1.
Taiwan
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Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a state in East Asia. Neighbours include China to the west, Japan to the northeast, Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and the one with the largest economy. The island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty, following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROCs loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, in the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage, Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, the PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC, the PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible. There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, the former name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means beautiful island. The name Formosa eventually replaced all others in European literature and was in use in English in the early 20th century. This name was adopted into the Chinese vernacular as the name of the sandbar. The modern word Taiwan is derived from this usage, which is seen in forms in Chinese historical records. Use of the current Chinese name was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture, through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as Taiwan. The official name of the state is the Republic of China and it was a member of the United Nations representing China until 1971, when it lost its seat to the Peoples Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become known as Taiwan. In some contexts, especially ones from the ROC government
2.
Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China
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The Peoples Republic of China claims the island of Taiwan to be part its territory under its constitution as the Taiwan Province. It is usually referred to by media as the Taiwan Region or Taiwan Area. The PRC has never administered Taiwan, the Taiwan Area, including all of the contemporary Taiwan Province, is administered by the government of the Republic of China. However, its parliament includes legislators to represent Taiwan, who are elected by a Taiwanese community residing in mainland China, in deference to the PRCs claim, the United Nations for official purposes calls the Taiwan Area Taiwan, Province of China. The Peoples Republic of China was founded in 1949, while by 1950 it had obtained control over most of the territories previously administered by the ROC, it never gained control of an area made up of Taiwan Province and some other islands. Despite the PRCs claim over Taiwan, the PRC has no provisional or shadow provincial government or provincial governor for Taiwan, instead, the ROC government, which actually controls Taiwan Province, is referred to by the PRC as the Taiwan authorities. The political status of Taiwan is complex, most other countries retain unofficial relations with Taiwan. The PRC does not recognise any changes made to Taiwan Province by the ROC since 1 October 1949. This includes the island of Taiwan and its surrounding islets. The main changes that have been enacted by the ROC since that date have been the excision of several cities on the island of Taiwan to become direct-controlled municipalities on the island of Taiwan, Taiwan Province does not include all the territory under the Republic of Chinas administration. Chinese maps show the islands of Kinmen and Wuqiu, and the Matsu Islands as part of Fujian Province, the Pratas Islands as part of Guangdong Province, and Taiping Island as part of Hainan province. The ROC administers Kinmen, Wuqiu and the Matsu Islands as part of its alternative Fujian Province, both the PRC and the ROC claim the Diaoyu Islands or Diaoyutai Islands, administered by Japan, as a part of Taiwan Province. Although Taiwan Province is not under PRC control, thirteen delegates are elected to represent Taiwan Province to the National Peoples Congress and it was decided that 122 representatives would participate in the conference for election through consultation. The Standing Committees Plan also provided that the election should be conducted in a democratic manner, the precise replacements used are not officially designated, therefore, the politically designated names for Taiwan have small variations across different source from within the PRC. For some cases, where the name does not significantly imply sovereignty, further, at least in recent years, city mayors and county magistrates in Taiwan are generally referred to as such by PRC media. In deference to the PRCs position, the United Nations officially refers to the Taiwan Area as Taiwan and this has also meant that Taiwan, Province of China appears in the list of ISO 3166-1 country codes. A variant of name is Taiwan, China, which is also often seen in other contexts. Instead, the PRC government classifies all Taiwanese Aboriginese as Gaoshan people, leader of the Taiwan Area Free area of the Republic of China Taiwan Affairs Office Political status of Taiwan Greater China Bush, R. & OHanlon, M
3.
Administrative divisions of Taiwan
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The administrative divisions of Taiwan consist of provinces and special municipalities. The provinces are streamlined, with little direct function. Each province is subdivided into provincial cities and counties. There are 6 special municipalities,3 provincial cities and 13 counties, in 1945, after the World War II, the Republic of China acquired Taiwan and Penghu from the Empire of Japan. In 1949, the government of the Republic of China led by Kuomintang lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to Taipei, the government lost almost its jurisdiction over mainland China, only some offshore islands remained. This history gives two different sources of the current Taiwanese administrative divisions on the Free area of the Republic of China or Taiwan Area, Island of Taiwan and Penghu, inherited from the divisions of Taiwan under the Empire of Japan. Kinmen and Matsu Islands, inherited from the divisions of mainland China under the Republic of China, since 1949, the government has made some changes in the area under its control. The two provincial governments were streamlined and much of their functions transferred to the central or county governments, Six special municipalities have been created on the territory belonged to Taiwan Province. Since 1998, most of the duties and powers of Taiwan Provincial Government have been transferred to the central government, the much smaller Fukien province, Fujian Provincial Government has been in streamlined form since 1956. There has been criticism of the current administrative scheme as being inefficient. Before 2008, the likelihood of consolidation was low, many of the cities had political demographics which were very different from their surrounding counties, making the prospect of consolidation highly politically charged. On 1 October 2007, Taipei County was upgraded to a quasi-municipality on the level as Kaohsiung City. This allowed the county to have the organizational and budgetary framework of a de jure municipality, Taichung County and Tainan City lobbied the central government for similar status. Taoyuan County was also upgraded to a quasi-municipality on 1 January 2011, under President Ma Ying-jeous administration, the central government has reorganized more counties and cities. Four mergers and promotions were approved in 2009 and became effective on 25 December 2010, currently there are three types and in total 22 administrative divisions are directly governed by the central government. Counties with population more than 2 million may grant some extra privileges in local autonomy that was designed for special municipalities and these 22 divisions are also regulated by the Local Government Act as local self-governance bodies. Each division has its own executive called city/county government and own legislature called city/county council, the city mayors, county magistrates and all legislators are elected by the people under its jurisdiction every four years. Geographically, Six special municipalities, three cities and 10 counties are on the main island of Taiwan Penghu County administers Penghu Islands
4.
Free area of the Republic of China
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As the island of Taiwan is the main component of the whole area, it is therefore also referred to as the Taiwan Area of the Republic of China or simply the Taiwan Area. This term is used in the Additional Articles to the Constitution of the Republic of China, the term free area or Free China was used during the Second Sino-Japanese War to describe the territories under the control of the Kuomintang government in Chongqing. The Japanese occupation ended with the surrender in 1945. Prior to the Battle of Dachen Archipelago in 1955, the Free Area also encompassed a group of islands off Zhejiang, the islands have since been administered exclusively by the PRC. Various names used to describe the area include, The term free area of the Republic of China has persisted to the present day in the ROC legislation. This term was first used in the Constitution with the promulgation of the first set of amendments to the Constitution in 1991 and has retained in the most recent revision passed in 2005. In the absence of such changes, the Republic of Chinas official borders were to be regarded as all of mainland China. In ordinary legislation, the term Taiwan Area is usually used, especially in contexts of trade, however, on more practical grounds, the mainland area refers simply to mainland China. In addition, there are two other Acts defining other areas, the Hong Kong Area and the Macau Area, the hand-over of these former European colonies to the Peoples Republic of China necessitated laws governing the relations of the Taiwan Area with them. The Acts are worded in a manner to avoid discussing whether the Republic of China claims sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macau
5.
