Provincial city (Taiwan)

Provincial cities (省轄市 shěngxiáshì), sometimes translated provincial municipalities, are cities lesser in rank than special municipalities of the Republic of China (Taiwan). They are governed by provinces directly and are one level above the most basic county-controlled cities.

In the early 20th century, the criteria of being a provincial municipality, as stated in Laws on the City Formation (市組織法), included being the provincial capital as well as having a population of over 200,000, or over 100,000 if the city had particular significance in politics, economics, and culture. After relocating the government to Taiwan, where many cities considered to be insignificant had large populations, the Republic of China government raised the limit to 500,000 in 1981 in the Scheme on the Local Rules in Various Counties and Cities of Taiwan Province (臺灣省各縣市實施地方自治綱要). It was later raised again to 600,000.

Provincial cities in Taiwan

There are currently three provincial municipalities, all part of Taiwan Province, administered by the Republic of China:

English	Chinese	Tongyong Pinyin	Hanyu Pinyin	Wade-Giles	Pe̍h-ōe-jī	Pha̍k-fa-sṳ	City Seat	City Seat in Chinese
Chiayi City	嘉義市	Jiayi	Jiāyì	Chia1-i4	Ka-gī	Kâ-ngi	East District	東區
Hsinchu City	新竹市	Sinjhu	Xīnzhú	Hsin1-chu2	Sin-tek	Sîn-tsuk	North District	北區
Keelung City	基隆市	Jilong	Jīlóng	Chi1-lung2	Ke-lâng	Kî-lùng	Zhongzheng District	中正區

• 
  Chiayi City
• 
  Hsinchu City
• 
  Keelung City

Timeline

Date	Addition	Removal	No.	Description
1945	Changhua City, Chiayi City, Hsinchu City, Kaohsiung City, Keelung City, Taichung City, Tainan City, Taipei City, Pingtung City		9	Reform from the prefecture-controlled cities in the period under Japanese rule.
August 16, 1950		Chiayi City	8	merged into Chiayi County and became a county-controlled city
December 1, 1951		Changhua City, Hsinchu City, Pingtung City	5	downgraded to county-controlled cities
July 1, 1967		Taipei City	4	upgraded to a special municipality
July 1, 1979		Kaohsiung City	3	upgraded to a special municipality
July 1, 1982	Chiayi City, Hsinchu City		5	upgraded from county-controlled cities
December 25, 2010		Taichung City, Tainan City	3	merge with Taichung County and Tainan County, and upgraded to special municipalities
Provincial cities in existence:Chiayi City, Hsinchu City, Keelung City (3).

The provincial city hierarchy will be abolished in 2014 under President Ma Ying-jeou's "Three municipalities and 15 counties" scheme if the plan goes through. Keelung is planned to be merged with Taipei, while Hsinchu and Chiayi will merge with their respective counties (Hsinchu County and Chiayi County) to become county-controlled cities.

See also

• the term "provincial cities" is used to refer to prefecture-level cities in the People's Republic of China, see Administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China#Prefecture level.