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The recorded history of Taipei began with the Han Chinese settling of the Taipei Basin in 1709, leading up to the formation of the national capital of Taiwan and high-tech industry hub and that is now Taipei City. Other notable dates include the 1895 annexation of Taiwan by Japan, during which Taipei began to grow more rapidly, and in the 1950s ...
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- The contemporary city
Taipei, special (province-level) municipality (chih-hsia shih, or zhizia shi) and seat of government of Taiwan (Republic of China). It is situated on the Tan-shui (Danshui, or Tamsui) River, almost at the northern tip of the island of Taiwan, about 15 miles (25 km) southwest of Chi-lung (Jilong, or Keelung), which is its port on the Pacific Ocean. Taipei is completely surrounded by New Taipei City, which was created out of the former T’ai-pei (Taipei) county in 2010 and is an administratively separate entity.
Taipei lies in the relatively narrow bowl-shaped valley of the Tan-shui and two of its main tributaries, the Chi-lung (Jilong) and Hsin-tien (Xindian) rivers. The generally low-lying terrain of the central areas on the western side of the municipality slopes upward to the south and east and especially to the north, where it reaches 3,675 feet (1,120 metres) at Mount Ch’i-hsing (Qixing). The climate is humid subtropical, with hot, muggy, rainy summers and cool, damp winters. Although it is no longer Taiwan’s most populous city—having been surpassed in the 21st century by other municipalities—it remains the political, economic, and cultural centre of the island. Area 105 square miles (272 square km). Pop. (2015 est.) 2,704,810.
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Taipei was founded in the early 18th century by Chinese immigrants from Fujian province on the mainland. In the 19th century it became an important centre for overseas trade via its ports of Chi-lung and Tan-shui (Danshui). Taipei was made an administrative entity of the Chinese government in 1875, and, when Taiwan was proclaimed a province of China in 1886, the city was made the provincial capital. The Japanese acquired Taiwan in 1895 as part of the peace agreement after the first Sino-Japanese War and retained Taipei as the capital. During that time the city acquired the characteristics of an administrative centre, including many new public buildings and housing for civil servants.
The island reverted to China in 1945, after Japan’s defeat in World War II. Taipei was at the centre of a massacre of local Taiwanese by mainlanders in early 1947; the 2-28 Peace Memorial Park, named for the date (February 28) when the massacre began, commemorates the incident. Two years later the city became the seat of the Chinese Nationalist government, after the victories of the communists on the mainland had forced the Nationalists to reestablish themselves on Taiwan.
Taipei and its environs have long been the foremost industrial area of Taiwan, although the region’s preeminence has diminished somewhat. Most of the country’s important factories producing textiles and wearing apparel are located there. Other industries include the manufacture of electronic products and components, electrical machinery and equipment, printed materials, precision equipment, and foods and beverages. Services, including those related to commerce, transportation, and banking, have become increasingly important. Tourism is a small but significant component of the local economy.
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Beginning in the 1960s many older low wooden buildings in Taipei began to be replaced with high-rise apartment houses and office buildings. Because of the population influx and the priority given to office and industrial construction, an acute shortage of housing developed in the city. The government has taken steps since the late 1960s to build affordable public housing, but overall real-estate costs have remained high. Much new construction occurred in the city centre, particularly in the area of the Presidential Building and the Nationalist Party headquarters, and broad boulevards now radiate from there to all parts of the city. Among the more-notable commercial projects was the Taipei 101 (Taipei Financial Center) building, which, at a height of 1,667 feet (508 metres), was the world’s tallest building from 2003 until it was surpassed in 2007 by the Burj Khalifa building in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Railways and roads connect Taipei with all parts of the island. Within the city, the first line of a rapid transit system was opened in 1996 and was subsequently expanded to five lines. Taiwan’s principal international airport, located about 25 miles (40 km) west of central Taipei in Tao-yüan, is the island’s major point of entry for overseas travelers; another airport, east of the city centre, handles domestic air traffic. Taipei has benefited from the government’s efforts to improve Taiwan’s telecommunications infrastructure.
Among the many educational institutions in Taipei are the National Taiwan University (founded 1928), the National Taiwan Normal University (1946), and the National Chengchi University (1927). While Taipei is not a place of antiquity, it is a good place to view antiquities. The National Palace Museum, named for its original institution in Beijing (Peking), houses one of the world’s largest collections of ancient Chinese artifacts, calligraphy, paintings, and porcelain, all objects brought over from the mainland in the late 1940s. Among the city’s other cultural sites are the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, the Confucian Temple, the National Museum of History, and the Botanical Garden. The Snake Alley night market is a popular tourist attraction southeast of the central area near Lung-shan Temple.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Taipei has been the political center of the island since 1887, when it first became the seat of Taiwan Province by the Qing dynasty until 1895 and again from 1945 to 1956 by the Republic of China (ROC) government, [b] with an interregnum from 1895 to 1945 as the seat of the Government-General of Taiwan during the Japanese rule.
In 1945, Taipei was designated as a provincial municipality. Four years later, the Chinese Nationalist Government relocated to Taiwan, and Taipei became a provisional capital. From then on, its status grew more and more important. In July, 1967, Taipei became a directly-controlled municipality.
Founded in the early 18th century, it became an important centre of overseas trade in the mid-19th century. When Taiwan was proclaimed a province of China in 1886, Taipei was later made the capital, and it retained that designation under Japanese rule (1895–1945).
In 1884 Taipei officially became a city, and in 1887 it turned into a province. In the late 1890s, when Japan occupied the island, they improved the infrastructure and tore down the city wall that had originally been built by the Qing Dynasty.
May 16, 2020 · What does Taipei’s grid represent? How and when did Taipei’s grid develop? Who developed it? How do “ordered” structure, lived experience, and power dynamics interact with one another in a historical setting? Discussion. Figure 1: 1896 Map of Taipei, Taiwan, in traditional Chinese cartographic style. SMC Publishing, Taipei, Taiwan.
