Special municipality (Taiwan)
Special Municipality[I] | |
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Category | Special municipalities, counties, and cities |
Location | Free area of the Republic of China |
Number | 6 |
Populations | 1,881,204–4,014,560 |
Areas | 272–2,952 |
Government |
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Subdivisions |
This article is part of a series on |
Administrative divisions of Taiwan |
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Centrally-governed |
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Township-level |
Village-level |
Neighborhood-level |
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Historical divisions of Republic of China (1912–49) |
Special municipality
Currently total six cities are designated as special municipalities:
History
The first municipalities of the ROC were established in 1927 soon after they were designated as "cities" during the 1920s. Nominally,
Before the end of World War II, the island of Taiwan (Formosa) was under Japanese rule, with 11 cities established within its administrative divisions. Following the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Republic of China (ROC) took control of Taiwan, most of pre-1945 cities in Taiwan were reorganized as provincial cities, but Yilan and Hualien became the first two county-administered cities.
After the loss of the mainland to the
In 1967,
In 1979, the major international port and industrial city in the southwest of the country — Kaohsiung — were also upgraded to a special municipality. Territory of the Kaohsiung special municipality includes the original provincial Kaohsiung City and Siaogang Township in Kaohsiung County.
At this time, Taiwan was under martial law. All national and municipal level elections were suspended. The mayors of Taipei and Kaohsiung were assigned by the Executive Yuan (central government), not by elections until 1994. For this reason the special municipalities were also called Yuan-controlled municipalities (Chinese: 院轄市; pinyin: yuànxiáshì) at this period.
Following the democratic reforms in the early 1990s, more thoughts of administrative division reform and reorganization were widely discussed. The Local Government Act (地方制度法) was passed by the Legislative Yuan (the Parliament) in 1999. This Act regulates the local self-governance bodies and came with some articles to deal with the possible changes of administrative divisions. In the Act also states that cities with population of over 1,250,000 and with significance on political, economic and cultural development may form a special municipality.
The 2007 amendment of Local Government Act states that a
- Kaohsiung: merged from Kaohsiung Special Municipality and Kaohsiung County
- New Taipei: reformed from Taipei County
- Taichung: merged from Taichung Provincial City and Taichung County
- Tainan: merged from Tainan Provincial City and Tainan County
The four newly created special municipalities were formally established on December 25, 2010 with the inauguration of the new mayors.
In June 2010, the population of
Currently, there are in total six special municipalities under the central government. The special municipalities cover the top five most populous metropolitan areas in Taiwan and over two thirds (2/3) of the national population.
Municipality | Metropolitan area | Region |
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Taipei | Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area | Northern Taiwan
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Taoyuan | Taoyuan–Zhongli metropolitan area | Northern Taiwan
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Taichung | Taichung–Changhua metropolitan area | Central Taiwan
|
Kaohsiung | Kaohsiung metropolitan area | Southern Taiwan
|
New Taipei | Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area | Northern Taiwan
|
Tainan | Tainan metropolitan area | Southern Taiwan
|
Current Special Municipalities
There are currently six special municipalities:
Name | Population | Area (km2) | Administrative centre | Date of establishment |
---|---|---|---|---|
Taipei [II] | 2,688,140 | 271.7997 | Xinyi District[III] | 1967-07-01 |
Taoyuan[IV] | 2,092,977 | 1,220.9540 | Taoyuan District[V] | 2014-12-25 |
Kaohsiung[VI] | 2,779,790 | 2,946.2527 | Fengshan District[VIII] |
1979-07-01 |
New Taipei[IX] | 3,955,777 | 2,052.5667 | Banqiao District[X] | 2010-12-25 |
Taichung[XI] | 2,702,920 | 2,214.8968 | Xitun District[XII], Fengyuan District[XIII] | 2010-12-25 |
Tainan[XIV] | 1,883,251 | 2,191.6531 | Anping District[XV], Xinying District[XVI] | 2010-12-25 |
Their self-governed bodies (executive and legislature) regulated by the Local Government Act are:
Name | Executive | Legislature | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Government | Mayor | Current Mayor | City Council | No. of seats | |
Kaohsiung | Kaohsiung City Government | Mayor of Kaohsiung | Chen Chi-mai | Kaohsiung City Council | 66 |
New Taipei | New Taipei City Government | Mayor of New Taipei | Hou You-yi |
New Taipei City Council | 66 |
Taichung | Taichung City Government | Mayor of Taichung | Lu Shiow-yen | Taichung City Council | 63 |
Tainan | Tainan City Government | Mayor of Tainan | Huang Wei-cher |
Tainan City Council | 57 |
Taipei | Taipei City Government | Mayor of Taipei | Chiang Wan-an | Taipei City Council | 63 |
Taoyuan | Taoyuan City Government | Mayor of Taoyuan | Chang San-cheng | Taoyuan City Council | 60 |
In Taiwanese municipalities, the mayor is the highest-ranking official in charge. The mayor is directly elected by the people registered in the municipality for a duration of four years.
