View source for Provincial city (Taiwan)

{{Short description|Type of administrative division of the Republic of China (Taiwan)}}
{{Infobox subdivision type
| name = Autonomous municipality{{efn native lang|tw|name=word1
  |t=市
  |p=Shì
  |m=Chhī
  |s=Sṳ}}
| alt_name = 
| map = [[File:Subdivision types of the Republic of China (2014).svg|250px]]
| caption = {{legend|#ceb2cd|outline=silver|Cities are shown in purple}}
| category = [[List of administrative divisions of Taiwan|Special municipalities, counties, and cities]]
| territory = [[Republic of China]]
| current_number = 3
| number_date = 2019
| population_range = 267,772–448,207
| area_range = 60–133 km<sup>2</sup>
| government = {{bulleted list
  |City government
  |City council}}
| subdivision = [[District (Taiwan)|District]]
}}

{{Administrative divisions of Taiwan sidebar}}

An '''autonomous municipality''',<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.taiwan.gov.tw/content_4.php|title=POLITICAL SYSTEM|date=March 28, 2023|website=Ministry of Foreign Affairs}}</ref> '''county-level city''' or '''city''',{{efn native lang|tw|name=word1}} previously '''provincial city''', is a ''de jure'' second-level [[administrative divisions of Taiwan|administrative division]] unit in the [[Taiwan|Republic of China (Taiwan)]].<ref name="auto">{{cite web|url=https://english.president.gov.tw/Page/106|title=Local governments|website=Office of the President Republic of China (Taiwan)|access-date=30 November 2020}}</ref>

The provincial cities were formerly under the jurisdiction of provinces, but the provinces were streamlined and effectively downsized to non-self-governing bodies in 1998, in 2018 all provincial governmental organs were formally abolished.<ref name="auto"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://garymarks.web.unc.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/13018/2021/03/Taiwan_combined.pdf|title=Taiwan combined|author= Sarah Shair-Rosenfield|website=The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill|date= November 2020|access-date=29 May 2021}}</ref> Provincial cities along [[County (Taiwan)|counties]], are presently regarded as ''de facto'' principal subdivisions directed by the [[Executive Yuan|central government]] of the ROC.

== History ==
{{main|Sub-provincial division|History of the administrative divisions of China (1912–1949)}}
{{See also|Political divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945)|County-level city}}

The first administrative divisions entitled "city" were established in the 1920s when Taiwan was [[Taiwan under Japanese rule|under Japanese rule]]. At this time cities were under the jurisdiction of [[prefectures of Japan|prefectures]]. After the [[World War II]], nine (9) out of eleven (11) [[Cities of Japan|prefectural cities]] established by the Japanese government were reform into provincial cities. Their roman spellings are also changed to reflect the official language shift from [[Japanese language|Japanese]] to [[Taiwanese Mandarin|Mandarin Chinese]], but characters remain the same.
{|class=wikitable
|+Spelling changes of provincial cities in 1945
!Character!!Japanese<br /><small>(before 1945)</small>!!Chinese<br /><small>(after 1945)</small>!!rowspan=6|
!Character!!Japanese<br /><small>(before 1945)</small>!!Chinese<br /><small>(after 1945)</small>
|-
|<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|臺北}}</span>||Taihoku||Taipei
|<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|嘉義}}</span>||Kagi||Chiayi
|-
|<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|基隆}}</span>||Kīrun||Keelung
|<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|臺南}}</span>||Tainan||Tainan
|-
|<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|新竹}}</span>||Shinchiku||Hsinchu
|<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|高雄}}</span>||Takao||Kaohsiung
|-
|<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|臺中}}</span>||Taichū||Taichung
|<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|屏東}}</span>||Heitō||Pingtung
|-
|<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|彰化}}</span>||Shōka||Changhua
|}

The reform was based on the ''Laws on the City Formation'' ({{lang|zh-tw|市組織法}}) of the [[Republic of China (1912–49)|Republic of China]]. This law was passed in the early 20th century. The criteria for being a provincial city included being the provincial capital as well as having a population of over 200,000, or over 100,000 if the city had particular significance in politics, economics, and culture. The division reform in 1945 had some compromises between the Japanese and the Chinese systems, some of the cities with population under the criteria were still be established as provincial cities.

{{Timeline of Provincial Cities in Taiwan}}

After the [[government of the Republic of China]] relocated to [[Taipei]], [[Taiwan Province|Taiwan]] in 1949, the population criterion for provincial cities was raised to 500,000 in the ''Guidelines on the Implementation of Local Autonomy in the Counties and Cities of Taiwan Province'' ({{lang|zh|臺灣省各縣市實施地方自治綱要}}), which was passed in 1981. It was later raised again to 600,000. Since the streamline of provinces in 1998, provincial cities are all directly under the [[Executive Yuan|central government]], and are simply referred to as ''cities''.

The [[China|People's Republic of China]] (PRC), which claims Taiwan as its [[Taiwan Province, People's Republic of China|23rd province]], has all of its provincial cities classified as [[county-level city]].

