Taishan (),
alternately romanized
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
in Cantonese as Toishan or Toisan, in local dialect as Hoisan, and formerly known as Xinning or Sunning (), is a
county-level city
A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a county-level administrative division of the People's Republic of China. County-level ...
in the southwest of
Guangdong
Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020 ...
province, China. It is administered as part of the
prefecture-level city
A prefecture-level city () or prefectural city is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure.
During the Republican era, many of Chi ...
of
Jiangmen
Jiangmen (), alternately romanized in Cantonese as Kongmoon, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province in southern China. As of the 2020 census, its three urban districts, plus Heshan City being conurbated, with 2,657,662 inhabitant ...
. During the
2020 census, there were 907,354 inhabitants (941,095 in 2010), but only 433,266 were considered urban. Taishan calls itself the "First Home of the Overseas Chinese". An estimated half a million
Chinese Americans
Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...
are of Taishanese descent.
Geography
Taishan is located in the
Pearl River Delta
The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD; ; pt, Delta do Rio das Pérolas (DRP)) is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Ma ...
in southwestern
Jiangmen
Jiangmen (), alternately romanized in Cantonese as Kongmoon, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province in southern China. As of the 2020 census, its three urban districts, plus Heshan City being conurbated, with 2,657,662 inhabitant ...
Prefecture. It includes 95 islands and islets, including
Shangchuan Island
Shangchuan Island (, also known as "Schangschwan", "Sancian", "Sanchão", "Chang-Chuang", "St. John's Island" or "St John Island") is the main island of Chuanshan Archipelago on the southern coast of Guangdong, China. Its name originated from Sã ...
, the largest island in Guangdong now that
Hainan
Hainan (, ; ) is the smallest and southernmost province of the People's Republic of China (PRC), consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. , the largest and most populous island in China,The island of Taiwan, which is slightly l ...
has become a separate province. Taishan is one of Guangdong's "
Four Counties" (''
Sze Yup''), which excluded
Heshan and is now part of the
Greater Taishan Region.
Climate
History
During the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
, the area of present-day Taishan was carved out of
Xinhui County on 12 February 1499 as "Xinning County." By the 19th century, Xinning was already a source of migrant and emigrant workers, but a series of subsequent natural and political disasters in the area exacerbated the situation. Aside from the disruption of the
Sea Ban
The Haijin () or sea ban was a series of related isolationist policies in China restricting private maritime trading and coastal settlement during most of the Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty. Despite official proclamations the Ming policy was ...
regulations (''Haijin'') themselves, their revocation led to an influx of
northern settlers who began long-running feuds with the
returning locals; this erupted into
full-scale war in the 1850s and '60s. The 1842
Treaty of Nanking that ended the
First Opium War
The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of the ...
opened China to greater foreign trade just before the
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...
made the prospect of emigration to the United States appealing. Many also served as contract workers abroad, as in
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
and
Cuba
Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribb ...
and—most famously—for the
Central Pacific half of America's
Transcontinental Railroad
A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...
, where the Chinese made up 80% of the company's workforce as they laid track over the mountains and deserts of the west. By 1870, there were 63,000 Chinese in the United States, almost all in
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
.
Chin Gee Hee's
Sun Ning Railway Company connected Sun Ning (Xinning) with its hinterland in 1908 and reached
Jiangmen
Jiangmen (), alternately romanized in Cantonese as Kongmoon, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province in southern China. As of the 2020 census, its three urban districts, plus Heshan City being conurbated, with 2,657,662 inhabitant ...
(Kongmoon) in 1913. It was notable as one of only three railways financed, built, owned, and run by the Chinese themselves before the 1949
Communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, ...
victory in the
Chinese Civil War
The Chinese Civil War was fought between the Kuomintang-led government of the Republic of China and forces of the Chinese Communist Party, continuing intermittently since 1 August 1927 until 7 December 1949 with a Communist victory on main ...
.
[''Chinese Emigration, the Sunning Railway and the Development of Toisan'' by Lucie Cheng and Liu Yuzun with Zheng Dehua, Amerasia 9(1): 59-74, 1982.]
In 1914, the new
Republican government renamed the area Taishan County to avoid confusion with
other places named Xinning.
(It is now, however, frequently confused in foreign sources with
Mount Tai
Mount Tai () is a mountain of historical and cultural significance located north of the city of Tai'an. It is the highest point in Shandong province, China. The tallest peak is the '' Jade Emperor Peak'' (), which is commonly reported as being ...
in
Shandong
Shandong ( , ; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal Provinces of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region.
Shandong has played a major role in His ...
.) During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, the Sun Ning Railway was destroyed to prevent its use by the
Japanese.
