Administrative divisions of the Republic of China

This article is part of a series on the Administrative divisions of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
In effect
1st	Provinces (省 shěng) (streamlined)
	Special municipalities (直轄市 zhíxiáshì)
2nd	Counties (縣 xiàn)
	Provincial cities (市 shì)
3rd	Districts (區 qū)
	County-controlled cities (縣轄市 xiànxiáshì)
	Urban townships (鎮 zhèn)
	Rural townships (鄉 xiāng)
4th	Urban villages (里 lǐ)
	Rural villages (村 cūn)
5th	Neighborhoods (鄰 lín)
Suspended 1st Regions (地方 Dìfāng) (also known as "Areas") Special administrative regions (SARs) (特別行政區 tèbié xíngzhèngqū) Leagues (盟、部 méng, bù) Special banners (特別旗 tèbiéqí) 2nd Bureaus (設治局 shèzhìjú) Management bureaus (管理局 guǎnlǐjú) Banners (旗 qí) See also History of the administrative divisions of China

The Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan, currently governs Taiwan Area, consisting of the four main island groups of Taiwan, Penghu, Quemoy, Matsu and some minor islands. The whole country is divided into two streamlined provinces (Taiwan and Fujian) and five special municipalities (Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Taipei). The two streamlined provinces are further subdivided into 3 provincial cities and 14 counties. All special municipalities, provincial cities and counties are directly under the central government (i.e., Executive Yuan).

History

See also: History of the political divisions of China#Republic of China

Early years

The Republic of China was founded on Mainland China in 1912. It used most of the same administrative divisions as the Qing Dynasty but divided Inner Mongolia into four provinces and set up several Yuan-controlled municipalities. After the World War II in 1945, Manchuria was reincorporated into the Republic of China as nine provinces. Taiwan and the Pescadores was also returned to the Republic of China and was organized into Taiwan Province. By this time the top-level divisions consisted of 35 provinces, 12 Yuan-controlled municipalities, one special administrative region and two regions (Mongolia and Tibet).

Government on Taiwan

After its loss of mainland China to the Communist Party of China in the Chinese Civil War and its retreat to Taiwan in 1949, the jurisdiction of the ROC was restricted to only Taiwan, the Pescadores, and a few offshore islands of Fukien. This area is called the "Free Area of the Republic of China" in the Constitution. In most ordinary legislation, the term "Taiwan Area" is used in place of the "Free Area", while Mainland China is referred to as the "Mainland Area".

The Republic of China has never renounced its claim over territory it ruled prior to losing the mainland in 1949. This included all of mainland China, parts of northern Burma, Tannu Uriankhai (part of which is present-day Tuva in Russia), and Outer Mongolia, of which it has never recognized its independence. At the same time, the Republic of China has not recognized any of the changes made by the People's Republic of China to the administrative structure of the mainland. Accordingly, the official first-order divisions of Republic of China remain the historical divisions of China immediately prior to the loss of mainland China.

Since 1949, the ROC government has made some changes in the area under its control. It elevated Taipei to a special municipality in 1967 and elevated Kaohsiung to one in 1979. The provincial governments of Fujian and Taiwan were streamlined (i.e., effectively disbanded) in 1949 and 1998, respectively. In 2005, the Republic of China consisted of 35 provinces, 1 special administrative region, 2 regions (Tibet and Outer Mongolia), 14 special municipalities, 14 leagues, and 4 special banners. For second-order divisions (under provinces and special administrative regions), there are counties, provincial cities (56), bureaus (34) and management bureaus (7). Under provincial-level municipalities there are districts, and under leagues there are banners (127).

Since 2005, the ROC government no longer organizes mainland China into divisions (but it still claims sovereignty over it). It recognized two provinces (Taiwan and Fukien) and two special municipalities (Taipei and Kaohsiung).

In 2010, New Taipei, Taichung and Tainan were upgraded to special municipalities. This brought the top-level divisions of the ROC to its current state: two streamlined provinces, five special municipalities, fourteen counties and three provincial cities.

Special considerations

Streamlining of Provinces

Since 1949, the most controversial part of the political division system of the ROC has been the existence of the Taiwan Province, as its existence was part of a larger controversy over the political status of Taiwan. Since 1997, most of the Taiwan provincial government's duties and powers were transferred to the national government of the Republic of China, through amendments to the constitution. The much smaller Fujian province consisting of Quemoy and Matsu, had most of its authority passed off to its two counties.

Joint Service Centers of Executive Yuan

The central government operates three regional Joint Service Centers (區域聯合服務中心) outside Taipei as outposts of the government ministries in the Executive Yuan, similar to the cross-departmental mode of working in the Government Offices in England. These regions, laid out the Comprehensive National Spatial Development Plan for Taiwan (臺灣地區國土綜合開發計劃), can be considered a de facto level of government, perhaps equivalent to de jure provinces or similar to the English regions. There is one regional service center for each of the Southern Taiwan Region (with the center in Kaohsiung), the Central Taiwan Region (Taichung), and the Eastern Taiwan Region (Hualien). The Northern Taiwan Region is served by Taipei, the central government's administrative headquarters and de facto capital.

