Toucheng Township () is an urban

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, C ...

in Yilan 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 ...

. The township includes Guishan Island and Guiluan Island in the Philippine Sea. The Senkaku Islands, known in Mandarin as the

Diaoyu Islands The are a group of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea, administered by Japan. They are located northeast of Taiwan, east of China, west of Okinawa Island, and north of the southwestern end of the Ryukyu Islands. They are known in ...

, are claimed as part of the township.

History

Toucheng was formerly called ''Thau-ui'' (). Toucheng Township () was established on 9 September 1946. Toucheng Township was upgraded to an urban township () on 1 January 1948.

Geography

Area Area is the quantity that expresses the extent of a region on the plane or on a curved surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an ope ...

: 100.89 km² *

Population Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...

: 29,890 people (2014)

Administrative divisions

Toucheng includes twenty-five urban villages: *Shicheng/Shihcheng (Shih-ch'eng-tzu, Sekijōshi; ), Dali (Ta-li-chien, Dairikan; , 大里簡), Guishan (Kuei-shan, Kīzan; ), Daxi (Ta-ch'i, Taikei; ), Gexing (Ho-hsing, Gōkō; ), Gengxin (), Waiao (Wai-ao, Gaiō; ), Gangkou (Chiang-k'ou, Kōkō; ), Wuying (), Dakeng (), Chengtung (), Chengbei (), Chengxi (), Chengnan (), Zhuan (), Xinjian (), Baya (), Fucheng (), Jinmian (Hsiao-chin-mien, Shō-kimmen; , 小金面), Jinying (), Dingpu (), Xiapu (), Zhonglun (Chung-lun, Chūron; ) and Ercheng () Village.

Education

* Lan Yang Institute of Technology

Infrastructure

Submarine communication cables

Toucheng is one of the two

cable landing point A cable landing point is the location where a submarine or other underwater cable makes landfall. The term is most often used for the landfall points of submarine telecommunications cables and submarine power cables. The landing will either be d ...

s of Taiwan island (the other one is Fangshan). Four submarine communication cables, including APCN, APCN2, RNAL, and SEA-ME-WE 3, connect here.

Tourist attractions

The township has several fresh seafood restaurants and also black sand beach for surfing activities. Several boat operators offer trips from the Wushish Harbor to Guishan Island and also for whale and dolphin watching. The Juh-an River Bird sanctuary is another attraction of Toucheng. Once the economic center of the area, the Ho-Ping street in Toucheng is one of the few unaltered and typical

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 ...

Taiwanese urban structures. * Beiguan Crabs Museum * Beiguan Tidal Waves * Caoling Historic Trail * Guishan Island * Hedung Hall Lions Museum * Honeymoon Bay * Lanyang Museum * Lee Rong-chun Literary Museum * Old Dali Bridge * Old Tsau Ling Tunnel * Sea Eroded Rock Formation * Shihpai Boundary Park * Taoyuan Valley * Toucheng Leisure Farm * Toucheng Old Street

Transportation

Toucheng is served by the

Yilan Line The Yilan Line () is the northern section of the Eastern Line of the Taiwan Railways Administration in Taiwan. It has a length of 95 km. History This railroad was completed in 1924 as the Giran-sen during Imperial Japanese rule over Taiwan. ...

Taiwan Railway Administration Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) is a railway operator in Taiwan. It is an agency of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications, responsible for managing, maintaining, and running conventional passenger and freight railway services ...

on Dali Station, Daxi Station, Dingpu Station, Guishan Station, Sicheng Station, Toucheng Station and Wai-ao Station. Toucheng has more rail stations (three) than any other townships in

. There are seven stations along the route. The township has recently seen a marked increase in tourism due to the opening of the Freeway 5 linking it with western Taipei. The freeway consists of a series of

tunnels A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A Pipeline transport, pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used ...

dug through the Snow Mountains, the longest of which measures . The distance between western Taipei and Toucheng is now and takes roughly thirty minutes of driving, compared to several hours in the past. Wushi Harbor is located in the township.

Notable natives

Lu Kuo-hua Lu Kuo-hua (; born 22 February 1956) is a politician in the Republic of China. He was the Magistrate of Yilan County from 2005 to 2009.http://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2008/4/26/96765.html Yilan County Magistrate 2005 Yilan County magistr ...

, Magistrate of Yilan County (2005-2009)

References

External links

* {{coord, 24, 51, N, 121, 49, E, display=title, region:TW_type:city_source:GNS-enwiki Townships in Yilan County, Taiwan