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 county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

in the city of

Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a 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" for its over 200 years of his ...

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, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territori ...

. The Cigu Lagoon is located in this township, and an ecological conservation area for

black-faced spoonbill The black-faced spoonbill (''Platalea minor'') is a species of wading bird in the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae, found in eastern Asia. This species has the most restricted distribution of the six spoonbill species, and it is the ...

s is situated on the estuary of the

Zengwen River The Zengwen River is the fourth longest river in Taiwan after the Zhuoshui River, Gaoping, and Tamsui, with a total length of about . It flows through Tainan and Chiayi County.It is located in the southwestern part of the island. Names ''Zén ...

. 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 quant ...

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 cap ...

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 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 The black-faced spoonbill (''Platalea minor'') is a species of wading bird in the ibis and spoonbill family Threskiornithidae, found in eastern Asia. This species has the most restricted distribution of the six spoonbill species, and it is the ...

Conservation Area * Cigu Lagoon * Cigu Salt Fields * Cigu Salt Mountain *

Taiwan Salt Museum The Taiwan Salt Museum () is a museum about salt in Cigu District, Tainan, Taiwan. History The salt mountain was once the largest sea salt field in Taiwan supplying the domestic demand. Due to the declining demand, the salt field ceased product ...

Notable natives

Huang Wei-che Huang Wei-che (; born 26 September 1963) is a Taiwanese politician. He was a member of the Legislative Yuan from 2005 to 2018. Huang is the incumbent Mayor of Tainan since 25 December 2018 after winning the title during the 2018 local elections ...

, Mayor of Tainan * Su Huan-chih, Magistrate of

(2001-2010)

References