Southern Min
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Southern Min, or Minnan, is a branch of Min Chinese spoken in certain parts of China including southern Fujian, eastern Guangdong, Hainan, and southern Zhejiang, and in Taiwan. The Min Nan dialects are spoken by descendants of emigrants from these areas in diaspora, most notably the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia. In common parlance, Southern Min usually refers to Hokkien, including Amoy and Taiwanese Hokkien, the Southern Min dialect group also includes Teochew, though Teochew has limited mutual intelligibility with Hokkien. Hainanese is not mutually intellgible with other Southern Min and is considered a separate branch of Min. Southern Min is not mutually intelligible with Eastern Min, Pu-Xian Min, any other Min branch, Hakka, Cantonese, Shanghainese or Mandarin. Southern Min dialects are spoken in the part of Fujian. The variant spoken in Leizhou, Guangdong as well as Hainan is Hainanese and is not mutually intelligible with other Southern Min or Teochew, Hainanese is classified in some schemes as part of Southern Min and in other schemes as separate. Puxian Min was originally based on the Quanzhou dialect, but over time became heavily influenced by Eastern Min, eventually losing intellegility with Minnan. A forms of Southern Min spoken in Taiwan, collectively known as Taiwanese, Southern Min is a first language for most of the Hoklo people, the main ethnicity of Taiwan. The correspondence between language and ethnicity is not absolute, as some Hoklo have very limited proficiency in Southern Min while some non-Hoklo speak Southern Min fluently, there are many Southern Min speakers also among Overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia. Many ethnic Chinese immigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present-day Malaysia and Singapore. In general, Southern Min from southern Fujian is known as Hokkien, Hokkienese, many Southeast Asian ethnic Chinese also originated in the Chaoshan region of Guangdong and speak Teochew language, the variant of Southern Min from that region. Southern Min-speakers form the majority of Chinese in Singapore, with the largest group being Hokkien, despite the similarities the two groups are rarely seen as part of the same Minnan Chinese subgroups. The variants of Southern Min spoken in Zhejiang province are most akin to that spoken in Quanzhou, the variants spoken in Taiwan are similar to the three Fujian variants and are collectively known as Taiwanese. Those Southern Min variants that are known as Hokkien in Southeast Asia also originate from these variants. The variants of Southern Min in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong province are known as Teochew or Chaozhou. Teochew is of importance in the Southeast Asian Chinese diaspora, particularly in Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Sumatra. The Philippines variant is mostly from the Quanzhou area as most of their forefathers are from the aforementioned area, the Southern Min language variant spoken around Shanwei and Haifeng differs markedly from Teochew and may represent a later migration from Zhangzhou
6.
Hakka Chinese
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Hakka is not mutually intelligible with Yue, Wu, Southern Min, Mandarin or other branches of Chinese, and itself contains a few mutually unintellegible varieties. It is most closely related to Gan and is classified as a variety of Gan. There is also a possibility that the similarities are just a result of shared areal features, Taiwan, where Hakka is the native language of a significant minority of the islands residents, is a center for the study and preservation of the language. Pronunciation differences exist between the Taiwanese Hakka dialects and Mainland Chinas Hakka dialects, even in Taiwan, two local varieties of Hakka exist. The Meixian dialect of northeast Guangdong in China has been taken as the dialect by the Peoples Republic of China. The Guangdong Provincial Education Department created a romanization of Moiyen in 1960. The name of the Hakka people who are the predominant original native speakers of the variety literally means guest families or guest people, Hak 客 means guest, and ka 家 means family. Among themselves, Hakka people variously called their language Hak-ka-fa 客家話, Hak-fa, 客話, Tu-gong-dung-fa 土廣東話, literally Native Guangdong language, and Ngai-fa 我話, My/our language. The forebears of the Hakka came from present-day Central Plains provinces of Henan and Shaanxi, the presence of many archaic features occur in modern Hakka, including final consonants -p -t -k, as are found in other modern southern Chinese varieties, but which have been lost in Mandarin. Due to the migration of its speakers, Hakka may have influenced by other language areas through which the Hakka-speaking forebears migrated. For instance, common vocabulary is found in Hakka, Min, in recent times, many She people have become Hakka speakers. A regular pattern of change can generally be detected in Hakka, as in most Chinese varieties. Some examples, Characters such as 武 or 屋, are pronounced roughly mwio and uk in Early Middle Chinese, have an initial v phoneme in Hakka, being vu and vuk in Hakka respectively. Like in Mandarin, labiodentalisation process also changed mj- to a sound in Hakka before grave vowels. Middle Chinese initial phonemes /ɲ/ of the characters 人 and 日, among others, for comparison, in Mandarin, /ɲ/ became r-, while in Cantonese, it merged with initial /j/. The initial consonant phoneme exhibited by the character 話 is pronounced f or v in Hakka, the initial consonant of 學 hɔk usually corresponds with an h approximant in Hakka and a voiceless alveo-palatal fricative in Mandarin. Hakka has as many regional dialects as there are counties with Hakka speakers as the majority, some of these Hakka dialects are not mutually intelligible with each other. Surrounding Meixian are the counties of Pingyuan, Dabu, Jiaoling, Xingning, Wuhua, each is said to have its own special phonological points of interest
7.
Geographic coordinate system
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A geographic coordinate system is a coordinate system used in geography that enables every location on Earth to be specified by a set of numbers, letters or symbols. The coordinates are chosen such that one of the numbers represents a vertical position. A common choice of coordinates is latitude, longitude and elevation, to specify a location on a two-dimensional map requires a map projection. The invention of a coordinate system is generally credited to Eratosthenes of Cyrene. Ptolemy credited him with the adoption of longitude and latitude. Ptolemys 2nd-century Geography used the prime meridian but measured latitude from the equator instead. Mathematical cartography resumed in Europe following Maximus Planudes recovery of Ptolemys text a little before 1300, in 1884, the United States hosted the International Meridian Conference, attended by representatives from twenty-five nations. Twenty-two of them agreed to adopt the longitude of the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, the Dominican Republic voted against the motion, while France and Brazil abstained. France adopted Greenwich Mean Time in place of local determinations by the Paris Observatory in 1911, the latitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle between the equatorial plane and the straight line that passes through that point and through the center of the Earth. Lines joining points of the same latitude trace circles on the surface of Earth called parallels, as they are parallel to the equator, the north pole is 90° N, the south pole is 90° S. The 0° parallel of latitude is designated the equator, the plane of all geographic coordinate systems. The equator divides the globe into Northern and Southern Hemispheres, the longitude of a point on Earths surface is the angle east or west of a reference meridian to another meridian that passes through that point. All meridians are halves of great ellipses, which converge at the north and south poles, the prime meridian determines the proper Eastern and Western Hemispheres, although maps often divide these hemispheres further west in order to keep the Old World on a single side. The antipodal meridian of Greenwich is both 180°W and 180°E, the combination of these two components specifies the position of any location on the surface of Earth, without consideration of altitude or depth. The grid formed by lines of latitude and longitude is known as a graticule, the origin/zero point of this system is located in the Gulf of Guinea about 625 km south of Tema, Ghana. To completely specify a location of a feature on, in, or above Earth. Earth is not a sphere, but a shape approximating a biaxial ellipsoid. It is nearly spherical, but has an equatorial bulge making the radius at the equator about 0. 3% larger than the radius measured through the poles, the shorter axis approximately coincides with the axis of rotation
8.
Treaty of Shimonoseki
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The Treaty of Shimonoseki was a treaty signed at the Shunpanrō hall, Shimonoseki, Japan on April 17,1895, between the Empire of Japan and the Qing Empire, ending the First Sino-Japanese War. The peace conference took place from March 20 to April 17,1895 and this treaty followed and superseded the Sino-Japanese Friendship and Trade Treaty of 1871. Article 4, China agrees to pay to Japan as a war indemnity the sum of 200,000,000 Kuping taels, Article 5, China opens Shashih, Chungking, Soochow and Hangchow to Japan. Moreover, China is to grant Japan most favoured nation status for foreign trade, the treaty ended the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 as a clear victory for Japan. In this treaty, China recognized the independence of Korea and renounced any claims to that country and it also ceded the Liaodong Peninsula, and the islands of Formosa and Penghu to Japan. This commercial treaty confirmed the opening of ports and rivers to Japanese trade. As a result of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, China recognized the full and complete independence, in the next year Yeongeunmun was demolished leaving its two stone pillars. Qing Chinas indemnity to Japan of 200 million silver kuping taels, after the Triple intervention, they paid another 30 million taels for a total of over 276,000,000 troy ounces silver, worth about $5 billion US Dollars in 2015. Moreover, Mutsu had already noticed its importance in order to expand Japanese military power towards South China and it was also time of imperialism so that Japan wished to follow what the West was doing. Therefore, even though the Qing had lost wars against Britain and France in the 19th century, the Qing Emperor was serious to keep Taiwan under its rule, on 20 March 1895, at Shunpanrō in Shimonoseki in Japan, 1-month-long peace conference had started. At the first half of the conference, Ito and Li talked mainly about an agreement, and during the second half of the conference. Li Hongzhang refused on the grounds that Taiwan had never been a battlefield during the first Sino-Japanese War between 1894 and 1895, as Taiwan had been a province since 1885, Li stated, Taiwan is already a province, and therefore not to be given away. However, Imperial Japan was too strong for the Qing Dynasty to cope with, on 17 April 1895, the peace treaty between Imperial Japan and the Qing Dynasty had been signed and was followed by the successful Japanese invasion of Taiwan. This had a impact on Taiwan, the turning over of the island to Imperial Japan marking the end of 200 years of Qing rule despite an attempt by Qing loyalists to prevent the annexation. The treaty was drafted with John W. Foster, former American Secretary of State and it was signed by Count Itō Hirobumi and Viscount Mutsu Munemitsu for the Emperor of Japan and Li Hongzhang and Li Jingfang on behalf of the Emperor of China. Before the treaty was signed, Li Hongzhang was attacked by a right-wing Japanese extremist on March 24, he was fired at, the public outcry aroused by the assassination attempt caused the Japanese to temper their demands and agree to a temporary armistice. The conference was adjourned and resumed on April 10. They demanded that Japan withdraw its claim on the Liaodong peninsula, concerned that Lüshun, then called Port Arthur by Westerners, would fall under Japanese control
9.
