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 v · d · e

The Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan, currently governs Taiwan Area, consists of four main island groups of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen, Matsu and some minor islands. The whole country divided into two streamlined provinces^[1] (Taiwan and Fujian) and five special municipalities (Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, Tainan and Taipei); the two streamlined provinces further subdivided into 3 provincial cities and 14 counties.

Since Taiwan province was streamlined in 1997, all 5 special municipalities, 3 provincial cities and 14 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, following most of the administrative areas from Qing Dynasty, but divided Inner Mongolia into four provinces, and setup few couples of Yuan-controlled municipalities. After the World War II in 1945, Manchuria was reincorporated into the Republic of China as 9 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 was a total 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, which also 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 Kuomintang (KMT) continued to regard the Republic of China as the sole legitimate government of China, so the published divisions still includes whole the territory of the ROC government's claim, including mainland China and Outer Mongolia, which kept in place to validate its claim as the legal government of China.

Maps of China and the world published in Taiwan sometimes show provincial and national boundaries as they were in 1949, not matching the current administrative structure as decided by the Communist Party of China post-1949 and including outer Mongolia, northern Burma, and Tannu Uriankhai (part of which is present-day Tuva in Russia) as part of China (territories over which the PRC has renounced sovereignty). In the meantime, the Republic of China has not recognized any of the changes made to the administrative structure of the mainland, and has never retracted its claim to mainland China and Outer Mongolia. Accordingly, the official first-order divisions of Republic of China remain the historical divisions of China immediately prior to the loss of mainland China.

The ROC government also made some changes in the area under its control, two more municipalities have been set up in Taiwan (Taipei in 1967, Kaohsiung in 1979), the number of municipalities becomes 14. And the provincial governments of Fujian and Taiwan have been largely streamlined, since 1949 and 1998, respectively. As the final version of division list in 2005^[2], The political divisions of the ROC becomes: 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).

Recent changes

Since 2005, the ROC government stops its claim to the divisions of mainland China (but still claims Sovereignty).^[3] There are two provinces (Taiwan and Fukien) and two special municipalities (Taipei and Kaohsiung). In 2010, New Taipei, Taichung and Tainan are upgraded to special municipalities.

Recently, the government states the top-level divisions of ROC should be two streamlined provinces, five special municipalities, fourteen counties and three provincial cities.^[4]

Special considerations

Streamline 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 have been transferred to the national government of the Republic of China in the constitutional changes. The much smaller Fujian province consisting of Kinmen and Matsu, on the other hand, 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 inconducive 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 a political geography 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 is 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, per legislation newly coming into force, Taipei County was upgraded to become a quasi-municipality (準直轄市) on the same level as Kaohsiung City and Taipei City.^[5] It is allowed the organizational and budgetary framework of a de jure municipality, but is still formally styled as a county. The Taichung County and City were also lobbying the central government for a similar status. Following the example of Taipei County, Taoyuan County is also set to be upgraded to a quasi-municipality on 1 January 2011, on the condition that its population stays above 2 million at the date of elevation.^[6]

President Ma Ying-jeou of Kuomintang in his 2008 election campaign platform advocated for a rearrangement of three municipalities and 15 counties. Since his inauguration, his administration had started to prepare for this.^[7] At the end of this process, proposals for the following were approved by the Ministry of the Interior on 23 June 2009: promotion of Taipei County to become the city of New Taipei awaiting further merger with Taipei Municipality and Keelung City, the merger of Kaohsiung Municipality and County, and the merger of the City and County to form a promoted Taichung Municipality.^[8] In the same meeting, the merger of the City and County of Tainan was referred to the Cabinet (Executive Yuan). This merger and promotion proposal was finally approved on 29 June 2009 to give the Tainan Municipality (臺南市).^[9] All these re-arrangements were finally carried out on 25 December 2010.

Re-organization 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

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

The number at the end are the amount of entities as of December 31, 2010:

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, the special municipalities 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. Sometimes provincial cities are called 省轄市 shěngxiáshì to distinguished from the other two types.

Under the ROC administrative scheme, some cities and counties may share the same name, but are independent administrations, this happens in Chiayi City and Chiayi County, 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 one of top-level divisions in the Republic of China (Taiwan), directly governed by the Executive Yuan. In the laws, a place gathered more than 1.25 million residents and with political, economical or cultural importance may become a special municipality.

