Taipei
Taipei known as Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of Taiwan. Sitting at the northern tip of the island, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about 25 km southwest of the northern port city Keelung. Most of the city is located in an ancient lakebed; the basin is bounded by the narrow valleys of the Keelung and Xindian rivers, which join to form the Tamsui River along the city's western border. The city proper is home to an estimated population of 2,704,810, forming the core part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, which includes the nearby cities of New Taipei and Keelung with a population of 7,047,559, the 40th most-populous urban area in the world—roughly one-third of Taiwanese citizens live in the metro district; the name "Taipei" can refer either to the city proper. Taipei is the political, economic and cultural center of Taiwan and one of the major hubs in East Asia. Considered to be a global city and rated as an Alpha City by GaWC, Taipei is part of a major high-tech industrial area.
Railways, high-speed rail, highways and bus lines connect Taipei with all parts of the island. The city is served by two airports -- Taiwan Taoyuan. Taipei is home to various world-famous architectural or cultural landmarks, which include Taipei 101, Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, Dalongdong Baoan Temple, Hsing Tian Kong, Lungshan Temple of Manka, National Palace Museum, Presidential Office Building, Taipei Guest House and several night markets dispersed throughout the city. Natural features such as Maokong and hot springs are well known to international visitors. In English-language news reports the name Taipei serves as a synecdoche referring to Taiwan's national government. Due to the ambiguous political status of Taiwan internationally, the term Chinese Taipei is sometimes pressed into service as a synonym for the entire country, as when Taiwan's governmental representatives participate in international organizations or Taiwan's athletes participate in international sporting events; the spelling Taipei derives from the Wade–Giles romanization T'ai-pei.
The name could be romanized as Táiběi according to Hanyu Pinyin and Tongyong Pinyin. Prior to the significant influx of Han Chinese immigrants, the region of Taipei Basin was inhabited by the Ketagalan plains aborigines; the number of Han immigrants increased in the early 18th century under Qing Dynasty rule after the government began permitting development in the area. In 1875, the northern part of the island was incorporated into the new Taipeh Prefecture; the Qing dynasty of China made Taipeh-fu the temporary capital of the island in 1887 when it was declared a province. Taipeh was formally made the provincial capital in 1894. Japan acquired Taiwan in 1895 under the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the First Sino-Japanese War. Taiwan became a colony of Imperial Japan with Taihoku as its capital; the city was administered under Taihoku Prefecture. Taiwan's Japanese rulers embarked on an extensive program of advanced urban planning that featured extensive railroad links. A number of Taipei landmarks and cultural institutions date from this period.
Following the surrender of Japan to the United States of America of 1945, effective control of Taiwan was handed to the Republic of China. After losing mainland China to the Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War, the ruling Kuomintang relocated the ROC government to Taiwan and declared Taipei the provisional capital of the ROC in December 1949. Taiwan's Kuomintang rulers regarded the city as the capital of Taiwan Province and their control as mandated by General Order No. 1. In 1990 Taipei provided the backdrop for the Wild Lily student rallies that moved Taiwanese society from one-party rule to multi-party democracy by 1996; the city has since served as the seat of Taiwan's democratically elected national government. The region known as the Taipei Basin was home to Ketagalan tribes before the eighteenth century. Han Chinese from Southern Fujian Province of Qing dynasty China began to settle in the Taipei Basin in 1709. In the late 19th century, the Taipei area, where the major Han Chinese settlements in northern Taiwan and one of the designated overseas trade ports, were located, gained economic importance due to the booming overseas trade that of tea export.
In 1875, the northern part of Taiwan was separated from Taiwan Prefecture and incorporated into the new Taipeh Prefecture as a new administrative entity of the Qing dynasty. Having been established adjoining the flourishing townships of Bangka and Twatutia, the new prefectural capital was known as Chengnei, "the inner city", government buildings were erected there. From 1875 until the beginning of Japanese rule in 1895, Taipei was part of Tamsui County of Taipeh Prefecture and the prefectural capital. In 1885, work commenced to govern the island as a province, Taipeh was temporarily made the provincial capital; the city became the capital in 1894. All that remains from the historical period is the north gate; the west gate and city walls were demolished by the Japanese while the south gate, little south gate, east gate were extensively modified by the Kuomintang and have lost much of their original character. As settlement for losing the First Sino-Japanese War, China ceded the island of Taiwan to the Empire of Japan in 1895 as part of the Treaty of Shimonoseki.