Re-organization

There has been some criticism of the current administrative scheme as being inefficient and not conducive to regional planning. In particular, most of the administrative cities are much smaller than the actual metropolitan areas, and there are no formal means for coordinating policy between an administrative city and its surrounding areas.

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. For example, while the Kuomintang argued that combining Taipei City, Taipei County, and Keelung City into a metropolitan Taipei region would allow for better regional planning, the Democratic Progressive Party argued that this was merely an excuse to eliminate the government of Taipei County, which it had at times controlled, by swamping it with votes from Taipei City and Keelung City, which tended to vote Kuomintang.

On 1 October 2007, Taipei County was upgraded to a quasi-municipality (準直轄市) on the same level as Kaohsiung City and Taipei City. This allowed the county to have the organizational and budgetary framework of a de jure municipality, but it was still formally styled as a county. Taichung County and Taichung City lobbied the central government for similar status. Taoyuan County was also upgraded to a quasi-municipality on 1 January 2011, as its population was above 2 million on the date of elevation.

Under President Ma Ying-jeou's administration, the central government has reorganized more counties and cities. The following mergers and promotions were approved in 2009 and became effective on 25 December 2010.

• Kaohsiung County was merged with the special municipality of Kaohsiung to form a single special municipality
• Taichung County was merged with the provincial city of Taichung to form a single special municipality
• Tainan County was merged with the provincial city of Tainan to form a single special municipality
• Taipei County was renamed New Taipei and became a special municipality

Proposals for ROC municipalities and counties

These proposals were not approved in 2009 but may be considered at a later date.

Proposals	Changes	June 2009 Population - Combine	Current Area (km²) - Combine	Map (before)						Map (after)
2-A	Hsinchu City + Hsinchu County = Hsinchu County (新竹市 + 新竹縣 = 新竹縣)	915,012	1,531.6864
2-B	Chiayi City + Chiayi County = Chiayi County (嘉義市 + 嘉義縣 = 嘉義縣)	821,721	1,961.6956
2-C	Taipei City + New Taipei City + Keelung City = Taipei City (臺北市 + 新北市 + 基隆市 = 臺北市)	6,854,715	2,457.1244

Structural hierarchy

Level	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Division type	Special municipality (直轄市 zhíxiáshì) (5)		District (區 qū) (157)	Village (里 lǐ)	Neighborhood (鄰 lín)
	Province (省 shěng) (2) (Streamlined)	Provincial city (市 shì) (3)
		County (縣 xiàn) (14)	County-controlled city (縣轄市 xiànxiáshì) (17)
			Urban Township (鎮 zhèn) (41)
			Rural Township (鄉 xiāng) (153)	Village (村 cūn)
Total	22		368	7,835	147,877
Note: Since the provinces are streamlined, special municipalities are usually counted with provincial cities and counties. In Chinese, all special municipalities, provincial cities, and county-controlled cities are all referred to as 市 (shì) in their full official names. Provincial cities are sometimes called 省轄市 (shěngxiáshì) to distinguish them from the other two types of cities.

Under the ROC administrative scheme, some cities and counties may share the same name but are independent administrations; this occurs with Chiayi City and Chiayi County, and Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County. Generally, special municipalities have the largest administrative area of all three levels of cities, then provincial cities, and finally county-controlled cities, in that order.

Special municipalities

Main article: Special municipality (Republic of China)

Special municipalities (Chinese: 直轄市; pinyin: zhíxiáshì) are a top-level division in the Republic of China (Taiwan), directly governed by the Executive Yuan. A place with more than 1.25 million residents and with political, economical or cultural importance may become a special municipality.

• There are five special municipalities in Taiwan: Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Taipei.
• Note that Kaohsiung also administers the Dongsha Islands and Taiping Island of the South China Sea Islands.

Provincial cities

Main article: Provincial city (Republic of China)

Provincial cities (Chinese: 市; pinyin: shì) are cities one level lower than special municipalities. Formerly governed by the provinces, they have been directly governed by the Executive Yuan ever since the provinces were streamlined. A place with 0.5 million and 1.25 million residents and with political, economical or cultural importance may become a provincial city.

• There are three provincial cities in Taiwan: Chiayi, Hsinchu and Keelung.

Counties

Main article: County (Republic of China)

Counties (Chinese: 縣; pinyin: xiàn) are one of the administrative division levels under provinces. Formerly governed by the provinces, they have been directly governed by the Executive Yuan ever since the provinces were streamlined. A county with more than two million residents can acquire a status equal to a special municipality. Taipei County had this status from October 2007 until it became the special municipality of New Taipei in December 2010. Taoyuan County has also had this special status since 2011.

• There are 14 counties in the ROC, 11 counties located mainly in the island of Taiwan.

Chiayi County Changhua County Hsinchu County Hualien County

Miaoli County Nantou County Pingtung County Taitung County

Taoyuan County Yilan County Yunlin County

• Penghu County administered Penghu Islands (Pescadores Islands).
• Kinmen County administered Kinmen Islands and Wuqiu Islands.
• Lienchiang County administered Matsu Islands.