Retrocession Day
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Japanese rule in Taiwan lasted until the end of World War II. Under the authorisation of Douglas MacArthurs General Order No,1, Chen Yi was escorted by George Kerr to Taiwan to accept the Japanese governments surrender as the Chinese delegate. Chen Yi proclaimed that day to be Taiwan Retrocession Day and organised the island into the Taiwan Province, secretary of State of the United States Dean Acheson said on 5 January 1950, The Chinese have administered Formosa for 4 years. Neither the United States nor any other ally ever questioned that authority, when Formosa was made a province of China nobody raised any lawyers doubts about that. That was regarded as in accordance with the commitments, now, in the opinion of some, the situation is changed. We did not wait for a treaty on Korea and we did not wait for a treaty on the Kuriles. We did not wait for a treaty on the islands over which we have trusteeship, writing in the American Journal of International Law in July 2000, Jonathan I. The Potsdam Declaration in turn included the terms of the Cairo Declaration, which required Japan to return all conquered territories to China, including Taiwan and the Pescadores. Retrocession Day is currently not a public holiday in Taiwan, however, memorial activities are still being held by civilian organisations. The Democratic Progressive Party, which rejects the idea of Taiwan being taken back by China, in 2010, small-scale memorials were held by the Taipei City Government to commemorate the 65th anniversary of Retrocession. However, these areas were under Japanese sovereignty until 1952
10.
Taipei
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Taipei, officially known as Taipei City, is the capital city and a special municipality of the Republic of China. Sitting at the tip of the island, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City. It is about 25 km southwest of the port city Keelung. Since 1949, Taipei has been the capital of the ROC after losing the mainland to the Communists in the Chinese Civil War, the name Taipei can refer either to the whole metropolitan area or the city proper. Taipei is the political, economic, educational, and cultural center of Taiwan, considered to be a global city, Taipei is part of a major high-tech industrial area. Railways, high-speed rail, highways, airports, and bus lines connect Taipei with all parts of the island, the city is served by two airports – Taipei Songshan and Taiwan Taoyuan. Its natural features such as Maokong, Yangmingshan, and hot springs are also known to international visitors. As the capital city, Taipei is sometimes used as a synecdoche for Taiwan, prior to the significant influx of Han Chinese immigrants, the region of Taipei Basin was mainly inhabited by the Ketagalan plains aborigines. The number of Han immigrants gradually 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 the temporary capital of Fujian-Taiwan Province in 1886 when Taiwan was separated from Fujian 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, in which the city was administered under Taihoku Prefecture. Taiwans Japanese rulers embarked on a program of advanced urban planning that featured extensive railroad links. A number of Taipei landmarks and cultural institutions date from this period, following the Japanese surrender of 1945, control of Taiwan was handed to the Republic of China. In 1990 Taipei provided the backdrop for the Wild Lily student rallies that moved Taiwanese society from one-party rule to multi-party democracy, the city is today home to Taiwans democratically elected national government. The region known as the Taipei Basin was home to Ketagalan tribes before the eighteenth century, Han Chinese mainly from Fujian Province of Qing dynasty China began to settle in the Taipei Basin in 1709. In 1875, the part of Taiwan was separated from Taiwan Prefecture. From 1875 until the beginning of Japanese rule in 1895, Taipei was part of Tamsui County of Taipeh Prefecture, in 1885, work commenced to create an independent Taiwan Province, and Taipei City was temporarily made the provincial capital. Taipei officially became the capital of Taiwan in 1894, all that remains from the Qing era is the north gate
11.
Zhongxing New Village
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Zhongxing New Village is located in Nantou City, Nantou County, Taiwan and is the seat of government of Taiwan Province. The term zhōngxīng is from a Chinese legend, referring to the restoration of the Xia Dynasty by king Shao Kang and it is a planned town with a population of 25,549 as of February 2010. With all the buildings owned by the government, development is strictly controlled, Taipei, capital of the Republic of China, was also the capital of Taiwan Province from September 1945 until 1956. Ground was broken on the village on November 4,1955, the provincial government held its first meeting at Zhongxing New Village on November 27,1957, and the provincial administration building began use on July 1,1957. The Peoples Republic of China, which has ruled the Chinese mainland since 1949, thus, the PRC publishes Taipei as the claimed provincial capital on its official maps. There are plans for an innovation park to be set up in the planned zone in the city. In addition, a market intelligence technology center is planned for the development of green intelligence mobile technologies through cloud computing. The park is scheduled to begin construction after the completion of an impact assessment in 2011. It is estimated to cost NT$10.7 billion to construct, no manufacturing activities will be conducted at the park, which will instead focus on emerging and advanced industrial technology
12.
New Taipei City
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New Taipei, also known as Xinbei, is a special municipality and the most populous city in Taiwan. New Taipei City is bordered by Keelung to the northeast, Yilan County to the southeast, Banqiao District is its municipal seat and biggest commercial area. New Taipei City was known as Taipei County before its upgrade in 2010, after the countys population overtook that of Taipei City, it was decided that the county should be upgraded to city status but could not be renamed Taipei City. The name of the new entity was at first rendered in English as Xinbei via pinyin romanization, consequently, citing public opinion, the inaugural mayor, Eric Chu, requested and received approval from the Ministry of the Interior to render the name in English as New Taipei City. This rendering became official on 31 December 2010, archaeological records had shown that New Taipei City had been inhabited since the Neolithic period, with artifacts dug in Bali District having shown remains as early as 7000 to 4700 BC. The region around New Taipei City area was inhabited by Ketagalan plains aborigines. The earliest recorded migration by people from mainland China dated back as early as 1620, over the years, many of the aborigines have assimilated into the general population. After decades of development and prosperity, Tamsui had become a commercial port by 1850. British consulate and stores were established in the region, which helped promote the tea business. In 1875, Shen Baozhen called for the establishment of Taipeh Prefecture, fujian-Taiwan-Province was declared in 1887 and the present-day New Taipei City area fell under the jurisdiction of Taipeh Prefecture. In 1895, Taiwan was ceded by Qing dynasty to Empire of Japan, during Japanese rule, New Taipei City area was administered under Taihoku Prefecture together with modern-day Taipei, Keelung and Yilan County. Discovery of gold and other mining minerals were unveiled at Keelung Mountain, both districts are now parts of Ruifang District. They also issued regulations prohibiting local Taiwanese mining companies from doing mining activities, in July 1968, the size of Taipei County was reduced by 205.16 km2 when Beitou, Jingmei, Muzha, Nangang, Neihu and Shilin townships were merged into Taipei City. The county afterward had ten county-controlled cities, four urban townships and it was further divided into 1,017 villages and 21,683 neighborhoods. In August 1992, due to the adjustment of the line between Taipei City and Taiwan Province in Neigou and Daking Stream, the area of Taipei County was decreased by 0.03 km2. On 25 December 2010, Taipei County was upgraded to a municipality as New Taipei City consisting of 29 districts with Banqiao District as the municipal seat. New Taipei City is located at the tip of Taiwan Island. It covers a vast territory with a topology, including mountains, hills
13.
Gross domestic product
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Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices
14.