After the Japanese take-over, called Taihoku in Japanese
Pinyin
Hanyu Pinyin abbreviated to pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China and to some extent in Taiwan. It is used to teach Standard Mandarin Chinese, written using Chinese characters; the system includes four diacritics denoting tones. Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters; the pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang, based on earlier forms of romanizations of Chinese. It was published by revised several times; the International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as an international standard in 1982, was followed by the United Nations in 1986. The system was adopted as the official standard in Taiwan in 2009, where it is used for international events rather than for educational or computer-input purposes, but "some cities and organizations, notably in the south of Taiwan, did not accept this", so it remains one of several rival romanization systems in use.
The word Hànyǔ means'the spoken language of the Han people', while Pīnyīn means'spelled sounds'. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing; this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, issued his Xi Ru Ermu Zi at Hangzhou. Neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing dynasty scholar-official, Fang Yizhi; the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the stunning effect of the kana syllabaries and Western learning there; this galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script.
While Song did not himself create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, further improved by Herbert Giles in the Chinese–English Dictionary of 1892, it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. In the early 1930s, Communist Party of China leaders trained in Moscow introduced a phonetic alphabet using Roman letters, developed in the Soviet Oriental Institute of Leningrad and was intended to improve literacy in the Russian Far East; this Sin Wenz or "New Writing" was much more linguistically sophisticated than earlier alphabets, but with the major exception that it did not indicate tones of Chinese. In 1940, several thousand members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Society's new journal.
Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Fo. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, some contemporary Chinese literature, a spectrum of textbooks. In 1940, the movement reached an apex when Mao's Border Region Government declared that the Sin Wenz had the same legal status as traditional characters in government and public documents. Many educators and political leaders looked forward to the day when they would be universally accepted and replace Chinese characters. Opposition arose, because the system was less well adapted to writing regional languages, therefore would require learning Mandarin. Sin Wenz fell into relative disuse during the following years. In 1943, the U. S. military engaged Yale University to develop a romanization of Mandarin Chinese for its pilots flying over China. The resulting system is close to pinyin, but does not use English letters in unfamiliar ways. Medial semivowels are written with y and w, apical vowels with r or z.
Accent marks are used to indicate tone. Pinyin was created by Chinese linguists, including Zhou Youguang, as part of a Chinese government project in the 1950s. Zhou is called "the father of pinyin," Zhou worked as a banker in New York when he decided to return to China to help rebuild the country after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, he became an economics professor in Shanghai, in 1955, when China's Ministry of Education created a Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language, Premier Zhou Enlai assigned Zhou Youguang the task of developing a new romanization system, despite the fact that he was not a professional linguist. Hanyu Pinyin was based on several existing systems: Gwoyeu Romatzyh of 1928, Latinxua Sin Wenz of 1931, the diacritic markings from zhuyin. "I'm not the father of pinyin," Zhou said years later. It's a lo
Taipei City Hall metro station
Taipei City Hall is a metro station in Taipei, Taiwan served by Taipei Metro. The two-level, underground station structure with an island platform and four exits; the size of the station is larger than most other stations on the Nangang Line. The station is situated under Zhongxiao East Road, between Songren Road. Washrooms are located outside of the fare area of the station. Due to crowding during New Year's festivities, automatic platform gates have been installed at this station. In recent years, the station has gone through renovations to connect it with a bus transfer station and hotel above; the Taipei City Hall Bus Station opened for service on 5 August 2010. In February 2009, a 105.3 m -long vegetal wall was unveiled at the station for a two-month exhibition. It was expected to absorb 35.445 kg of carbon dioxide while releasing 26.094 kg of oxygen. Numerous pieces of public art are situated around the station. A series of five sculptures are placed around the station. "Furrows" and "Push" are located in entrance square, while "Sprout", "Twist", "Sway" are located on the station platform.
Exit 1: Song Shan Senior High School／United Daily News Office Exit 2: Taipei City Hall Bus Station／Uni-Ustyle Department Stores、Eslite Bookstore、Taipei City Hall Exit 3: Xinyi Shopping District／Breeze XIN YI Exit 4: TCWC Children Home Because the station is underneath Zhongxiao East Road and nearby the newly developed Xinyi District, the Taipei City Hall station is one of the most used station in the Taipei Metro. In 2008, the station handled 86,967 passengers per day. Since the opening of the Taipei City Hall Bus Station, daily ridership increased during November 2010 to 116,400, becoming the second-busiest station, only behind Taipei Main Station. Due to the large crowd during weekends and rush hours, the parallel Xinyi Line has been constructed to disperse some of the crowds. To cope with crowds during New Year's Eve celebrations, designated trains pass through the station without stopping; the station is a transit station for local and long distance buses to Neihu, Xinzhuang, Jingmei, to Keelung, Zhongli, Taichung, etc.