Lower-level governance structures

Main articles: District (Republic of China), County-controlled city, and Township (Republic of China)

The 22 main divisions in the country are further divided into 368 subdivisions. A County may divided into rural townships (Chinese: 鄉; pinyin: xiāng), urban townships (Chinese: 鎮; pinyin: zhèn) and county-controlled cities (Chinese: 縣轄市; pinyin: xiànxiáshì). A place with more than 150 thousand residents may become a county-controlled city. Special municipalities and provincial cities are divided into districts (Chinese: 區; pinyin: qū).

• The 368 subdivisions are classified into: 157 districts, 17 county-controlled cities, 41 urban townships and 153 rural townships.
• The 368 subdivisions are further divided into 7,835 villages, and to 147,877 neighborhoods.

List of divisions

No.	Romanization	Chinese	Hanyu Pinyin	Population	Area (km2)	City/County Seat		Map
Special municipalities (直轄市)								1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22
1	Kaohsiung	高雄市	Gāoxióng shì	2,773,483	2,946.2671	Lingya District Fengshan District	苓雅區 鳳山區
2	New Taipei	新北市	Xīnběi shì	3,897,367	2,052.5667	Banqiao District	板橋區
3	Taichung	臺中市 台中市	Táizhōng shì	2,648,419	2,214.8968	Xitun District	西屯區
4	Tainan	臺南市 台南市	Táinán shì	1,873,794	2,191.6531	Anping District Xinying District	安平區 新營區
5	Taipei	臺北市 台北市	Táiběi shì	2,618,772	271.7997	Xinyi District	信義區
Provincial cities (市)
6	Chiayi	嘉義市	Jiāyì shì	272,390	60.0256	East District	東區
7	Hsinchu	新竹市	Xīnzhú shì	415,344	104.1526	North District	北區
8	Keelung	基隆市	Jīlóng shì	384,134	132.7589	Zhongzheng District	中正區
Counties (縣)
9	Changhua County	彰化縣	Zhānghuà xiàn	1,307,286	1,074.3960	Changhua City	彰化市
10	Chiayi County	嘉義縣	Jiāyì xiàn	543,248	1,903.6367	Taibao City	太保市
11	Hsinchu County	新竹縣	Xīnzhú xiàn	513,015	1,427.5369	Zhubei City	竹北市
12	Hualien County	花蓮縣	Huālián xiàn	338,805	4,628.5714	Hualien City	花蓮市
13	Miaoli County	苗栗縣	Miáolì xiàn	560,968	1,820.3149	Miaoli City	苗栗市
14	Nantou County	南投縣	Nántóu xiàn	526,491	4,106.4360	Nantou City	南投市
15	Penghu County	澎湖縣	Pénghú xiàn	96,918	126.8641	Magong City	馬公市
16	Pingtung County	屏東縣	Píngdōng xiàn	873,509	2,775.6003	Pingtung City	屏東市
17	Taitung County	臺東縣 台東縣	Táidōng xiàn	230,673	3,515.2526	Taitung City	臺東市
18	Taoyuan County	桃園縣	Táoyuán xiàn	2,002,060	1,220.9540	Taoyuan City	桃園市
19	Yilan County	宜蘭縣	Yílán xiàn	460,486	2,143.6251	Yilan City	宜蘭市
20	Yunlin County	雲林縣	Yúnlín xiàn	717,653	1,290.8326	Douliu City	斗六市
21	Kinmen County	金門縣	Jīnmén xiàn	97,364	151.6560	Jincheng Township	金城鎮
22	Lienchiang County	連江縣	Liánjiāng xiàn	9,944	28.8000	Nangan Township	南竿鄉

Romanization

Main article: Romanization of Chinese in Taiwan

The romanization used for ROC placenames above the county level is a modified form of Wade-Giles, ignoring the apostrophes and hyphens of the original, thus yielding "Taipei" instead of "T'ai-pei" and "Yilan" instead of "I-lan", for example. Some postal map romanizations also exist, like "Keelung" and "Kinmen". In 2002, the ROC adopted Tongyong Pinyin as its national standard for romanization. Most townships and county-controlled cities changed their romanization to Tongyong Pinyin at that time. However, some local administrations, like Taipei and Taichung, decided to use Hanyu Pinyin. In 2009, Tongyong Pinyin was replaced by Hanyu Pinyin as the ROC government standard. Currently, most of the divisions are romanized by Hanyu Pinyin system, but some local governments still use Tongyong Pinyin, like Kaohsiung. In 2011, the ROC Minister of the Interior restored historical romanizations for two towns, Lukang and Tamsui.

See also

• History of the Republic of China
• Political divisions of Taiwan (1895-1945)
• Lists of Republic of China administrative divisions: by area · by population · by population density
• ISO 3166-2:TW

External links

• 內政部地政司 (Department of Land Administration, Ministry of the Interior): Romanizations for county-level and township-level entities
• Fujian Provincial Government
• Taiwan Provincial Government