Taisi Township (), is a rural township in

Yunlin County Yunlin County ( Mandarin pinyin: ''Yúnlín Xiàn''; Taigi POJ: ''Hûn-lîm-koān''; Hakka PFS: ''Yùn-lìm-yen'') is a county in western Taiwan. Yunlin County borders the Taiwan Strait to the west, Nantou County to the east, Changhua County ...

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 ...

, lying to the west of Dongshi, south of Mailiao and north of Sihu, and including a section of coastline on the

Taiwan Strait The Taiwan Strait is a -wide strait separating the island of Taiwan and continental Asia. The strait is part of the South China Sea and connects to the East China Sea to the north. The narrowest part is wide. The Taiwan Strait is itself a ...

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 Taisi. The reason for this name change was due to a perceived national shortcoming: in Taiwan, there existed four cities called

Taipei Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the ...

(, literally "Taiwan-North"),

Taichung Taichung (, Wade–Giles: ''Tʻai²-chung¹'', pinyin: ''Táizhōng''), officially Taichung City, is a special municipality located in central Taiwan. Taichung has approximately 2.8 million residents and is the second most populous city of Ta ...

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

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 ...

(, "Taiwan-South"), but there was no place called Taihsi (, "Taiwan-West"). To correct this gaping hole in Taiwan's geography, the town, which is located in the approximate middle of Taiwan's west coast, was renamed Taisi. Taisi was first settled by

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctiv ...

in the Kangxi era of the

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-spea ...

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, born Yinzhen, was the fourth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the third Qing emperor to rule over China proper. He reigned from ...

and the Qianlong Emperor. Families from

Zhangzhou Zhangzhou (), alternately romanized as Changchow, 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 surrounding the prefect ...

and Quanzhou 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 Qianlong Emperor, 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 Taisi was reduced to the small and relatively impoverished town that it is today. Taisi'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 Romans as early as the 1st century ...

, but in 1991 they were zoned for offshore industrial use.

Geography

As of December 2016, Taisi had 8,727 households and a total population of 24,212, including 11,244 females and 12,968 males.

Administrative divisions

The township comprises 15 villages: Fuci, Gwanghua, Haibei, Haikou, Hainan, Hefong, Niusi, Cyuanjhou, Shanliao, Taisi, Wengang, Wugang, Wusiang, Siding and Yongfong.

Economy

The township produces

radish The radish (''Raphanus raphanistrum'' subsp. ''sativus'') is an edible root vegetable of the family Brassicaceae that was domesticated in Asia prior to Roman times. Radishes are grown and consumed throughout the world, being mostly eaten raw ...

es.

Transport

*Freeway 17 (Binghai Freeway) *Freeway 61 *Freeway 78 *Highway 154, 155, 158

Places of interest

* The Taisi 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 ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The p ...

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

intertidal The intertidal zone, also known as the foreshore, is the area above water level at low tide and underwater at high tide (in other words, the area within the tidal range). This area can include several types of habitats with various species ...

animals, such as

fiddler crab The fiddler crab or calling crab may be any of more than one hundred species of semiterrestrial marine crabs in the family Ocypodidae, well known for their sexually dimorphic claws; the males' major claw is much larger than the minor claw, while ...

s, mudskippers,

woodlice A woodlouse (plural woodlice) is an isopod crustacean from the polyphyleticThe current consensus is that Oniscidea is actually triphyletic suborder Oniscidea within the order Isopoda. They get their name from often being found in old wood ...

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 ...

s, herons, and other migratory

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s, and cacti,

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evolution in severa ...

s and others.

Representation of Taisi in the media

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

. Although this was fiction, 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