Shitan Township / Shihtan Township () is a rural

township A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

Miaoli County Miaoli County (Mandarin Pinyin: ''miáo lì xiàn''; Hakka PFS: ''Mèu-li̍t-yen''; Hokkien POJ: ''Biâu-le̍k-koān'' or ''Miâu-le̍k-koān'') is a county in western Taiwan. Miaoli is adjacent with Hsinchu County and Hsinchu City to the nort ...

Taiwan 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 nort ...

. It is located in a mountainous area with a mild,

sub-tropical The subtropical zones or subtropics are geographical and climate zones to the north and south of the tropics. Geographically part of the temperate zones of both hemispheres, they cover the middle latitudes from to approximately 35° north and ...

climate. Its rainy season is from May to September. Shitan's population was estimated to be 4,141 in January 2023.

History

The area was occupied by native Taiwanese through the 19th Century with an economy strongly dependent upon hunting. In 1876 under Qing rule, the Chinese began to build bullock roads into the area. However it was not until the 1930s, during Japanese rule, that standardized roads began to be constructed. The first motor vehicle road was completed into Shitan in 1939, and regular bus service was started. However, by 1942 the bus service had ended because of fuel rationing.

Administrative divisions

The township comprises seven villages: Boshou, Fenglin, Hexing, Xindian, Xinfeng, Yongxing and Zhumu.

Politics

The township is part of Miaoli County Constituency II

electoral district An electoral district, also known as an election district, legislative district, voting district, constituency, riding, ward, division, or (election) precinct is a subdivision of a larger state (a country, administrative region, or other polity ...

for

Legislative Yuan The Legislative Yuan is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) located in Taipei. The Legislative Yuan is composed of 113 members, who are directly elected for 4-year terms by people of the Taiwan Area through a parallel v ...

Culture

The Shitan Village Historic Museum preserves a

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

dwelling from the

Koxinga Zheng Chenggong, Prince of Yanping (; 27 August 1624 – 23 June 1662), better known internationally as Koxinga (), was a Ming loyalist general who resisted the Qing conquest of China in the 17th century, fighting them on China's southeastern ...

period."Shitan Village Historic Museum" Cultural Affairs Bureau of Miaoli County website
Other landmarks include Lingdong Temple, Shitan Presbyterian Church and Wenshui Old Street. Local food specialities include

Tea Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by pouring hot or boiling water over cured or fresh leaves of '' Camellia sinensis'', an evergreen shrub native to East Asia which probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northe ...

and

Mesona chinensis ''Platostoma palustre'', commonly known as Chinese mesona, is a species of plant belonging to the genus ''Platostoma'' of the mint family. The species grows extensively in East Asia such as south east China, Japan and Taiwan preferring ravines, g ...

(仙草), which is served as a hot, viscous drink, or curded and served over ice as a type of

grass jelly Grass jelly, also known as leaf jelly or herb jelly, is a jelly-like dessert eaten in East and Southeast Asia. It is created by using Chinese mesona (a member of the mint family) and has a mild, slightly bitter taste. It is served chilled, wit ...

Education

Among the schools in Shitan are:
苗栗縣立獅潭國中苗栗縣獅潭鄉獅潭國民小學 Shitan Elementary School
in Chinese
苗栗縣獅潭鄉永興國民小學苗栗縣獅潭鄉豐林國民小學

Transportation

Shitan is served by provincial highways

No. 3 ''No. 3'' () is a 1997 Koreans, South Korean Kkangpae, gangster comedy film starring Han Suk-kyu as the titular no. 3 man of a gang who's aspiring to rise up the ranks and become the leader of his own gang. It was writer-director Song Nung-han's ...

and No. 72.

Notable natives

* Yiong Con-ziin, Minister of the

Hakka Affairs Council The Hakka Affairs Council (HAC; , Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: Hak-kâ Vî-yèn-fi) is a cabinet-level unit under the Executive Yuan of the government of Taiwan. Its mission is to revitalize Hakka language and culture, and promoting Hakka cultural research and ...

References

External links

* {{Taiwanese aboriginal areas Townships in Miaoli County