New Taiwan dollar
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The New Taiwan dollar has been the currency of Taiwan since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar. Originally issued by the Bank of Taiwan, it has been issued by the Central Bank of the Republic of China since 2000, the currency code is TWD, and its common abbreviation is NT$. The Chinese term equivalent to New Taiwan dollar, 新臺幣 or 新台幣, is used only in contexts where it is necessary to avoid any ambiguity, such as banking, contracts, in common usage, the unit is typically referred to as yuán. In Taiwan, the character for yuan can be written in either of two forms, an informal 元 or a formal 圓, which are interchangeable, colloquial alternatives for the currency unit include the Mandarin kuài, meaning piece, and the Taiwanese Hokkien kho͘. In English usage the new Taiwan dollar is often abbreviated as NT, NT$, NT Dollar or NTD, subdivisions of a new Taiwan dollar are rarely used, since practically all products on the consumer market are sold in whole dollars. The New Taiwan dollar was first issued by the Bank of Taiwan on June 15,1949, the first goal of the New Taiwan dollar was to end the hyperinflation that had plagued Nationalist China due to the Chinese Civil War. After the communists captured Beijing in January 1949, the Nationalists began to retreat to Taiwan, chinas gold reserve was moved to Taiwan in February. The government then declared in the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion that dollars issued by the Bank of Taiwan would become the new currency in circulation. Even though the New Taiwan dollar was the de facto currency of Taiwan, the value of the silver yuan was decoupled from the value of silver during World War II. Many older statutes have fines and fees given in this currency, according to statute, one silver yuan is worth three New Taiwan dollars. Despite decades of inflation, this ratio has not been adjusted and this made the silver yuan a purely notational currency long ago, nearly impossible to buy, sell, or use. In July 2000, the New Taiwan dollar became Taiwans legal currency and it is no longer secondary to the silver yuan. At this time, the bank began issuing New Taiwan dollar banknotes. The exchange rate compared to the United States dollar has varied from less than ten to one in the mid-1950s, more than forty to one in the 1960s, the exchange rate as of March 2017 is 30.2 to one. The denominations of the Taiwan dollar in circulation are, Coins are minted by the Central Mint of China, both are run by the Central Bank. The NT$ 1⁄2 coin is rare because of its low value, while the NT$20 coin is rare because of the lack of willingness to promote it. As of 2010, the cost of the raw materials in a NT$ 1⁄2 coin was more than the value of the coin. 中華民國XX年 = Minguo XX. 中華民國 is also the state title Republic of China, 莫那魯道 = Mona Rudao, anti-Japanese leader at the Wushe Incident
15.
Human Development Index
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The Human Development Index is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education, and per capita income indicators, which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human development. A country scores higher HDI when the lifespan is higher, the level is higher. The 2010 Human Development Report introduced an Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, while the simple HDI remains useful, it stated that the IHDI is the actual level of human development, and the HDI can be viewed as an index of potential human development. The origins of the HDI are found in the annual Human Development Reports produced by the Human Development Reports Office of the United Nations Development Programme, nobel laureate Amartya Sen, utilized Haqs work in his own work on human capabilities. The following three indices are used,1, Life Expectancy Index = LE −2085 −20 LEI is 1 when Life expectancy at birth is 85 and 0 when Life expectancy at birth is 20. Education Index = MYSI + EYSI22.1 Mean Years of Schooling Index = MYS15 Fifteen is the maximum of this indicator for 2025. 2.2 Expected Years of Schooling Index = EYS18 Eighteen is equivalent to achieving a degree in most countries. Income Index = ln − ln ln − ln II is 1 when GNI per capita is $75,000 and 0 when GNI per capita is $100. Finally, the HDI is the mean of the previous three normalized indices, HDI = LEI ⋅ EI ⋅ II3. Standard of living, as indicated by the logarithm of gross domestic product per capita at purchasing power parity. This methodology was used by the UNDP until their 2011 report, the formula defining the HDI is promulgated by the United Nations Development Programme. The 2016 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on March 21,2017, below is the list of the very high human development countries, = increase. The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed relative to the ranking in the 2015 report, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is a measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account. The rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data. Countries in the top quartile of HDI with a missing IHDI, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Liechtenstein, Brunei, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Andorra, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Kuwait. The 2015 Human Development Report by the United Nations Development Programme was released on December 14,2015, below is the list of the very high human development countries, = increase. The number in brackets represents the number of ranks the country has climbed relative to the ranking in the 2014 report, the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index is a measure of the average level of human development of people in a society once inequality is taken into account. Note, The green arrows, red arrows, and blue dashes represent changes in rank, the rankings are not relative to the HDI list above due to the exclusion of countries which are missing IHDI data
16.
Traditional Chinese characters
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Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong. Currently, a number of overseas Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between both sets. In contrast, simplified Chinese characters are used in mainland China, Singapore, the debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters has been a long-running issue among Chinese communities. Although simplified characters are taught and endorsed by the government of Mainland China, Traditional characters are used informally in regions in China primarily in handwriting and also used for inscriptions and religious text. They are often retained in logos or graphics to evoke yesteryear, nonetheless, the vast majority of media and communications in China is dominated by simplified characters. Taiwan has never adopted Simplified Chinese characters since it is ruled by the Republic of China, the use of simplified characters in official documents is even prohibited by the government in Taiwan. Simplified characters are not well understood in general, although some stroke simplifications that have incorporated into Simplified Chinese are in common use in handwriting. For example, while the name of Taiwan is written as 臺灣, similarly, in Hong Kong and Macau, Traditional Chinese has been the legal written form since colonial times. In recent years, because of the influx of mainland Chinese tourists, today, even government websites use simplified Chinese, as they answer to the Beijing government. This has led to concerns by residents to protect their local heritage. In Southeast Asia, the Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative regarding simplification, while major public universities are teaching simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications like the Chinese Commercial News, World News, and United Daily News still use traditional characters, on the other hand, the Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified. Aside from local newspapers, magazines from Hong Kong, such as the Yazhou Zhoukan, are found in some bookstores. In case of film or television subtitles on DVD, the Chinese dub that is used in Philippines is the same as the one used in Taiwan and this is because the DVDs belongs to DVD Region Code 3. Hence, most of the subtitles are in Traditional Characters, overseas Chinese in the United States have long used traditional characters. A major influx of Chinese immigrants to the United States occurred during the half of the 19th century. Therefore, the majority of Chinese language signage in the United States, including street signs, Traditional Chinese characters are called several different names within the Chinese-speaking world
17.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
18.
Standard Chinese
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Its pronunciation is based on the Beijing dialect, its vocabulary on the Mandarin dialects, and its grammar is based on written vernacular Chinese. Like other varieties of Chinese, Standard Chinese is a language with topic-prominent organization. It has more initial consonants but fewer vowels, final consonants, Standard Chinese is an analytic language, though with many compound words. There exist two standardised forms of the language, namely Putonghua in Mainland China and Guoyu in Taiwan, aside from a number of differences in pronunciation and vocabulary, Putonghua is written using simplified Chinese characters, while Guoyu is written using traditional Chinese characters. There are many characters that are identical between the two systems, in English, the governments of China and Hong Kong use Putonghua, Putonghua Chinese, Mandarin Chinese, and Mandarin, while those of Taiwan, Singapore, and Malaysia, use Mandarin. The name Putonghua also has a long, albeit unofficial, history and it was used as early as 1906 in writings by Zhu Wenxiong to differentiate a modern, standard Chinese from classical Chinese and other varieties of Chinese. For some linguists of the early 20th century, the Putonghua, or common tongue/speech, was different from the Guoyu. The former was a prestige variety, while the latter was the legal standard. Based on common understandings of the time, the two were, in fact, different, Guoyu was understood as formal vernacular Chinese, which is close to classical Chinese. By contrast, Putonghua was called the speech of the modern man. The use of the term Putonghua by left-leaning intellectuals such as Qu Qiubai, prior to this, the government used both terms interchangeably. In Taiwan, Guoyu continues to be the term for Standard Chinese. The term Putonghua, on the contrary, implies nothing more than the notion of a lingua franca, Huayu, or language of the Chinese nation, originally simply meant Chinese language, and was used in overseas communities to contrast Chinese with foreign languages. Over time, the desire to standardise the variety of Chinese spoken in these communities led to the adoption of the name Huayu to refer to Mandarin and it also incorporates the notion that Mandarin is usually not the national or common language of the areas in which overseas Chinese live. The term Mandarin is a translation of Guānhuà, which referred to the lingua franca of the late Chinese empire, in English, Mandarin may refer to the standard language, the dialect group as a whole, or to historic forms such as the late Imperial lingua franca. The name Modern Standard Mandarin is sometimes used by linguists who wish to distinguish the current state of the language from other northern. Chinese has long had considerable variation, hence prestige dialects have always existed. Confucius, for example, used yǎyán rather than colloquial regional dialects, rime books, which were written since the Northern and Southern dynasties, may also have reflected one or more systems of standard pronunciation during those times
19.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is 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, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and 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, 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 effect of the kana syllabaries. 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 actually 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, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several 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 Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
20.