• Recently there are five special municipalities in Taiwan, namely Kaohsiung City, New Taipei City, Taichung City, Tainan City and Taipei City.
• Note that Kaohsiung City also administering 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 lesser in rank than special municipalities; formerly governed by the provinces, after the provinces are streamlined they directly governed by the Executive Yuan. In the laws, a place gathered residents between 0.5 million and 1.25 million and with political, economical or cultural importance may become a provincial city.

• Recently there are three provincial cities in Taiwan, namely Chiayi City, Hsinchu City and Keelung City.

Counties

Main article: County (Republic of China)

Counties (Chinese: 縣; pinyin: xiàn), are one of administrative divisions under provinces; formerly governed by the provinces, after the provinces are streamlined they directly governed by the Executive Yuan. In ROC laws, a county with more than two million residents can acquire some status equal to a special municipality. Taipei County had used this rule since October 2007 until elevated to New Taipei City in December 2010; while this rule also applied to Taoyuan County from 2011.

• Recently 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 subjects 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). In the laws, a place gathered more than 150 thousand residents may become a county-controlled cities. Special municipalities and provincial cities are divided into districts (Chinese: 區; pinyin: qū).

• The 368 subdivisions may classified into: 157 districts, 17 county-controlled cities, 41 urban townships and 153 rural townships.
• The 368 subdivisions are 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 City	高雄市	Gāoxióng shì	2,773,483	2,946.2671	Lingya District Fengshan District	苓雅區 鳳山區
2	New Taipei City	新北市	Xīnběi shì	3,897,367	2,052.5667	Banqiao District	板橋區
3	Taichung City	臺中市 台中市	Táizhōng shì	2,648,419	2,214.8968	Xitun District	西屯區
4	Tainan City	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 City	臺北市 台北市	Táiběi shì	2,618,772	271.7997	Xinyi District	信義區
Provincial cities (市)
6	Chiayi City	嘉義市	Jiāyì shì	272,390	60.0256	East District	東區
7	Hsinchu City	新竹市	Xīnzhú shì	415,344	104.1526	North District	北區
8	Keelung City	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, Tongyong Pinyin was adopted to be the national standard of Chinese romanizations. Most townships and county-controlled cities are romanized in this way at this 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.^[10][11] Recently, Most of the divisions are romanized by Hanyu Pinyin system, but some local government still use Tongyong Pinyin as well, like Kaohsiung. In 2011, the ROC minister of the Interior restored historical romanizations for two towns, Lukang and Tamsui, which developed in early times.

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

References

1. ^ Taiwan Review-Gone with the Times
2. ^ 中華民國各省（市）縣（市）行政區域代碼
3. ^ 中華民國年鑑九十五年版
4. ^ 中華民國國情簡介 政府組織
5. ^ "國立教育廣播電台新聞 (2007-10-01): 歷時28年 臺北縣今升格為準直轄市 (After 28 years, Taipei County today is promoted to quasi-municipality status)". http://www.webcitation.org/5hjOGAvUG. 
6. ^ "Liberty Times (2010-12-7): 升格為準直轄市 / 元旦改制日 桃園人口須維持200萬)". http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2010/new/dec/7/today-p3.htm. 
7. ^ "Liberty Times (2008-12-27): 三都十五縣 馬指示漸進推動 (Ma directs gradual progression towards 3 municipalities and 15 counties)". http://www.webcitation.org/5hjOy5NgD. 
8. ^ "Liberty Times (2009-06-24): 縣市升格 北中高過關 南縣市補考 (Promotion of Cities and Counties: Taipei, Taichung, and Kaohsiung approved; Tainan awaits further examination)". http://www.webcitation.org/5hmHkK2Ql. 
9. ^ Wikinews (2009-06-29): 臺灣再添直轄市; http://www.tainan.gov.tw/capital/index.htm
10. ^ "Hanyu Pinyin to be standard system in 2009". Taipei Times. 2008-09-18. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/09/18/2003423528. 
11. ^ "Gov't to improve English-friendly environment". The China Post. 2008-09-18. http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national%20news/2008/09/18/175155/Gov%27t-to.htm. 

External links

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