Cigu District, United States National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency or Qigu is a rural

district A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivisions o ...

in the city of

Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and also commonly known as the "Capital City" ...

with about 21,606 inhabitants, situated on the westernmost point of the

island of Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, News media, press and Western literature, literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of ...

. The Cigu Lagoon is located in this township, and an ecological conservation area for black-faced spoonbills is situated on the estuary of the Zengwen River. It was a

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quantitie ...

producing area, but now most of the salt products are imported from other counties.

History

Around 360 years ago, seven settlers arrived in the area from

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

and built a fish farm. At that time, the area was mostly inhabited. Gradually, new settlers started to spread northwards over the next 80 years. There was only one port at that time and people made a living based from offshore fishing. As the population gradually increased, they began to cultivate the lands near the coast to grow grains and make salt.

Republic of China

After the handover of Taiwan from Japan to the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

in 1945, Cigu was organized as a rural township of

Tainan County Tainan County was a county in southern Taiwan between 1945 and 2010. The county seat was in Sinying City. History Tainan County was established on 7 January 1946 on the territory of Tainan Prefecture () shortly after the end of World War II ...

. On 25 December 2010, Tainan County was merged with Tainan City and Cigu was upgraded to a

of the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Administrative divisions

The district consists of Hougang, Datan, Dujia, Dingshan, Xiliao, Yancheng, Longshan, Xinan, Qigu, Yucheng, Dacheng, Shulin, Zhongliao, Zhuqiao, Yige, Yongji, Sangu and Shifen Village.

Tourist attractions

* Black-faced spoonbill Conservation Area * Cigu Lagoon * Cigu Salt Fields * Cigu Salt Mountain * Taiwan Salt Museum

Notable natives

* Huang Wei-che, Mayor of Tainan *

Su Huan-chih Su Huan-chih (; born July 20, 1956) was the magistrate of Tainan County from 2001 to 2010, until Tainan County's merger into Tainan City. Born in a rural township in southern Taiwan, Su graduated from National Taiwan University. He passed the b ...

, Magistrate of

(2001-2010)

References