Bopomofo
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Zhuyin fuhao, Zhuyin or Bopomofo is a system of phonetic notation for the transcription of spoken Chinese, particularly the Mandarin dialect. The first two are traditional terms, whereas Bopomofo is the term, also used by the ISO. Consisting of 37 characters and four marks, it transcribes all possible sounds in Mandarin. Zhuyin was introduced in China by the Republican Government in the 1910s and used alongside the Wade-Giles system, the Wade system was replaced by Hanyu Pinyin in 1958 by the Government of the Peoples Republic of China, and at the International Organization for Standardization in 1982. The informal name Bopomofo is derived from the first four syllables in the ordering of available syllables in Mandarin Chinese. The four Bopomofo characters that correspond to these syllables are placed first in a list of these characters. The same sequence is used by other speakers of Chinese to refer to other phonetic systems. The original formal name of the system was Guóyīn Zìmǔ and Zhùyīn Zìmǔ and it was later renamed Zhùyīn Fúhào, meaning phonetic symbols. In official documents, Zhuyin is occasionally called Mandarin Phonetic Symbols I, in English translations, the system is often also called either Chu-yin or the Mandarin Phonetic Symbols. A romanized phonetic system was released in 1984 as Mandarin Phonetic Symbols II, the Commission on the Unification of Pronunciation, led by Wu Zhihui from 1912 to 1913, created a system called Zhuyin Zimu, which was based on Zhang Binglins shorthand. A draft was released on July 11,1913, by the Republic of China National Ministry of Education and it was later renamed first Guoyin Zimu and then, in April 1930, Zhuyin Fuhao. The last renaming addressed fears that the system might independently replace Chinese characters. Zhuyin remains the predominant phonetic system in teaching reading and writing in school in Taiwan. It is also one of the most popular ways to enter Chinese characters into computers and smartphones, in elementary school, particularly in the lower years, Chinese characters in textbooks are often annotated with Zhuyin as ruby characters as an aid to learning. Additionally, one newspaper in Taiwan, the Mandarin Daily News. In teaching Mandarin, Taiwan institutions and some communities use Zhuyin as a learning tool. The Zhuyin characters were created by Zhang Binglin, and taken mainly from regularised forms of ancient Chinese characters, the modern readings of which contain the sound that each letter represents. It is to be noted that the first consonants are articulated from the front of the mouth to the back, /b/, /p/, /m/, /f/, /d/, /t/, /n/, Zhuyin is written in the same stroke order rule as Chinese characters
21.
Wu Chinese
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Wu is a group of linguistically similar and historically related varieties of Chinese primarily spoken in the whole city of Shanghai, Zhejiang province, southern Jiangsu province and bordering areas. Major Wu varieties include those of Shanghai, Suzhou, Ningbo, Wuxi, Wenzhou/Oujiang, Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Jinhua, Wu speakers, such as Chiang Kai-shek, Lu Xun and Cai Yuanpei, occupied positions of great importance in modern Chinese culture and politics. Wu can also be found being used in Shaoxing opera, which is only in national popularity to Peking opera, as well as in the performances of the popular entertainer. Wu is also spoken in a number of diaspora communities, with significant centers of immigration originating from Shanghai, Qingtian. Suzhou has traditionally been the center of Wu and was likely the first place the distinct variety of Sinitic known as Wu developed. Suzhou dialect is considered to be the most linguistically representative of the family. Due to the influence of Shanghainese, Wu as a whole is incorrectly labelled in English as simply, Shanghainese, among speakers of other Sinitic languages, Wu is often subjectively judged to be soft, light, and flowing. There is an idiom in Mandarin that specifically describes these qualities of Wu speech, Ngu nung nioe ngiu, Wu varieties have the largest vowel quality inventories in the world. The Jinhui dialect spoken in Shanghais Fengxian District has 20 vowel qualities, Wu Chinese, along with Min, is also of great significance to historical linguists due to their retention of many ancient features. These two languages have proven pivotal in determining the history of the Chinese languages. More pressing concerns of the present are those of language preservation, however, many analysts believe that a stable state of diglossia will endure for at least several generations if not indefinitely. Saying one speaks Wu is akin to saying one speaks a Romance language and it is not a particularly defined entity like Standard Mandarin or Hochdeutsch. They do this by affixing 話 Wo to their locations endonym, for example, 溫州話 Wēnzhōuhuà is used for Wenzhounese. Affixing 閒話 xiánhuà is also common and more typical of the Taihu division, Wu, the formal name and standard reference in dialectology literature. Northern Wu, Wu typically spoken in the north of Zhejiang and it by default includes the Xuanzhou division in Anhui as well, however this division is often neglected in Northern Wu discussions. Southern Wu, Wu spoken in southern Zhejiang and periphery, comprising the Oujiang, Wuzhou, Western Wu, A term gaining in usage as a synonym for the Xuanzhou division and modeled after the previous two terms since the Xuanzhou division is less representative of Northern Wu. Shanghainese, is also a common name, used because Shanghai is the most well-known city in the Wu-speaking region. The term Shanghainese is never used by linguists to refer to anything
22.
Xiang Chinese
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Scholars divided Xiang into five subgroups, Chang-Yi, Lou-Shao, Hengzhou, Chen-Xu and Yong-Quan. Among those, Lou-shao, also known as Old Xiang, still exhibits the three-way distinction of Middle Chinese obstruents, preserving the voiced stops, fricatives, Some examples of Xiang speakers are Mao Zedong, Zuo Zongtang, Huang Xing and Ma Ying-jeou. During Qin and Han dynasty, most part of todays Eastern Hunan belonged to Changsha-Xian/Changsha-Guo, according to Yang Xiongs Fangyan, people in this region spoke Southern Chu, which is considered the ancestor of Xiang Chinese today. During the Tang dynasty, a large-scale emigration took place with people emigrating from the north to the south, todays Xiang still keeps some Middle Chinese words, such as 嬉, 薅, 行. Entering tone vowels started weakening in Hunan at this time, the late Yuan Dynasty peasant uprising caused a great many casualties in Hunan. During the Ming dynasty, an emigration from Jiangxi to Hunan took place. Gan, which was brought by settlers from Jiangxi, influenced Xiang, the speech in east Hunan differentiated into New Xiang during that period. Quanzhou County became part of Guangxi province after the adjustment of administrative divisions in the Ming Dynasty, Some features of Xiang at that time were kept in this region. Since the classification of Yuan Jiahua, Xiang has been considered one of seven groups of varieties of Chinese. Jerry Norman classified Xiang, Gan and Wu, as central groups, in Xiang dialects, the voiced initials of Middle Chinese yield unaspirated initials in all tone categories. A few varieties have retained voicing in all tones, but most have voiceless initials in some or all tone categories, pervasive influence from Mandarin dialects has made Xiang dialects difficult to classify. Xiang is traditionally divided into New Xiang, in which voicing has been lost completely, and Old Xiang varieties, changsha dialect is usually taken as representative of New Xiang, while Shuangfeng dialect represents Old Xiang. Indeed, Zhou Zhenhe and You Rujie classified New Xiang as part of Southwestern Mandarin, within New Xiang and Old Xiang, there are also many different sub-dialects. The Language Atlas of China identified a subgroup, Ji-Xu in some places of Western Hunan. Bao & Chen split out part of New Xiang as a new Hengzhou Xiang subgroup and they also reclassified parts of the Ji–Xu subgroup as Southwest Mandarin, renaming the remainder of the subgroup as Chen-Xu Xiang. Their five subgroups are, New Xiang voiced initials in Middle Chinese become unaspirated voicless consonant, most of the dialects of New Xiang retain the entering tone as a separate category. Old Xiang Voiced initials still exist, the entering tone does not exist in most of the dialects. Chen-Xu Xiang Some of the consonants are retained
23.