{|class=wikitable
!width =120| Date !!width=200| Addition !!width=200| Removal !!width=30| No. !!width=250|Description
|-
|1945-10 ||[[Changhua City|Changhua]], [[Chiayi]], [[Hsinchu]],<br />[[Kaohsiung]], [[Keelung]], [[Pingtung City|Pingtung]], [[Taichung]], [[Tainan]], [[Taipei]]<ref>{{Cite web |last=Chao |first=Yung-Mao |date=January–February 2011 |title=Taiwan Review - Rezoning Taiwan |url=http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=142515&CtNode=1231 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140330083758/http://taiwanreview.nat.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=142515&CtNode=1231 |archive-date=2014-03-30 |access-date=2014-03-30 |website=[[Taiwan Review]]}}</ref>|| ||9||Reorganised from the prefecture-administered cities in the period [[Taiwan under Japanese rule|under Japanese rule]].
|-
|1950-08-16 ||  || [[Chiayi]] || 8 ||Merged into [[Chiayi County]] and became a [[county-administered city]]
|-
|1951-12-01 ||  || [[Changhua]], [[Hsinchu]], [[Pingtung City|Pingtung]] || 5 ||Downgraded to [[County-administered city|county-administered cities]]
|-
|1967-07-01 ||  || [[Taipei]] || 4 ||Upgraded to a [[Special municipality (Taiwan)|special municipality]]
|-
|1979-07-01 ||  || [[Kaohsiung]] || 3 ||Upgraded to a [[Special municipality (Taiwan)|special municipality]]
|-
|1982-07-01 ||[[Chiayi]], [[Hsinchu]] || || 5 ||Upgraded from [[County-administered city|county-administered cities]]
|-
|2010-12-25 ||  || [[Taichung]], [[Tainan]] || 3 ||Merge with [[Taichung County]] and [[Tainan County]], and upgraded to [[Special municipality (Taiwan)|special municipalities]]
|-bgcolor=#CCCCCC
|colspan=5|Current ''cities'': [[Chiayi]], [[Hsinchu]], [[Keelung]] (3).
|}

== Current cities ==
{{see also|List of administrative divisions of Taiwan|List of magistrates and mayors in Taiwan}}
Currently, the ''Local Government Act'' of the [[Ministry of the Interior (Taiwan)|Ministry of the Interior]] applies for the creation of a ''city'', in which a city needs to have a population between 500,000 and 1,250,000 and occupies major political, economical and cultural roles.<ref>{{Cite web |date=25 May 2022 |title=Local Government Act |url=https://law.moj.gov.tw/ENG/LawClass/LawAll.aspx?pcode=A0040003 |access-date=28 December 2023 |website=Laws & Regulations Database of The Republic of China (Taiwan)}}</ref> Note that all three existing ''cities'' are not qualified for the population test, they were built for historical reasons.

There are currently three ''cities'', all in [[Taiwan Province]]:
{|class=wikitable
!Name<ref name="Official_name">{{cite web|title=Glossary of Names for Admin Divisions|url=http://placesearch.moi.gov.tw/translate/Admin1010320.pdf|archive-url=http://www.webcitation.org/6athTxlTm?url=http://placesearch.moi.gov.tw/translate/Admin1010320.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=19 August 2015|website=Taiwan Geographic Names Information Systems|publisher=The Ministry of Interior of ROC|access-date=6 June 2015}}</ref>!![[Chinese character|Chinese]]!![[Hànyǔ Pīnyīn|Hànyǔ<br />Pīnyīn]]!![[Wade–Giles]]!![[Tongyòng Pinyin|Tongyòng<br />Pinyin]]||[[Hokkien]]<br />[[Pe̍h-ōe-jī]]!![[Hakka Chinese|Hakka]]<br />[[Pha̍k-fa-sṳ]]!!Area!!colspan=2 class="unsortable"|City Seat!!Establishment
|-
| [[Chiayi]]||<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|嘉義市}}</span>||Jiāyì||Chia¹-i⁴||Jiayì||Ka-gī||Kâ-ngi||60.03&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>||[[East District, Chiayi|East District]]||{{lang|zh-hant|東區}}||1982-07-01
|-
| [[Hsinchu]]||<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|新竹市}}</span>||Xīnzhú||Hsin¹-chu²||Sinjhú||Sin-tek||Sîn-chuk||104.10&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>||[[North District, Hsinchu|North District]]||{{lang|zh-hant|北區}}||1982-07-01
|-
| [[Keelung]]||<span style="font-size:125%;">{{lang|zh-tw|基隆市}}</span>||Jīlóng||Chi¹-lung²||Jilóng||Ke-lâng||Kî-lùng||132.76&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>||[[Zhongzheng District, Keelung|Zhongzheng District]]||{{lang|zh-hant|中正區}}||1945-10-25
|}
Their self-governed bodies (executive and legislature) regulated by the ''Local Government Act'' are:
{|class=wikitable
!rowspan=2|Name!!colspan=3|Executive!!colspan=2|Legislature
|-
!Government!!Mayor!!Current Mayor!!City Council!!No. of seats
|-
|[[Chiayi]]||[[Chiayi City Government]]||[[Mayor of Chiayi]]||[[Huang Min-hui]]||[[Chiayi City Council]]||24
|-
|[[Hsinchu]]||[[Hsinchu City Government]]||[[Mayor of Hsinchu]]||[[Ann Kao]]||[[Hsinchu City Council]]||33
|-
|[[Keelung]]||[[Keelung City Government]]||[[Mayor of Keelung]]||[[George Hsieh]]||[[Keelung City Council]]||32
|}

==See also==
* [[Cities of Japan]]
* [[Political divisions of Taiwan (1895–1945)]]
* [[Prefecture-level city]] of [[China]]
{{Administrative divisions of Taiwan}}

==Notes==
{{notelist-lr}}

=== Words in native languages ===
{{notelist-ur}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Administrative divisions of Taiwan navbar}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Provincial City}}
[[Category:Provincial cities of Taiwan| ]]