Future
In Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County, it was proposed in September 2021 that both are to be upgraded to the nation's newest special municipality. Similarly, Changhua County and Changhua City have been expressed interest to become its special municipality that October.[3][4] The Tsai Ing-wen administration had approved the proposal to merge Hsinchu county and city in December 2021 but rejected Changhua due to the county's decline of population below the 1.25 million required by Article 4 of the Local Government Act for a region to be eligible for an upgrade.[5][6]
See also
- Political divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945)
- Cities designated by government ordinance of Japan
- Direct-administered municipalities of China
- French-speaking) countries and territories
Republic of China | |||||
Free area[i] | Mainland area[ii] | ||||
Special municipalities[α][iii] | Provinces[iv] | Not administered[v] | |||
Counties[α]
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Autonomous municipalities[α][vi] | ||||
Districts[β] | Mountain indigenous districts[α] |
County- administered cities[α] |
Townships[α][β][vii] | Districts[β] | |
Villages[γ][viii] | |||||
Neighborhoods |
- Notes
- ^ a b c d e f Has an elected executive and an elected legislative council.
- ^ a b c Has an appointed district administrator for managing local affairs and carrying out tasks commissioned by superior agency.
- ^ Has an elected village administrator for managing local affairs and carrying out tasks commissioned by superior agency.
Notes
- ^ Also known as the Taiwan area or Tai–Min area (Chinese: 臺閩地區; lit. 'Taiwan–Fujian area')
- ^ The mainland area consists of Mainland China, Tibet and (previously) Outer Mongolia
- ^ Special municipalities, cities, and county-administered cities are all called shi (Chinese: 市; lit. 'city')
- ^ Nominal; provincial governments have been abolished
- ^ Constitutionally having the same structure as the free area, these are currently under the Chinese Communist Party control with a different structure
- ^ Sometimes called cities (Chinese: 市) or provincial cities (Chinese: 省轄市) to distinguish them from special municipalities and county-administered cities
- ^ There are two types of townships: rural townships or xīang (Chinese: 鄉) and urban townships or zhèn (Chinese: 鎮)
- ^ Villages in rural townships are known as tsūn (Chinese: 村), those in other jurisdictions are known as lǐ (Chinese: 里)
Words in native languages
- ^ a b
- ^
- Traditional Chinese script: 臺北市
- Mandarin Pinyin: Táiběi Shì
- Hokkien: Tâi-pak tshī
- Sixian Hakka: Thòi-pet sṳ
- ^
- ^
- Traditional Chinese script: 桃園市
- Mandarin Pinyin: Táoyuán Shì
- Hokkien: Thô-hn̂g tshī
- Sixian Hakka: Thò-yèn sṳ
- ^
- ^
- Traditional Chinese script: 高雄市
- Mandarin Pinyin: Gāoxióng Shì
- Hokkien: Ko-hiông tshī
- Sixian Hakka: Kô-hiùng sṳ
- ^
- ^
- ^
- Traditional Chinese script: 新北市
- Mandarin Pinyin: Xīnběi Shì
- Hokkien: Sin-pak tshī
- Sixian Hakka: Sîn-pet sṳ
- ^
- ^
- Traditional Chinese script: 臺中市
- Mandarin Pinyin: Táizhōng Shì
- Hokkien: Tâi-tiong tshī
- Sixian Hakka: Thòi-chûng sṳ
- ^
- ^
- ^
- Traditional Chinese script: 臺南市
- Mandarin Pinyin: Táinán Shì
- Hokkien: Tâi-lâm tshī
- Sixian Hakka: Thòi-nàm sṳ
- ^
- ^
References
- ^ "Local governments". Office of the President Republic of China (Taiwan). Retrieved 30 November 2020.
- ^ Atayal residents worried over Taoyuan's upgrade
- ^ "Cabinet holds 'no stance' on idea of 'Greater Hsinchu' - Taipei Times". 8 September 2021.
- ^ "Amendment paving way for Hsinchu city-county merger clears first hurdle - Focus Taiwan". 24 December 2021.
- ^ "DPP makes merger moves on Hsinchu, not Changhua | Taiwan News | 2021-12-25 09:10:00". 25 December 2021.
- ^ "MOI opposes special municipality status for Changhua County - Focus Taiwan". 13 May 2022.