Japanese soldiers entered
Taicheng, the county seat, in March 1941 and killed nearly 280 people. One quarter of the "
Flying Tigers
The First American Volunteer Group (AVG) of the Republic of China Air Force, nicknamed the Flying Tigers, was formed to help oppose the Japanese invasion of China. Operating in 1941–1942, it was composed of pilots from the United States ...
", a joint American and Chinese group of airmen who fought the Japanese before the United States entered the Second World War, hailed from Taishan.
Taishan was promoted to county-level city status on 17 April 1992, reflecting its increasing level of
urbanization
Urbanization (or urbanisation) refers to the population shift from rural to urban areas, the corresponding decrease in the proportion of people living in rural areas, and the ways in which societies adapt to this change. It is predominantly th ...
.
Administration
Taishan administers 1
subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district.
Equivalents
* Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language
* Kelurahan, in Indonesia
* Mukim, a township in Brunei, In ...
and 16
towns
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an or ...
,
which in turn are subdivided into 313 administrative villages (), and residential communities ().
The city has 3,655 natural villages, although they do not function as administrative divisions ().
Taishan's
township-level divisions are:
Some of the city's natural villages include
Annanjiangchao (),
Bihou (),
Jilong, and
Guanbuli ().
Demographics
If considering the total
Greater Taishan Region or
Sze Yap Region, which includes
Kaiping,
Xinhui
Xinhui, alternately romanized as Sunwui and also known as Kuixiang, is an urban district of Jiangmen in Guangdong, China. It grew from a separate city founded at the confluence of the Tan and West Rivers. It has a population of about 735,50 ...
,
Enping and Taishan, there are about 8 to 9 million
Taishanese people worldwide. According to American historian
Him Mark Lai, approximately 430,000 or 70% of
Chinese Americans
Chinese Americans are Americans of Han Chinese ancestry. Chinese Americans constitute a subgroup of East Asian Americans which also constitute a subgroup of Asian Americans. Many Chinese Americans along with their ancestors trace lineage from ...
in the 1980s were Taishanese according to 1988 data.
Currently some 500,000 Chinese Americans claim Taishanese origins.
[
While Taishan itself has a population of about 1 million, there are around 1.3 million Taishanese people overseas, distributed in 91 countries and regions. It is estimated that, up to the mid- to late-20th century, over 75% of all overseas Chinese in North America claimed origin in Taishan, so Taishan has been named the "Home of Overseas Chinese."][
]
Language
The main dialect of Taishan is Taishanese (). While most Taishanese today use Mandarin in school or formal occasions, Taishanese is the ''de facto'' language. Schools require their students to speak Mandarin in the classroom, and teachers are required to lecture in Mandarin.
Taishanese is a language of the Yue Chinese
Yue () is a group of similar Sinitic languages spoken in Southern China, particularly in Liangguang (the Guangdong and Guangxi provinces).
The name Cantonese is often used for the whole group, but linguists prefer to reserve that name for ...
, a large group which includes, but is broader than, the Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong and Guangzhou. Thus Cantonese and Taishanese are related but distinct. Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding a ...
is also widely known in Taishan, as it serves as the lingua franca of Guangdong Province.
Before the 1980s, Taishanese was the predominant Chinese language spoken throughout North America's Chinatown
A Chinatown () is an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Africa and Aust ...
s.
Economy
In 2018, the city's GDP reached 43.25 billion Yuan, government revenue was 2.92 billion Yuan, fixed-asset investment was 27.33 billion Yuan, retail sales totaled 25.52 billion Yuan, and foreign trade totaled 13.76 billion Yuan.
Power Generation
The city is home to two major power plants: the Guohua Taishan Power Station
Guohua Taishan Power Station () is a coal-fired power station in Taishan, Jiangmen, Guangdong, China. With an installed capacity of 5,000 MW, it is the 7th largest coal-fired power station in the world. (It shares this title with the Guodian Be ...
and the Taishan Nuclear Power Plant.
Culture
Sports
Taishan is nicknamed the "hometown of volleyball
Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...
", after the game was introduced to the city in 1915 by Lingnan University
Lingnan University (LN/LU), formerly called Lingnan College, is a public liberal arts university in Hong Kong. It aims to provide students with an education in the liberal arts tradition and has joined the Global Liberal Arts Alliance sinc ...
student Wu Xiumin (). Many prominent Chinese volleyball players have subsequently hailed from Taishan. In recent years, local governments in the city have invested in the area's volleyball programs, and the city hosted a number of Volleyball Women's Nations League matches in 2018. 9-man
9-man (also nine-man, nineman, 9man) is a volleyball team sport utilizing nine players per side and a slightly larger court (10 by 20 meters). Historically, the sport was played by Chinese immigrants to the US, who predominantly hailed from Toisa ...
is a form of volleyball from Taishan brought to American Chinatowns by Taishanese immigrants.