Cantonese
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Cantonese, or Standard Cantonese, is a variety of Chinese spoken in the city of Guangzhou in southeastern China. It is the prestige variety of Yue, one of the major subdivisions of Chinese. In mainland China, it is the lingua franca of the province of Guangdong and some neighbouring areas such as Guangxi. In Hong Kong and Macau, Cantonese serves as one of their official languages and it is also spoken amongst overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and throughout the Western World. When Cantonese and the closely related Yuehai dialects are classified together, Cantonese is viewed as vital part of the cultural identity for its native speakers across large swathes of southeastern China, Hong Kong and Macau. Although Cantonese shares some vocabulary with Mandarin, the two varieties are mutually unintelligible because of differences in pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, sentence structure, in particular the placement of verbs, sometimes differs between the two varieties. This results in the situation in which a Cantonese and a Mandarin text may look similar, in English, the term Cantonese is ambiguous. Cantonese proper is the variety native to the city of Canton and this narrow sense may be specified as Canton language or Guangzhou language in English. However, Cantonese may also refer to the branch of Cantonese that contains Cantonese proper as well as Taishanese and Gaoyang. In this article, Cantonese is used for Cantonese proper, historically, speakers called this variety Canton speech or Guangzhou speech, although this term is now seldom used outside mainland China. In Guangdong province, people call it provincial capital speech or plain speech. In Hong Kong and Macau, as well as among overseas Chinese communities, in mainland China, the term Guangdong speech is also increasingly being used among both native and non-native speakers. Due to its status as a prestige dialect among all the dialects of the Cantonese or Yue branch of Chinese varieties, the official languages of Hong Kong are Chinese and English, as defined in the Hong Kong Basic Law. The Chinese language has different varieties, of which Cantonese is one. Given the traditional predominance of Cantonese within Hong Kong, it is the de facto official spoken form of the Chinese language used in the Hong Kong Government and all courts and it is also used as the medium of instruction in schools, alongside English. A similar situation exists in neighboring Macau, where Chinese is an official language along with Portuguese. As in Hong Kong, Cantonese is the predominant spoken variety of Chinese used in life and is thus the official form of Chinese used in the government. The variant spoken in Hong Kong and Macau is known as Hong Kong Cantonese, Cantonese first developed around the port city of Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta region of southeastern China
24.
Jyutping
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Jyutping is a romanisation system for Cantonese developed by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, an academic group, in 1993. Its formal name is The Linguistic Society of Hong Kong Cantonese Romanisation Scheme, the LSHK promotes the use of this romanisation system. The name Jyutping is a contraction consisting of the first Chinese characters of the terms Jyut6jyu5, only the finals m and ng can be used as standalone nasal syllables. ^ ^ ^ Referring to the pronunciation of these words. There are nine tones in six distinct tone contours in Cantonese, however, as three of the nine are entering tones, which only appear in syllables ending with p, t, and k, they do not have separate tone numbers in Jyutping. Jyutping and the Yale Romanisation of Cantonese represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they differ in the following, The vowels eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping, the initial j represents /j/ in Jyutping whereas y is used instead in Yale. The initial z represents /ts/ in Jyutping whereas j is used instead in Yale, the initial c represents /tsʰ/ in Jyutping whereas ch is used instead in Yale. In Jyutping, if no consonant precedes the vowel yu, then the initial j is appended before the vowel, in Yale, the corresponding initial y is never appended before yu under any circumstances. Jyutping defines three finals not in Yale, eu /ɛːu/, em /ɛːm/, and ep /ɛːp/ and these three finals are used in colloquial Cantonese words, such as deu6, lem2, and gep6. To represent tones, only tone numbers are used in Jyutping whereas Yale traditionally uses tone marks together with the letter h. Jyutping and Cantonese Pinyin represent Cantonese pronunciations with the letters in, The initials, b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, ng, h, s, gw, kw. The vowel, aa, a, e, i, o, u, the coda, i, u, m, n, ng, p, t, k. But they have differences, The vowel oe represents both /ɵ/ and /œː/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas eo and oe represent /ɵ/ and /œː/ respectively in Jyutping. The vowel y represents /y/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas both yu and i are used in Jyutping, the initial dz represents /ts/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas z is used instead in Jyutping. The initial ts represents /tsʰ/ in Cantonese Pinyin whereas c is used instead in Jyutping. To represent tones, the numbers 1 to 9 are usually used in Cantonese Pinyin, however, only the numbers 1 to 6 are used in Jyutping
25.
Hokkien
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Hokkien /hɒˈkiɛn/ is a group of Southern Min dialects spoken throughout Southeastern China, Taiwan, Southeast Asia and by other overseas Chinese. Hokkien originated in southern Fujian, the Min-speaking province and it is closely related to Teochew, though there is limited mutual intelligibility, and is somewhat more distantly related to Hainanese and Leizhou dialect. Besides Hokkien, there are also other Min and Hakka dialects in Fujian province, the term Hokkien is etymologically derived from the Southern Min pronunciation for Fujian, the province from which the language hails. The variety is known by other terms such as the more general Min Nan or Southern Min. Fujianese and Fukienese are also used, although they are somewhat imprecise, the term Hokkien is not usually used in Mainland China or Taiwan. Conversely Hokkien is the name in Southeast Asia in both English, Chinese or other languages. Speakers of Hokkien, particularly those in Southeast Asia, typically refer to Hokkien as a dialect, people in Taiwan most often refer to Hokkien as the Taiwanese language, with Minnan and Holo also being used and 福建話 is not as common. Hokkien originated in the area of Fujian province, an important center for trade and migration. The major pole of Hokkien varieties outside of Fujian is Taiwan, the Taiwanese version mostly have origins with the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou variants, but since then, the Amoy dialect is becoming the modern prestige standard for the language. There are many Hokkien speakers among overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia as well as in the United States, many ethnic Han Chinese emigrants to the region were Hoklo from southern Fujian, and brought the language to what is now Burma, Indonesia and present day Malaysia and Singapore. Many of the Hokkien dialects of this region are similar to Taiwanese and Amoynese. Hokkien is reportedly the native language of up to 80% of the Chinese people in the Philippines, Hokkien speakers form the largest group of overseas Chinese in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines. Southern and part of western Fujian is home to four principal Hokkien dialects, Chinchew, Amoy, Chiangchew and Longyan, originating from the cities of Quanzhou, Xiamen, Zhangzhou and Longyan. As Xiamen is the city of southern Fujian, Amoy is considered the most important, or even the prestige dialect. It is a hybrid of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, same as Amoy dialect, the varieties of Hokkien spoken in Taiwan are hybrids of the Quanzhou and Zhangzhou dialects, and are collectively known as Taiwanese Hokkien or just Taiwanese. Used by a majority of the population, it bears much importance from a socio-political perspective, the varieties of Hokkien in Southeast Asia originate from these dialects. The Singaporeans, Southern Malaysians and people in Indonesias Riau and surrounding islands variant is from the Quanzhou area and they speak a distinct form of Quanzhou Hokkien called Southern Peninsular Malaysian Hokkien. Among ethnic Chinese inhabitants of Penang, and other states in Northern Malaysia and Medan, with areas in North Sumatra, Indonesia
26.
