Township (Taiwan)

Townships[1] are the third-level administrative subdivisions of counties of the Republic of China (Taiwan), along with county-administered cities.[2] After World War II, the townships were established from the following conversions on the Japanese administrative divisions:

Divisions before 1945 Divisions after 1945
Name Kanji Japanese
Hepburn
Taiwanese
Pe̍h-ōe-jī
Name Chinese Mandarin
Pinyin
Taiwanese
Pe̍h-ōe-jī
Town gai ke Urban township zhèn tìn
Village chng Rural township xiāng hiong
Aboriginal areas 蕃地 banchi hoan-tē Mountain indigenous township 山地鄉 shāndì xiāng soaⁿ-tē hiong

Although local laws do not enforce strict standards for classifying them, generally urban townships have a larger population and more business and industry than rural townships, but not to the extent of county-administered cities. Under townships, there is still the village as the fourth or basic level of administration.

As of 2022, there are totally 184 townships, including 38 urban townships, 122 rural townships and 24 mountain indigenous townships. 174 townships with 35 urban and 118 rural townships are located in Taiwan Province and 10 townships with 3 urban and 4 rural townships are located in Fujian Province. Penghu and Lienchiang are the only two counties that do not have urban townships.

  Rural townships
  Mountain indigenous township
  Urban townships
  Mountain indigenous districts of municipalities
  1. ^ 中文譯音使用原則修正說明 (PDF) (in Chinese (Taiwan)). 21 March 2011. Retrieved 23 July 2019. 「鄉鎮」之英譯「Township」。
  2. ^ "Local governments". Office of the President Republic of China (Taiwan). Retrieved 4 December 2020.