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Kaohsiung City (Chinese: 高雄市, TongYong PinYin: GaoSyóng-shìh, Hanyu Pinyin: Gāoxióng-shì, POJ: Ko-hiông, ) is the second largest city on Taiwan island with a population of 1,510,444 (2006 census). Kaohsiung City is administered directly by the central government of the Republic of China and has eleven districts.
Kaohsiung is a major center for manufacturing, refining, and transportation. Unlike Taipei, the streets of Kaohsiung are wide and traffic is less congested than in Taipei. However, the air pollution around Kaohsiung is notoriously bad because of the heavy industry in the area. Kaohsiung is the major port through which most of Taiwan's oil is imported, which accounts for the large amount of heavy industry.
It is an export processing zone—producing aluminium, wood and paper products, fertilizers, cement, metals, machinery, and ships. Its harbor is the largest international port in Taiwan and ranked sixth in terms of volume of container traffic (2005 preliminary data). Kaohsiung is the center of Taiwan's shipbuilding industry, as well as home to a large ROC Navy base. Its subway system, and the Kaohsiung Mass Rapid Transit (KMRT), should be running in 2006.
Kaohsiung City will host the 2009 World Games, a multisport event primarily composed of sports not featured in the Olympic Games.
The Japanese colonial period in Taiwan refers to the period between 1895 and 1945 during which Taiwan was a Japanese colony. Due to differing perceptions of history, it may also be referred to by some as the period of "Japanese occupation".
The expansion into Taiwan was a part of Japan's general policy of southward expansion during the late 19th Century. Japanese rule in Taiwan was markedly different from in Korea. As Taiwan was Japan's first overseas colony, Japanese intentions were to turn the island into a showpiece "model colony". As a result, much effort was made to improve the island's economy, industry, public works, and culture. The relative failures of the early years of post-World War II rule by the Kuomintang ("KMT") led to a certain degree of nostalgia amongst the older generation of Taiwanese who experienced both. This has affected, to some degree, issues such as national identity, ethnic identity, and the Taiwan independence movement. The comparative lack of anti-Japanese sentiment amongst Taiwanese society has also led to misunderstandings with overseas Chinese communities and mainland Chinese. (Read more...)
Taiwanese (pe̍h-oē-jī: Tâi-oân-oē or Tâi-gí; traditional Chinese: 台語, 台灣話; pinyin: Táiyǔ, Táiwānhuà) is a dialect of Min Nan Chinese spoken by about 70% of Taiwan's population. The sub-ethnic group in Taiwan for which Taiwanese is considered a native language is known as Hoklo (the correspondence between language and ethnicity is generally true though not absolute, as some Hoklo speak Taiwanese poorly while some non-Hoklo speak Taiwanese fluently). Pe̍h-oē-jī (POJ) is a popular orthography for this language, and Min Nan in general.
The Taiwan High Speed Rail (traditional Chinese: 台灣高速鐵路, also known as the THSR) is Taiwan's high-speed rail network, running approximately 335.50 kilometers (208 mi) from Taipei City to Kaohsiung City, which began operations on January 5, 2007. Adopting Japan's Shinkansen technology for the core system, the THSR uses the Taiwan High Speed 700T train, manufactured by a consortium of Japanese companies, most notably Kawasaki Heavy Industries. The total cost of the project is currently estimated to be USD $15 billion. Express trains travel from Taipei City to Kaohsiung City in roughly 90 minutes as opposed to the current 4-6 hours by conventional rail, although regular trains take a scheduled two hours when making all stops.
The 228 Incident (Chinese: 二二八事件; pinyin: èr èr bā shìjiàn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Jī-jī-pat sū-kiāⁿ) or 228 Massacre was an uprising in Taiwan that began on February 28, 1947 and was suppressed by the Kuomintang (KMT) government, resulting in between ten thousand to twenty thousand civilians killed. The number "228" refers to the day of the incident, February 28 (28th day of the 2nd month, 2/28).
This event is now commemorated in the Taiwan as Peace Memorial Day. Official government policy had repressed the education of the events until recently, for various reasons. Many of the details of the incident are still highly controversial and hotly debated in Taiwan today, as the largely conservative-controlled government often tries to stifle discussion on the topic. Some people point to Communist involvement as a "justification" for the KMT's action.
Temples of Taichung: Like many of Taiwan’s older cities, Taichung (founded in 1705) has a large number of old temples and shrines that have historical value and are typical of the eras in which they were built. They include family and public Taoist and Buddhist temples, a Confucian temple, and even a Japanese Shinto Shrine.
The Siege of Fort Zeelandia (Traditional Chinese: 鄭成功攻台之役; literally "Koxinga's Invasion of Taiwan"), which took place in 1661 and 1662, ended the Dutch East India Company's hold on Taiwan and began the Kingdom of Tungning's rule over the island. Taiwanese scholar Lu Chien-jung described this event as "a war that determined the fate of Taiwan in the four hundred years that follow"