Taiwanese Romanization System
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The Taiwanese Romanization System is a transcription system for Taiwanese Hokkien. It is derived from Pe̍h-ōe-jī and since 2006 has been promoted by Taiwans Ministry of Education. It is nearly identical to Taiwanese Language Phonetic Alphabet Romanization for Hakka apart from using ts tsh j instead of c ch j for the fricatives /ts tsʰ dz/, Taiwanese Romanization System uses 16 basic Latin letters,7 digraphs and a trigraph. In addition, it uses 6 diacritics to represent tones, nn is only used after a vowel to express nasalization, so it has no capital letter. Palatalization occurs when J, S, Ts, Tsh followed by i, so Ji, Si, Tsi, of the 10 unused basic Latin letters, R is sometimes used to express dialectal vowels, while the others are only used in loanwords. O pronounced ㄜ in general dialect in Kaohsiung and Tainan, ㄛ in Taipei, -nn forms the nasal vowels There is also syllabic m and ng. ing pronounced, ik pronounced. A hyphen links elements of a compound word, a double hyphen indicates that the following syllable has a neutral tone and therefore that the preceding syllable does not undergo tone sandhi. 臺灣閩南語羅馬拼音及其發音學習網, Taiwanese Romanization System learning site by Ministry of Education, Taiwan
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Eastern Min
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Eastern Min, or Min Dong, is a branch of the Min group of varieties of Chinese. The prestige form and most-cited representative form is the Fuzhou dialect, Eastern Min varieties are mainly spoken in the eastern part of Fujian Province in Peoples Republic of China, in and near the cities of Fuzhou and Ningde. They are also encountered as the mother tongue on the Matsu Islands. Additionally, the inhabitants of Taishun and Cangnan to the north of Fujian in Zhejiang also speak Eastern Min varieties, Eastern Min generally coexists with the official standard Chinese in all these areas. Cities with high concentrations of immigrants include New York City, especially Little Fuzhou, Manhattan, Sunset Park, Brooklyn. They are also found in various Chinatown communities in Europe, including London, Paris, Chinese communities within Ikebukuro, Tokyo, Japan as well as Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia have significant populations of Eastern Min speakers. Fuzhou communities can also be found in Sitiawan, Perak and Yong Peng, the Eastern Min group is conventionally divided into three branches, Houguan dialect subgroup, including the Fuzhou dialect, Fuqing dialect, Lianjiang dialect and the dialect of the Matsu Islands. Funing dialect subgroup, including the Ningde dialect and the Fuan dialect, manjiang dialect, spoken in parts of Taishun and Cangnan, Wenzhou, Zhejiang. Besides these three branches, some islands in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong were classified as Eastern Min. Zhongshan Min is a group of Min varieties spoken in the Zhongshan county of Guangdong, according to Nicholas Bodman, only the Longdu dialect and Nanlang dialect belong to the Eastern Min group, while the Sanxiang dialect belongs to Southern Min. A preliminary report on the dialects of Mintung, the Gutian dialect of Min Dong District
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Fuzhou dialect
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The Fuzhou dialect, also Fuzhounese, Foochow or Hok-chiu, is the prestige variety of the Eastern Min branch of Min Chinese spoken mainly in eastern Fujian province. Like many other varieties of Chinese, the Fuzhou dialect is dominated by monosyllabic morphemes which carry lexical tones, while the Eastern Min branch that it belongs to is closer to Southern Min than to other Sinitic branches such as Mandarin or Hakka, they are still not mutually intelligible. Centered in Fuzhou City, the Fuzhou dialect covers eleven cities and counties, Fuzhou City Proper, Pingnan, Gutian, Luoyuan, Minqing, Lianjiang, Minhou, Changle, Yongtai, Fuqing and Pingtan. It is also the local language in many northern and middle Fujian cities and counties such as Nanping, Shaowu, Shunchang, Sanming. Fuzhou dialect is widely spoken in some regions abroad, especially in Southeastern Asian countries like Malaysia and Indonesia. The city of Sibu in Malaysia is called New Fuzhou due to the influx of immigrants there in the late 19th century and early 1900s. Similarly, quite a significant number of Fuzhounese have emigrated to Singapore, Taiwan, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, in older works, the variety is called Foochow dialect, based on the Chinese postal romanization of Fuzhou. In Chinese, it is sometimes called 福州語, native speakers also refer to it as Bàng-uâ, meaning the everyday language. After the Qin Dynasty conquered the Minyue kingdom of southeast China in 110 BC and it once served to standardize the language and is still widely quoted as an authoritative reference book in modern academic research in Min Chinese phonology. In 1842, Fuzhou was open to Westerners as a treaty port after the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, but due to the language barrier, however, the first Christian missionary base in this city did not take place without difficulties. In order to convert Fuzhou people, those missionaries found it necessary to make a careful study of the Fuzhou dialect. Their most notable works are listed below,1856, M. C, White, The Chinese language spoken at Fuh Chau 1870, R. S. Maclay & C. C. Baldwin, An alphabetic dictionary of the Chinese language in the Foochow dialect 1871, baldwin, Manual of the Foochow dialect 1891, T. B. Adam, An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect 1893, Charles Hartwell, Three Character Classic of Gospel in the Foochow Colloquial 1898, baldwin, An Alphabetic Dictionary of the Chinese Language of the Foochow Dialect, 2nd edition 1905, T. B. Adam, An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect, 2nd edition]1906, The Foochow translation of the complete Bible 1923, T. B. Adam & L. P. Peet, An English-Chinese dictionary of the Foochow dialect, 2nd edition 1929, one of their most famous works was the Japanese-Chinese Translation, Fuzhou Dialect published in 1940 in Taipei, in which katakana was used to represent Fuzhou pronunciation. By the end of the Qing Dynasty, Fuzhou society had been largely monolingual, but for decades the Chinese government has discouraged the use of the vernacular in school education and in media, so the number of Mandarin speakers has been greatly boosted. Recent reports indicate that less than 50% of young people in Fuzhou are able to speak Fuzhou dialect, in Mainland China, the Fuzhou dialect has been officially listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage and promotion work is being systematically carried out to preserve its use
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Foochow Romanized
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Foochow Romanized, also known as Bàng-uâ-cê or Hók-ciŭ-uâ Lò̤-mā-cê, is a Latin alphabet for the Fuzhou dialect of Eastern Min adopted in the middle of 19th century by Western missionaries. It had varied at different times, and became standardized in the 1890s, Foochow Romanized was mainly used inside of Church circles, and was taught in some Mission Schools in Fuzhou. But unlike its counterpart Pe̍h-ōe-jī for Hokkien, even in its prime days Foochow Romanized was by no means universally understood by Christians. After Fuzhou became one of the five Chinese treaty ports opened by the Treaty of Nanjing at the end of First Opium War, faced with widespread illiteracy, they developed Latin alphabets for Fuzhou dialect. The first attempt in romanizing Fuzhou dialect was made by the American Methodist M. C, white, who borrowed a system of orthography known as the System of Sir William Jones. In this system,14 initials were designed according to their voicing. ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨k⟩ and ⟨ch⟩ stand for, and, besides the default five vowels of Latin alphabet, four diacritic-marked letters ⟨è⟩, ⟨ë⟩, ⟨ò⟩ and ⟨ü⟩ were also introduced, representing, and, respectively. This system is described at length in Whites linguistic work The Chinese Language Spoken at Fuh Chau, the most significant change was made for the plosive consonants, where the spiritus lenis ⟨᾿⟩ of the aspirated initials was removed and the letters ⟨b⟩, ⟨d⟩ and ⟨g⟩ substituted for and. In the aspect of vowels, ⟨è⟩, ⟨ë⟩, ⟨ò⟩ and ⟨ü⟩ were replaced by ⟨a̤⟩, ⟨e̤⟩, ⟨o̤⟩, since the diacritical marks were all shifted to underneath the vowels, this left room above the vowels which was occupied by the newly introduced tonal marks. Thus Foochow Romanized avoids the potentially awkward diacritic stacking seen for instance in the Vietnamese script, the sample characters are taken from the Qi Lin Bayin, a renowned phonology book about the Fuzhou dialect written in the Qing Dynasty. The pronunciations are recorded in standard IPA symbols, note that Foochow Romanized uses the breve, not the caron, to indicate Yīnpíng and Yángrù tones of Fuzhou dialect. Everything You Want To Know About Foochow Romanized Gô Iók Cŭ, The Old Testament, sĭng Iók Cŭ, The New Testament, in Foochow Romanized. An English-Chinese Dictionary of the Foochow Dialect, by T. B, adam,1905 Learning material of Foochow Romanized at the Wayback Machine
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Chinese postal romanization
