongpu, Wenquan and Xinjie.

Education

National Pingtung University National Pingtung University (NPTU; ) is a public university in Pingtung City, Pingtung County, Taiwan. NPTU offers higher education, vocational education, and teacher education. It provides undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs acr ...

Tourist attractions

Checheng Fu'an Temple The Checheng Fu'an Temple () is a temple in Checheng Township, Pingtung County, Taiwan. History The temple was originally built as the Jinsheng Pavilion in 1662 to worship Tudigong during the Qing Dynasty under Kangxi Emperor to accommodate mi ...

Kenting National Park Kenting National Park ( zh, c=墾丁國家公園, hp=Kěndīng Gúojiā Gōngyuán}), commonly known as Kenting ( zh, c=墾丁, hp=Kěndīng), is a national park located on the Hengchun Peninsula of Pingtung County, Taiwan, covering Hengchun, ...

National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium The National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium (NMMBA; zh, t=國立海洋生物博物館, poj=Kok-li̍p Hái-iûⁿ Seng-bu̍t Phok-bu̍t-koán, p=Guólì Hǎiyáng Shēngwù Bówùguǎn) is the most notable museum and research institution f ...

Sichongxi Hot Spring The Sichongxi Hot Spring () is a hot spring in Checheng Township, Pingtung County, Taiwan. Geology The hot spring is located at the Sichong riverbank. The hot spring water is of alkaline type and rich in sodium carbonate. The area around the h ...

Dongyuan Forest Recreation Area and Dongyuan Wet Grassland

Shihmen Ancient battle Field and Mudan Incident Memorial Park

Syuhai Grassland Recreation Area

Hsi Chung River Hot Spring

HaiKou
* Gourmet
Huang's peeled mung bean desert

Notable natives

Pan Men-an Pan Men-an (; born 15 August 1963) is a Taiwanese politician. He was the magistrate of Pingtung County from 25 December 2014 to 25 December 2022. He joined the campaign team of the 2024 presidential candidate of Democratic Progressive Party, a ...

Magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

of Pingtung County

References

External links

Checheng Township Office, Pingtung County Government

Checheng Township Travel Guide
Townships in Pingtung County {{Taiwan-geo-stub