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Tainan County

1946 establishments in Taiwan2010 disestablishments in TaiwanFormer counties of TaiwanHistory of TainanStates and territories disestablished in 2010
States and territories established in 1946
Tainan County Location Map
Tainan County Location Map

Tainan County was a county in southern Taiwan between 1945 and 2010. The county seat was in Sinying City.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Tainan County (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Tainan County
MeiLe Street, Tainan South District

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 22.9833 ° E 120.1833 °
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Address

美樂街

MeiLe Street
702 Tainan, South District
Taiwan
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Tainan County Location Map
Tainan County Location Map
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Tainan
Tainan

Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a special municipality in southern Taiwan facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and commonly called the "prefectural capital" for its over 260 years of history as the capital of Taiwan under the Dutch rule, the Kingdom of Tungning and later Qing dynasty rule until 1887. Tainan's complex history of comebacks, redefinitions and renewals inspired its popular nickname "the Phoenix City". Tainan is classified as a "Sufficiency"-level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.As Taiwan's oldest urban area, Tainan was initially established by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) as a ruling and trading base called Fort Zeelandia during the Dutch colonial rule on the island. After Koxinga seized the Dutch fort in 1662, Tainan remained as the capital of the Tungning Kingdom ruled by House of Koxinga until 1683 and afterwards the capital of Taiwan Prefecture under the Qing dynasty until 1887, when the new provincial capital was first moved to present-day Taichung, and then moved to Taipei eventually. Following the cession of Taiwan, Tainan became the second capital of the short-lived Republic of Formosa from June to October in 1895 until the Capitulation of Tainan by the invading forces of Japanese empire. Under Japanese rule, the city was the seat of Tainan Prefecture. After the surrender of Japan in the World War II, the Republic of China took control of Taiwan in 1945 and reorganized the city as a provincial city in Taiwan Province; a role that would remain in place until 2010 when the city was merged with nearby Tainan County into a new special municipality. Tainan has been historically regarded as one of the oldest cities in Taiwan, and its former name, Tayouan, has been claimed to be the origin of the name "Taiwan". It is also one of Taiwan's cultural capitals, for its rich folk cultures including the famous local street food and traditional cuisine, extensively preserved Taoist rites and other living local traditions covering everything from child birth to funerals. The city houses the first Confucian school–temple in Taiwan, built in 1665, the remains of the Eastern and Southern gates of the old city, and countless other historical monuments. Tainan claims more Buddhist and Taoist temples than any other city in Taiwan.

Tainan Shrine
Tainan Shrine

Tainan Shrine (Japanese: 台南神社, romanized: tainan jinja) was a Shinto shrine built in Tainan, Taiwan by the Empire of Japan. It was linked to imperialism and State Shinto rather than local support for Shintoism. It was established in 1920 and upgraded in 1925 and its main deity was Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa who died during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan from malaria. He was enshrined in most shrines in Taiwan including the Taiwan Grand Shrine. This was seen as a beginning of a new Taiwanese Japanese civilization. The death of Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa was presented as parallel to the much older story of the life of Koxinga, a Japanese man who became an official under the Ming dynasty and was forced to flee to Taiwan after the Qing took over, drove the Dutch from Taiwan and died of malaria. Koxinga Shrine was built by the followers of Koxinga and the Japanese converted it into a Shinto shrine after their invasion. Isogai Seizō requested it be a national shrine but it ended up only being ranked quite low as a prefectural shrine. Tainan Shrine was built on the site of the death of the prince, a few blocks away from Koxinga Shrine. It was unique in being granted permission to worship only the prince and no other deities, as almost all other shrines would worship the Three Pioneer Kami (開拓三神, Kaitaku Sanjin), Ōkunitama, Ōkuninushi, and Sukunabikona. People were forced to visit shrines at this time by the government rather than going of their own volition. It held an elaborate festival every January. The main office is still used today.