Toucheng, Yilan

Last updated
Toucheng Township
頭城鎮
Urban township
DowntownOfToucheng.JPG
Yl tc.png
Toucheng Township in Yilan County
Location Yilan County, Taiwan
Area
 • Total100.89 km2 (38.95 sq mi)
Population (July 2018)
 • Total29,187
 • Density290/km2 (750/sq mi)
Toucheng Township Office Toucheng Township Office.jpg
Toucheng Township Office

Toucheng Township (Chinese :頭城鎮; pinyin :Tóuchéng Zhèn) is an urban township in Yilan County, Taiwan. It claims the disputed Diaoyu Islands otherwise known as Senkaku Islands, as well as Guishan Island.

Chinese language family of languages

Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases not mutually intelligible, language varieties, forming the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many minority ethnic groups in China. About 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language.

Hanyu Pinyin, often abbreviated to pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China and to some extent in Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Mandarin Chinese, which is normally written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones. Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters.

Townships are the third-level administrative subdivisions of counties of Taiwan, along with county-controlled cities. After World War II, the townships were established from the following conversions on the Japanese administrative divisions:

Contents

History

Toucheng was formerly called Thau-ui (Chinese :頭圍; Pe̍h-ōe-jī :Thâu-uî).

Traditional Chinese characters

Traditional Chinese characters are Chinese characters in any character set that does not contain newly created characters or character substitutions performed after 1946. They are most commonly the characters in the standardized character sets of Taiwan, of Hong Kong and Macau, and in the Kangxi Dictionary. The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han Dynasty, and have been more or less stable since the 5th century.

Pe̍h-ōe-jī romanization system of Min Nan Chinese

Pe̍h-ōe-jī is an orthography used to write variants of Southern Min Chinese, particularly Taiwanese Hokkien and Amoy Hokkien. Developed by Western missionaries working among the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia in the 19th century and refined by missionaries working in Xiamen and Tainan, it uses a modified Latin alphabet and some diacritics to represent the spoken language. After initial success in Fujian, POJ became most widespread in Taiwan and, in the mid-20th century, there were over 100,000 people literate in POJ. A large amount of printed material, religious and secular, has been produced in the script, including Taiwan's first newspaper, the Taiwan Church News.

Geography

Administrative divisions

Shicheng, Dali, Guishan, Daxi, Gexing, Gengxin, Waiao, Gangkou, Wuying, Dakeng, Chengtung, Chengbei, Chengxi, Chengnan, Zhuan, Xinjian, Baya, Fucheng, Jinmian, Jinying, Dingpu, Xiapu, Zhonglun and Ercheng Village.

Education

Infrastructure

Submarine communication cables

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

Cable landing point point where submarine telecommunication cables arrive on land

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 direct or via a branch from a main cable using a submarine branching unit. The branch can be many kilometres long.

Fangshan, Pingtung Rural township in Pingtung County, Taiwan

Fangshan Township is a coastal rural township in Pingtung County, Taiwan.

SEA-ME-WE3 or South-East Asia - Middle East - Western Europe 3 is an optical submarine telecommunications cable linking those regions and is the longest in the world. Completed in late 2000, it is led by France Telecom and China Telecom, and is administered by Singtel, a telecommunications operator owned by the Government of Singapore. The Consortium is formed by 92 other investors from the telecom industry. It was commissioned in March 2000.

Tourist attractions

Aerial panorama of Wushigang Harbour, including Lanyang Museum 1 toucheng wushigang 2017 aerial pano.jpg
Aerial panorama of Wushigang Harbour, including Lanyang Museum

The township has its fair share of fresh seafood restaurants and also a remarkable black sand beach,a surfer's attraction with a good view of the Turtle Island. (a national reservation, the only active volcano in Taiwan)

Several boat operators offer trips from the Wushish Harbor to Turtle 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 Tocuheng is one of the few unaltered and typical Qing Dynasty Taiwanese urban structures.

Guishan Island (Yilan) island in Taiwan

Guishan Island or Steep Island or Turtle Island, also known as Kueishan Island, is an island in the Pacific Ocean currently administered under Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan and located 9.1 km (5.7 mi) east of port of Gengfang Fishery Harbor.

Honeymoon Bay, Yilan bay

Honeymoon Bay is a small bay facing the Pacific Ocean, located at the northeast coast of Taiwan in Toucheng Township, Yilan County. Southeast of the bay is Guishan Island, famous to Taiwanese people. Recently, this bay became popular among Taiwanese and foreign surfers. It can be reached by taking the train to nearby Daxi Station of the Taiwan Railway Administration (TRA) and then walking for about 10 minutes.

Lanyang Museum Museum in Yilan County, Taiwan

The Lanyang Museum is a museum about the local area in Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan.

Transportation

Toucheng Station Toucheng Station 2017-10-09.jpg
Toucheng Station

Toucheng is served by the Yilan Line of Taiwan Railway Administration 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 Taiwan. There are seven stations along the route.

Taiwan state in East Asia

Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a state in East Asia. Neighbouring states include the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the west, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. Taiwan is the most populous state and largest economy that is not a member of the United Nations (UN).

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 dug though the Snow Mountains, the longest of which measures 12.7 km (7.9 mi). The distance between western Taipei and Toucheng is now 30 km (19 mi) and takes roughly thirty minutes of driving, compared to several hours in the past.

Harbors in the township is Wushi Harbor.

Notable natives

Related Research Articles

Yilan County, Taiwan County in Taiwan Province, Republic of China

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Guishan District District in Taoyuan City, Taiwan

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Daxi railway station

Daxi is a railway station on the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) Yilan line located in Daxi Borough, Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan.

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Dali railway station (Taiwan)

Dali is a railway station on the Taiwan Railways Administration Yilan line located in Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan.

Guishan railway station A railway station in Yilan County

Guishan is a railway station of the Taiwan Railways Administration Yilan line located in Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan.

Toucheng railway station

Toucheng is a railway station on the Taiwan Railways Administration Yilan line located in Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan.

Dingpu railway station

Dingpu is a railway station of Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) Yilan line located at Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan. Dingpu Station began operations in 1937.

Toucheng Old Street

The Toucheng Old Street is a street in Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan.

Provincial Highway 7 (Taiwan) road in Taiwan

Provincial Highway 7 is a highway connecting Daxi, Taoyuan and Zhuangwei, Yilan. The highway is also known as Northern Cross-Country Highway, one of the three most important east–west highways in Taiwan.

Old Dali Bridge bridge in Taiwan

The Old Dali Bridge is a former bridge in Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan.

The Toucheng Leisure Farm is a recreational farm in Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan.

Wushi Harbor

The Wushi Harbor is a harbor in Toucheng Township, Yilan County, Taiwan.

References

  1. ↑ http://svr2.ilccb.gov.tw/readyilan/e-tc-l01.asp%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D

Coordinates: 24°51′N121°49′E / 24.850°N 121.817°E / 24.850; 121.817

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