A large bus transit terminal was constructed between the space of exit 1 and the United Daily News Office. The station provides free shuttle bus transport to the Taipei 101 Financial Center and to the World Trade Center during major exhibitions. Taipei City Hall Bus Station Taipei City Hall Discovery Center of Taipei Taipei City Council Hong Kong Economic and Cultural Office Netherlands Trade and Investment Office Uni-President International Building British Office Taipei Canadian Trade Office in Taipei Criminal Investigation Bureau Taipei Songshan High School Financial Data Center, Ministry of Finance CPC Corporation United Cooperation International Headquarters United Daily News Office Songshan Cultural and Creative Park Taiwan Design Center Taipei New Horizon Eslite Spectrum Uni-Ustyle Department Stores Breeze XIN YI BELLAVITA Shopping Center Eslite Xinyi Branch Shinkong Mitsukoshi VIESHOW Cinemas ATT 4 Fun Taipei World Trade Center Taipei International Convention Center Taipei World Trade Center International Trade Building Taipei 101
Tainan City Council
The Tainan City Council is the elected municipal council of Tainan City, Republic of China that the council is composed of 57 councilors elected from Single non-transferable vote for four-year terms to oversees the Tainan City Government. The Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the Council are chosen by fellow councilors through anonymous voting. All councilors are directly elected by citizens of the city. Citizen aged 23 or above. Speaker Deputy Speaker Secretary-General Deputy Secretary-General Committees Committee of Civil Affairs Committee of Finance Committee of Education Committee of Construction Committee of Security Committee of Public Works Committee of Discipline Lee Chuan-chiao Kuo Hsin-liang Lai Mei-hui Mayor of Tainan Tainan City Government Tainan City Tainan City Council on Facebook
Legislative Yuan
The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China now based in Taiwan. It is one of the five branches of government stipulated by the Constitution of the Republic of China, which follows Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People. Sometimes referred to as a "parliament", the Legislative Yuan, under Sun's political theory, is a branch of government. According to the Judicial Yuan's interpretation number 76 of the Constitution, the parliament of the republic includes all three of the National Assembly, the Legislative Yuan, the Control Yuan. However, after constitutional amendments transferring all of the National Assembly's powers to the Legislative Yuan in the late 1990s, it has become more common in Taiwanese newspapers to refer to the Legislative Yuan as “the parliament”. Starting with the 2008 legislative elections, drastic changes were made to the Legislative Yuan in accordance with a constitutional amendment passed in 2005; the Legislative Yuan has 113 members, down from 225.
Legislators are elected to office through the following ways: 73 are elected under the first-past-the-post system in single-member constituencies. 34 are elected under the supplementary member system on a second ballot, based on nationwide votes, calculated using the largest remainder method by the Hare quota. Any party which receives 5% or more of the Party vote can enter the parliament. For each party, at least half of the legislators elected under this system must be female. 6 seats are elected by aboriginal voters through single non-transferable vote in two three-member constituencies. Members serve four-year terms, with the 9th Legislative term serving from 1 February 2016; the 5 largest parties with 3 seats or more can form caucuses. If there are fewer than 5 such parties, legislators in other parties or with no party affiliation can form caucuses with at least 4 members; the previous legislature had 225 members. Legislators were elected in the following ways: 168 were elected by popular vote through single non-transferable vote in multi-member consistencies 41 were elected on the basis of the proportion of nationwide votes received by participating political parties.
8 were allocated for overseas Chinese and were selected by the parties on the basis of the proportion of votes received nationwide. 8 seats were reserved for the aboriginal populations. The original Legislative Yuan was formed in the original Capital of Nanjing after the completion of the Northern Expedition, its 51 members were appointed to a term of two years. The 4th Legislative Yuan under this period had its members expanded to 194, its term in office was extended to 14 years because of the Second Sino-Japanese War. According to KMT political theory, these first four sessions marked the period of political tutelage; the current Constitution of the Republic of China came into effect on 25 December 1947, the first Legislative session convened in Nanjing on 18 May 1948, with 760 members. Six preparatory meetings had been held on 8 May 1948, during which Sun Fo and Chen Li-fu were elected President and Vice President of the body. In 1949, the mainland fell to the Communist Party and the Legislative Yuan was transplanted to Taipei.
On 24 February 1950, 380 members convened at the Sun Yat-sen Hall in Taipei. The first Legislative Yuan was to have been elected for a term of three years ending in 1951; as a result, the Judicial Yuan decided that the members of the Legislative Yuan would continue to hold office until new elections could be held on the Mainland. This decision was made in the belief. However, over the years, as the prospect of regaining the Mainland diminished, this meant that the legislators from mainland districts held their seats for life, in a one-party system; the body thus came to be called "the Non-reelected Congress". Over the years, deceased members elected on the mainland were not replaced while additional seats were created for Taiwan starting with eleven seats in 1969. Fifty-one new members were elected to a three-year term in 1972, fifty-two in 1975, ninety-seven in 1980, ninety-eight in 1983, one hundred in 1986, one hundred thirty in 1989. Although the elected members of the Legislative Yuan did not have the majority to defeat legislation, they were able to use the Legislative Yuan as a platform to express political dissent.
