Taichung, officially Taichung City, is a special municipality in central Taiwan. Taichung is Taiwan's second-largest city, with more than 2.85 million residents, making it the largest city in Central Taiwan. It serves as the core of the Taichung–Changhua metropolitan area, Taiwan's second-largest metropolitan area.
Changhua County is the smallest county on the main island of Taiwan by area, and the fourth smallest in the country. With a total population of 1.24 million, Changhua County is the most populous county in the Republic of China. Its capital is Changhua City and it is part of the Taichung–Changhua metropolitan area.
Miaoli County is a county in western Taiwan. Miaoli is bordered by Hsinchu County and Hsinchu City to the north, Taichung to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the west. Miaoli is classified as "central Taiwan" by the National Development Council and "northern Taiwan" by the Taiwan Central Weather Bureau. Miaoli City is the capital of the county, and is also known as "Mountain Town", owing to the number of mountains nearby, making it a destination for hiking.
Highways in Taiwan are classified into five types:
The Taichung line, also known as the Mountain line, is a line of the Taiwan Railway. It is one of two parallel lines in Central Taiwan, passing the inland area and Downtown Taichung. It has a total length of 85.5 km (53.1 mi), all of which is double track.
National Freeway 3, also known as Formosa Freeway, is a freeway in Taiwan. It is the second north–south freeway in Taiwan, beginning in Keelung City at Jijin Interchange on the provincial highway 2 and ending in Linbian, Pingtung on the provincial highway 17. It is the longest freeway in Taiwan with a total length of 431.5 km (268.1 mi). The freeway is also the only one in Taiwan to have a spur route, Freeway 3A.
Provincial Highway No. 61, usually known as the West Coast Expressway (西部濱海快速公路), is a highway that runs along the west coast of Taiwan. Several sections of the highway are freeway standards with no at-grade intersections, while the rest are local highway standards. There are several sections open for traffic. Others are still under construction.
The Jiji Line is a branch line of the Taiwan Railways Administration, located in Changhua and Nantou Counties in Taiwan. The length of the line is 29.7 km.
The Neiwan line is a railway branch line in Taiwan operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration. It is located in Hsinchu County.
Taichung is located in central Taiwan and is the second largest city in the island country.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications governs transportation in Taiwan.
Provincial Highway 1 is a 461.081 km (286.502 mi)-long Taiwanese provincial highway that starts in the north of the country near Taipei Main Station and ends in the south at Fangshan, Pingtung County. It intersects with Provincial Highway 9 and Provincial Highway 26. Before the freeway system was built in Taiwan, this was the primary north-south highway for the island. The highway connects most of the major cities in Taiwan. In most parts of Taiwan, the road is known as The North-South Highway (縱貫公路).
Shalu District is a suburban district in central Taichung City, Taiwan.
The Former Mountain line is a railway branch line in Taiwan operated by the Taiwan Railways Administration. The name literally means "old Mountain line" and can refer to any section of the Taichung line that ceased operations when it was replaced by a newer rail. However, the term is most widely used to refer to the segment between Sanyi and Houli stations.
The Shalun Line is a branch line of the Taiwan Railways Administration (TRA) West Coast line in Tainan, Taiwan. It was built to link the Western Line to the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) Tainan Station, speeding up transit times between downtown Tainan and the THSR station, with services running from Nanke railway station or Tainan TRA station to Shalun Station, next to the THSR station. The line opened on January 2, 2011.
Zhuluo County was a political division in Taiwan from 1684 to 1787, during Qing Dynasty rule of the island. Initially encompassing the underdeveloped northern two-thirds of Taiwan, the county shrank in size as the population and economy of the northern and central western plains grew and new counties were created out of the developed areas; the Zhuluo county was eventually reduced to an under-developed area in south-western Taiwan. In 1787, the county underwent further restructuring and was renamed Chiayi County.
Changhua, officially known as Changhua City, is a county-administered city and the county seat of Changhua County in Taiwan. For many centuries the site was home to a settlement of Babuza people, a coastal tribe of Taiwanese aborigines. Changhua city is ranked first by population among county-administered cities. It is part of the Taichung–Changhua metropolitan area, which is the second largest in Taiwan.
The Shen'ao line is a 4.6 km long, single-track railway branch line of the Taiwan Railways Administration. It runs through Ruifang in New Taipei and Zhongzheng in Keelung.
The architecture of Taiwan can be traced back to stilt housing of the aborigines in prehistoric times; to the building of fortresses and churches in the north and south used to colonize and convert the inhabitants during the Dutch and Spanish period; the Tungning period when Taiwan was a base of anti-Qing sentiment and Minnan-style architecture was introduced; in Qing dynasty period, a mix of Chinese and Western architecture appeared and artillery battery flourished during Qing's Self-Strengthening Movement; During the Japanese rule of Taiwan, the Minnan, Japanese and Western culture were main influencers in architectural designs and saw the introduction and use of reinforced concrete. Due to excessive Westernization as a colony, after the retrocession of Taiwan to the Republic of China in 1945 from Japan at the end of World War II, Chinese classical style became popular and entered into international mainstream as a postmodern design style. Today, Taiwanese architecture has undergone much diversification, every style of architecture can be seen.
