Taixi Township (), is a rural township in

Yunlin County Yunlin is a Counties of Taiwan, county in Regions of Taiwan, western Taiwan. Yunlin County borders the Taiwan Strait to the west, Nantou County to the east, Changhua County to the north at the Zhuoshui River, and Chiayi County to the south at th ...

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

, lying to the west of Dongshi, south of

Mailiao Mailiao Township () is a rural township in northwestern Yunlin County, Taiwan. Geography With a population of 49,298 people as of February 2023, Mailiao has an area of 80.1668 km2. Administrative divisions Maifong, Maijin, Wayao, Xinghua ...

and north of Sihu, and including a section of coastline on the

Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a strait separating the island of Taiwan and the Asian continent. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. Names Former names of the Tai ...

History

The town was formerly called Haikou (, meaning "seaport" or "river mouth"), a direct toponym describing the town's location at the end of the Huwei River where the river empties into the ocean. In 1941, the town was renamed Taixi. The reason for this name change was due to a perceived national shortcoming: in Taiwan, there existed four cities called

Taipei , nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country ...

(, literally "Taiwan-North"),

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: '), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in central Taiwan. Taichung is Taiwan's second-largest city, with more than 2.85 million residents, making it the largest city in Ce ...

(, "Taiwan-Middle"), Taitung (, "Taiwan-East"), and

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 commonly called the "Taiwan Prefecture, ...

(, "Taiwan-South"), but there was no place called Taixi (, "Taiwan-West"). To fill this gap in Taiwan's place naming system, the town, which is located at the approximate middle of Taiwan's west coast, was renamed Taixi. Taixi was first settled by

Han Chinese The Han Chinese, alternatively the Han people, are an East Asian people, East Asian ethnic group native to Greater China. With a global population of over 1.4 billion, the Han Chinese are the list of contemporary ethnic groups, world's la ...

in the Kangxi era of the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

and gradually flourished through the reigns of the

Yongzheng Emperor The Yongzheng Emperor (13 December 1678 – 8 October 1735), also known by his temple name Emperor Shizong of Qing, personal name Yinzhen, was the fourth List of emperors of the Qing dynasty, emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the third Qing em ...

and the

Qianlong Emperor The Qianlong Emperor (25 September 17117 February 1799), also known by his temple name Emperor Gaozong of Qing, personal name Hongli, was the fifth Emperor of China, emperor of the Qing dynasty and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China pr ...

. Families from

Zhangzhou Zhangzhou (, ) is a prefecture-level city in Fujian Province, China. The prefecture around the city proper comprises the southeast corner of the province, facing the Taiwan Strait and (with Quanzhou) surrounding the prefecture of Xiamen. Nam ...

and

Quanzhou Quanzhou is a prefecture-level city, prefecture-level port city on the north bank of the Jin River, beside the Taiwan Strait in southern Fujian, China, People's Republic of China. It is Fujian's largest most populous metropolitan region, wi ...

with the typical Fukienese surnames Chen (), Chang (), Wu (), Lin (), and Ting () cultivated the land and built a port. The port brought great prosperity to the town, and by the reign of the

, the town was thriving. Unfortunately, in 1898 a powerful storm hit the area, bringing floods and torrential rain which washed debris and silt from the nearby mountains down to the mouth of the river and the port. Almost overnight, the port was silted up, and Taixi was reduced to the small and relatively impoverished town that it is today. Taixi's coastal waters were traditionally used in

oyster farming Oyster farming is an aquaculture (or mariculture) practice in which oysters are bred and raised mainly for their pearls, shells and inner organ tissue, which is eaten. Oyster farming was practiced by the ancient Rome, ancient Romans as early as the ...

, but in 1991 they were

zoned In urban planning, zoning is a method in which a municipality or other tier of government divides land into land-use "zones", each of which has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a ...

for offshore industrial use.

Geography

As of February 2023, Taixi had 8,420 households and a total population of 22,077, including 10,267 females and 11,810 males.

Administrative divisions

The township comprises 15 villages: Fuqi, Guanghua, Haibei, Haikou, Hainan, Hefeng, Niucuo, Quanzhou, Shanliao, Taixi, Wengang, Wugang, Wulang, Xiding and Yongfeng.

Economy

The township produces

radish The radish (''Raphanus sativus'') is a flowering plant in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. Its large taproot is commonly used as a root vegetable, although the entire plant is edible and its leaves are sometimes used as a leaf vegetable. Origina ...

es.

Transport

* Provincial Highway 17 * Provincial Highway 61 * Provincial Highway 78 *County Highways 154, 155 and 158

Places of interest

* The Taixi Seaside Park built in 1992 by the

Government covers 121 hectares and is a main contributor to the local economy. The park is primarily

wetland A wetland is a distinct semi-aquatic ecosystem whose groundcovers are flooded or saturated in water, either permanently, for years or decades, or only seasonally. Flooding results in oxygen-poor ( anoxic) processes taking place, especially ...

s and is host to a variety of wildlife and flora including

intertidal The intertidal zone or foreshore is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide; in other words, it is the part of the littoral zone within the tidal range. This area can include several types of habitats with various sp ...

animals, such as

fiddler crab The fiddler crab or calling crab can be one of the hundred species of semiterrestrial marine crabs in the family Ocypodidae. These crabs are well known for their extreme sexual dimorphism, where the male crabs have a major claw significantly l ...

mudskipper Mudskippers are any of the 23 extant species of amphibious fish from the subfamily Oxudercinae of the goby family (biology), family Oxudercidae. They are known for their unusual body shapes, preferences for semiaquatic habitats, limited terrestria ...

woodlice Woodlice are terrestrial isopods in the suborder Oniscidea. Their name is derived from being often found in old wood, and from louse, a parasitic insect, although woodlice are neither parasitic nor insects. Woodlice evolved from marine isopods ...

egret Egrets ( ) are herons, generally long-legged wading birds, that have white or buff plumage, developing fine plumes (usually milky white) during the breeding season. Egrets are not a biologically distinct group from herons and have the same build ...

heron Herons are long-legged, long-necked, freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae, with 75 recognised species, some of which are referred to as egrets or bitterns rather than herons. Members of the genus ''Botaurus'' are referred to as bi ...

s, and other migratory

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class (biology), class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the Oviparity, laying of Eggshell, hard-shelled eggs, a high Metabolism, metabolic rate, a fou ...

s, and

cacti A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

s and others.

Representation of Taixi in the media

In 1982, a novel was published telling the story of a young Taixi man who escaped prison and went on a killing spree in

. Although this was

fiction Fiction is any creative work, chiefly any narrative work, portraying character (arts), individuals, events, or setting (narrative), places that are imagination, imaginary or in ways that are imaginary. Fictional portrayals are thus inconsistent ...

, it had a large impact on the way other Taiwanese people perceive its villagers to this day.

References

{{coord, 23, 42, N, 120, 12, E, display=title, region:TW_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Townships in Yunlin County