Opposition parties were formally illegal until 1991, but in the 1970s candidates to the Legislative Yuan would run as Tangwai, in 1985 candidates began to run under the banner of the Democratic Progressive Party. The original members of the Legislative Yuan remained until 31 December 1991, when as part of subsequent Judicial Yuan ruling they were forced to retire and the members elected in 1989 remained until the 161 members of the Second Legislative Yuan were elected in December 1992; the third LY, elected in 1995, had 157 members serving 3-year terms. The fourth LY, elected in 1998, was expanded to 225 members in part to include legislators from the abolished provincial legislature of Taiwan Province; the Legislative Yuan increased its prominence after the 2000 Presidential elections in Taiwan when the Executive Yuan and presidency was controlled by the Democratic Progressive Party while the Legislative Yuan had a large majority of Kuomintang members. The legislative elections in late 2001 produced a contentious situation in which the pan-blue coalition has only a thin majority over the governing pan-green coalition in the legislature, making the passage of bills dependent on the votes of a few defectors and independents.
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Taipei City Government
The Taipei City Government is the government that governs Taipei City of Taiwan. The government building is located at Taipei City Hall in Taipei. Taipei City Government was founded in October 1945 as a provincial municipality; the original city hall was located at the site of the Taihoku City Hall in Zhongzheng District. In 1967, Taipei City status was upgraded to a Cabinet-level municipality, its service thus grew much bigger with the large increase of population. Zhongshan Hall could only accommodate around 1,000 employees and many other units were scattered in various rented offices. In order to carry the city government jobs a new Taipei City Hall was built in 1994 in Xinyi District. There are 5 internal administrative branches, 22 departments, 7 offices, 4 committees, 2 public corporations, under the head of the City, the mayor of Taipei and the vice mayor. Civil Affairs Cultural Affairs Economic Development Education Environmental Protection Feitsui Reservoir Administration Finance Fire Department Health Information and Tourism Information Technology Labour Land Legal Affairs Military Service Police Public Works Rapid Transit System Social Welfare Sports Transportation Urban Development Department of Civil Servant Development Department of Budget Department of Government Ethics Department of Personnel Secretariat Research and Evaluation Commission Urban Planning Commission Indigenous Peoples Commission Hakka Affairs Commission Taipei Water Department Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation The Taipei City Hall building is a 12-story architecture with a total floor space of about 197,000 m2, capable of accommodating 6,000 employees.
The building often houses exhibitions, speeches, etc. Taipei City Hall is accessible within walking distance South of Taipei City Hall Station of Taipei Metro. Taipei Taipei City Council Taipei City Government
New Party (Taiwan)
The New Party the Chinese New Party, is a Chinese nationalist political party in Taiwan, affiliated with the pan-blue coalition, supportive of Chinese unification. The New Party was formed out of a split from the then-ruling Kuomintang by members of the New Kuomintang Alliance on 22 August 1993. Members of the Alliance had accused KMT Chairman Lee Teng-hui of autocratic tendencies and moving the party away from Chinese reunification. Co-founders of the New Party included Chen Kuei-miao; the party wanted to keep the name of the faction, but was prevented from doing so due to the similarity of names. The name "New Party" was inspired by the contemporary electoral success of the Japan New Party. In the mid-1990s, the New Party attracted support from the KMT old guard as well as young urban professionals; the New Party was aided by former Finance Minister Wang Chien-shien and former Environmental Protection Administration Director Jaw Shaw-kong, who had charismatic and clean images. In the 2000 presidential election, the party nominated writer and dissident Li Ao who ran a spirited but token campaign.
In the election, most members of the party supported James Soong, in fact both Li Ao and the chairman of the New Party encouraged people to do so. In the 2001 Legislative Yuan election, the party only won 1 seat in Kinmen. In the 2006 municipal elections, the New Party made significant gains, seating over a dozen members into public office; the New Party gained four seats in Taipei Major private offices. Since the 2008 Legislative Yuan elections, the New Party hasn't won any seats, while the party supported most of the KMT candidates. History of the Republic of China Politics of the Republic of China Elections in Taiwan List of political parties in Taiwan Administrative divisions of Taiwan Political status of Taiwan New Party official web site New Party on Facebook
Legislatures of Taiwan
