District (Taiwan)

The first administrative divisions entitled "districts" were established in the 1900s when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. After the World War II, nine (9) out of eleven (11) prefectural cities established by the Japanese government were reform into provincial cities. These cities are Changhua, Chiayi, Hsinchu, Kaohsiung, Keelung, Pingtung, Taichung, Tainan and Taipei. The wards (区 ku) and towns (町 machi) under those cities were merged into larger districts. At the same time, the districts (郡 kun) under prefectures also reformed as county-controlled districts.

In August 1950, another administrative division reform was performed in Taiwan, the size of counties shrink and all townships are all directly administered by the county. County-controlled districts were all defunct in this reform. At the same time provincial cities including Changhua, Chiayi, Hsinchu, Pingtung were downgraded to county-controlled cities, districts of these cities were also defunct. This makes district the type of division exclusively under the five remaining provincial cities: Kaohsiung, Keelung, Taichung, Tainan and Taipei.

When Taipei was promoted as a special municipality by the central government in 1967, several townships surrounding the city were merged into Taipei City and were reorganized as its districts. Afterwards, through another reorganization in 1990, the 12 current districts were formed. In addition, Kaohsiung, the largest city in southern Taiwan, was promoted as a special municipality in 1979. Siaogang Township was also merged to Siaogang District.

In December 2010, the four new special municipalities were established namely Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, and Tainan. Subsequently, all the county-controlled cities and townships in Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, and Taipei Counties were reformed as districts of the new Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, and New Taipei cities respectively. Their names, nevertheless, remained the same. The same thing happened to Taoyuan on 25 December 2014 where there are additional new 13 districts from the former county.

These municipalities and provincial cities use district administrative centers for public affairs services to serve the residents of these districts. Also, the directors of these districts and administrative centers are appointed by the mayors, with four years per term.

On 4 February 2014, six districts were reclassified as Special Municipal Mountain Indigenous District (Chinese: 直轄市山地原住民區; pinyin: Zhíxiáshì Shāndì Yuánzhùmín Qū; or shortened as Mountain Indigenous District (山地原住民區; Shāndì Yuánzhùmín Qū)): Wulai in New Taipei, Fuxing in Taoyuan, Heping in Taichung, along with Namasia, Maolin, and Taoyuan in Kaohsiung.

• Administrative divisions of Taiwan
• List of administrative divisions of Taiwan

Notes

^[G] Has an administrative body with an elected leader and a legislative body with elected members

^[O] Has a governmental office for managing local affairs and carrying out commissioned tasks by superior agency