Music and Entertainment
Taishan and Guangzhou
Guangzhou (, ; ; or ; ), also known as Canton () and Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kwongchow or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, sou ...
are the birthplaces of Guangdong music.
Parts of the movie Let the Bullets Fly were filmed in Taishan in 2010.
Education
Education enjoys significant support from Overseas Chinese professionals and businessmen. Many secondary schools were built and financed by Chinese living in China's Special Administrative Regions
The special administrative regions (SAR) of the People's Republic of China are one of the provincial-level administrative divisions of the People's Republic of China directly under the control of its Central People's Government (State Co ...
, as well as various foreign countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Brazil. To honor their benefactors, these schools often bear either their names or the names of said donor's parents.
For example, the Peng Quan School () is a prime example, which was constructed during 1999–2001, and is now integrated into Taishan's public school system. It is situated on the west side of Taicheng, and was built by a Hong Kong businessman.
There are many middle schools and high schools in Taishan, but no academic universities. Students must study rigorously in order to be accepted at universities located in other cities.
Taishan schools include:
University:
* Taishan Panshi Television University ()
Secondary schools (including combined junior-senior high schools and senior high schools):
* Taishan No. 1 High School ()
* Taishan Overseas Chinese Middle School ()
* Taishan Peiying Vocational Technical School ()
* Taishan Taishi Senior High School ()
* Taishan City Peng Quan School ()
* Taishan Litan Gengkai Memorial Middle School ()
* Taishan Peizheng School ()
* Taishan Renyuan Middle School ()
* Taishan Guang Hai School ()
* Taishan Shuibu Middle School ()
* Taishan Lishufen Memorial Middle School ()
* Taishan Chonglou Middle School ()
* Taishan Xueye Junior Middle School ()
* Taishan Xinning Middle School ()
* Taishan Yizhong Dajiang Experimental Middle School ()
* Taishan Najin Middle School ()
* Taishan Ningyang Middle School ()
Transportation
Taishan is accessible by bus with a long-distance bus station in Taicheng, and through a port at GongYi
Gongyi (), formerly Gong County (), is a county-level city of Henan Province, South Central China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhengzhou. It has a population of 790,000 people and an area of .
City
Gongyi is ...
on the Tan River
The Dan River (), formerly known as the Dan Shui (丹水) or 800 ''Li'' Black River (八百里黑江), is a river located in Shaanxi province in the People's Republic of China. The longest tributary of the Han River, the Dan rises at Heilongkou ...
which flows into the Pearl River Delta
The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD; ; pt, Delta do Rio das Pérolas (DRP)) is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Ma ...
. The ferry service between GongYi and Hong Kong has been discontinued.
Ferry
Ferry services connect the island of Shangchuan
Shangchuan Island (, also known as "Schangschwan", "Sancian", "Sanchão", "Chang-Chuang", "St. John's Island" or "St John Island") is the main island of Chuanshan Archipelago on the southern coast of Guangdong, China. Its name originated from São ...
with the mainland, sailing between the Sanzhou Harbor () on Shangchuan, and Shanzui Harbor () in the town of Chuandao. There are also daily ferry services between Sanzhou Harbor and the nearby island of Xiachuan
Xiachuan Island () (Hsiachwan Shan) is an island of the South China Sea, on the southern coast of China, part of the Guangdong province.
Administration
Administratively, Chuandao () is one of the 16 towns of Taishan.
Geography
The island is ...
.
Rail
In 2018, the Taishan railway station () opened in Taicheng Subdistrict
Taicheng Subdistrict () is a subdistrict which serves as the capital of the county-level city of Taishan, Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, China. The subdistrict lies on the right bank of the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong.
History
The area of pre ...
, connecting the city via rail. The station, located north of the city center, is a stop on the Shenzhen–Zhanjiang high-speed railway
The Shenzhen–Zhanjiang railway is a high-speed railway across the south of Guangdong province. Currently it runs from Jiangmen to Zhanjiang West. It will link the cities of Shenzhen and Zhanjiang when complete.
History
Announced as part of th ...
, and has a couple dozen trains a day running to Guangzhou South railway station.
Notes
References
External links
China Taishan Web
Map of Taishan
Hoisanese to English Dictionary
Taishan Culture & Loisirs (Association of the Taishan expatriate community)
{{Authority control
1499 establishments in Asia
15th-century establishments in China
Populated places established in the 1490s
Jiangmen
County-level cities in Guangdong
Siyi