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Postal romanization was a system of transliterating Chinese place names developed by the Imperial Post Office in the early 1900s. The system was in use until the 1980s. For major cities and other places that already had widely accepted European names, with regard to other place names, the post office revised policy several times. Spellings given could reflect the pronunciation, Nanjing pronunciation, or Beijing pronunciation. At a conference held in 1906 in Shanghai, the post office selected a system of romanization developed by Herbert Giles called Nanking syllabary, although Beijing dialect had served as a national standard since the mid-19th century, the system adopted was based on Nanjing pronunciation. The system corresponded to traditional romanizations that were adopted in the 18th century when Nanjing dialect was considered standard. French-appointed administrators ran the post office at time, and they sought a less anglicized alternative to Wade-Giles. An imperial edict issued in 1896 renamed the Maritime Customs Post, reorganized this agency as a postal service. In 1899, Robert Hart, as general of posts. Although Hart asked for transliterations according to the pronunciation, most postmasters were reluctant to play lexicographer. The spellings that they submitted generally followed a system created by Thomas Francis Wade, the system had been developed in 1859 and was based on the Beijing pronunciation. It became the method of romanizing Chinese after Herbert Giles published a dictionary, using the system. The post office published a draft romanization map in 1903, disappointed with the Wade-based map, Hart made another attempt to promote localism in 1905. He directed the postmasters to submit romanizations not as directed by Wade, local missionaries could be consulted, Hart suggested. However, Wades system reflected pronunciation in most areas served by the post office, a more serious disadvantage was that the French viewed Wades system as anglophone. The top position in the post office was held by Postal Secretary Théophile Piry, until 1911, the post office remained part of the Maritime Customs Service. As customs inspector general, Hart was Pirys boss, but French backing effectively gave Piry a postal fiefdom, Piry responded to Harts moves by organising an Imperial Postal Joint-Session Conference in Shanghai in the spring of 1906. As it was a joint postal and telegraphic conference, it allowed Piry to go over Harts head, the conference resolved that existing spellings would be retained for all names already transliterated
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Administrative divisions of the Republic of China
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The administrative divisions of Taiwan consist of provinces and special municipalities. The provinces are streamlined, with little direct function. Each province is subdivided into provincial cities and counties. There are 6 special municipalities,3 provincial cities and 13 counties, in 1945, after the World War II, the Republic of China acquired Taiwan and Penghu from the Empire of Japan. In 1949, the government of the Republic of China led by Kuomintang lost the Chinese Civil War and retreated to Taipei, the government lost almost its jurisdiction over mainland China, only some offshore islands remained. This history gives two different sources of the current Taiwanese administrative divisions on the Free area of the Republic of China or Taiwan Area, Island of Taiwan and Penghu, inherited from the divisions of Taiwan under the Empire of Japan. Kinmen and Matsu Islands, inherited from the divisions of mainland China under the Republic of China, since 1949, the government has made some changes in the area under its control. The two provincial governments were streamlined and much of their functions transferred to the central or county governments, Six special municipalities have been created on the territory belonged to Taiwan Province. Since 1998, most of the duties and powers of Taiwan Provincial Government have been transferred to the central government, the much smaller Fukien province, Fujian Provincial Government has been in streamlined form since 1956. There has been criticism of the current administrative scheme as being inefficient. Before 2008, the likelihood of consolidation was low, many of the cities had political demographics which were very different from their surrounding counties, making the prospect of consolidation highly politically charged. On 1 October 2007, Taipei County was upgraded to a quasi-municipality on the level as Kaohsiung City. This allowed the county to have the organizational and budgetary framework of a de jure municipality, Taichung County and Tainan City lobbied the central government for similar status. Taoyuan County was also upgraded to a quasi-municipality on 1 January 2011, under President Ma Ying-jeous administration, the central government has reorganized more counties and cities. Four mergers and promotions were approved in 2009 and became effective on 25 December 2010, currently there are three types and in total 22 administrative divisions are directly governed by the central government. Counties with population more than 2 million may grant some extra privileges in local autonomy that was designed for special municipalities and these 22 divisions are also regulated by the Local Government Act as local self-governance bodies. Each division has its own executive called city/county government and own legislature called city/county council, the city mayors, county magistrates and all legislators are elected by the people under its jurisdiction every four years. Geographically, Six special municipalities, three cities and 10 counties are on the main island of Taiwan Penghu County administers Penghu Islands
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Demographics of Taiwan
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The population in Taiwan is approximately 23. The original population of the island of Taiwan and its associated islands, according to governmental statistics, over 95% of the Republic of Chinas population is now made up of Han Chinese, while 2. 3% are Taiwanese aborigines. Half the population are followers of one or a mixture of 25 recognized religions, around 93% of the religious population are followers of a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, while a minority 4. 5% are followers of Christianity. During the 20th century the population of Taiwan rose more than sevenfold, from about 3 million in 1905 to more than 22 million by 2001.2 to 2 million soldiers and civilians to Taiwan in 1948–1949. Consequently, the growth rate was very rapid, especially in the late 1940s and 1950s. Fertility rates decreased gradually thereafter, and in 1984 the rate reached the replacement level. Fertility rates have continued to decline and in 2010 Taiwan was experiencing a growth of less than 0. 2% and a fertility rate of only 0.9. The population of Taiwan is projected to peak at about 23.7 million in 2024, the official national language is Standard Chinese, although around 70% also speak Taiwanese Hokkien 10% speak Hakka. Japanese speakers are becoming rare as the generation who lived under Japanese rule are dying out. Aboriginal languages are becoming extinct as the aborigines have become acculturated despite a program by the ROC government to preserve the languages. According to May 2006 statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, the remaining 0. 4% live on offshore islands. Taiwan is ranked the 50th most populous nation in the world, the number of Chinese in the island in 1624, prior to Dutch rule, was about 25,000. By 1682 there were only 7,000 Chinese left on Taiwan as they had intermarried with aboriginal women and had property in Taiwan. During Qing rule, the population of Han Chinese in Taiwan grew rapidly from 100,000 to ~2.5 million, (The plains aboriginal population is estimated to have decreased by 90% over the hundred years from 1800 to 1900. The Japanese Colonial Government performed detailed censuses every five years starting in 1905, statistics showed a population growth rate of about 1% to 3% per year throughout Japanese rule. In 1905, the population of Taiwan was roughly 3 million, by 1940 the population had grown to 5.87 million, during 2004-2010 Taiwans migration rate was positive. On average the annual net migration amounted to 22,000 people during that period, the ethnic groups of Taiwan may be roughly divided among Chinese Taiwanese, mainland Chinese, and indigenous peoples. The ROC government reports that over 95% of the population is Han Chinese, the majority of the Han group descends from immigrants who arrived to the island prior to Japanese rule and can be classified as the Hoklos and Hakkas, on the basis of language and customs
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Geography of Taiwan
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Taiwan is an island in East Asia, located some 180 kilometres off the southeastern coast of mainland China across the Taiwan Strait. It has an area of 35,883 km2 and spans the Tropic of Cancer, the East China Sea lies to the north, the Philippine Sea to the east, the Luzon Strait directly to the south and the South China Sea to the southwest. There are several peaks over 3,500 m, the highest being Yu Shan at 3,952 metres, the tectonic boundary that formed these ranges is still active, and the island experiences many earthquakes, a few of them highly destructive. There are also many active volcanoes in the Taiwan Straits. The climate ranges from tropical in the south to subtropical in the north, the island is struck by an average of four typhoons in each year. The eastern mountains are forested and home to a diverse range of wildlife. The total area of the island is 36,193 km2 and it has a coastline of 1,139 km. The ROC claims an economic zone of 200 nmi and a territorial sea of 12 nmi. The main island of the archipelago is the island of Taiwan, the central point of the island is the Geographic Center of Taiwan in Puli Township, Nantou County. The southernmost point of the island is the Taiwan Southernmost Point in Hengchun Township, the island of Taiwan is separated from the southeast coast of China by the Taiwan Strait, which ranges from 220 km at its widest point to 130 km at its narrowest. Part of the shelf, the Strait is no more than 100 m deep. To the south, the island of Taiwan is separated from the Philippine island of Luzon by the 250 km -wide Luzon Strait, the South China Sea lies to the southwest, the East China Sea to the north, and the Philippine Sea to the east. The island of Taiwan was formed approximately 4 to 5 million years ago at a convergent boundary between the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate. In a boundary running the length of the island and continuing southwards in the Luzon Volcanic Arc, most of the island comprises a huge fault block tilted to the west. The western part of the island, and much of the central range, in the northeast of the island, and continuing eastwards in the Ryukyu Volcanic Arc, the Philippine Sea Plate slides under the Eurasian Plate. The tectonic boundary remains active, and Taiwan experiences 15,000 to 18,000 earthquakes each year, of which 800 to 1,000 are noticed by people. The most catastrophic recent earthquake was the magnitude-7.3 Chi-Chi earthquake, on 4 March 2010 at about 01,20 UTC, a magnitude 6.4 earthquake hit southwestern Taiwan in the mountainous area of Kaohsiung County. Another major earthquake occurred on 6 February 2016, with a magnitude of 6.4, Tainan was damaged the most, with 117 deaths, most of them caused by the collapse of a 17-story apartment building
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Ohio, United States (1985)[11]
Florida, United States (1992)[12]
