Districts are administrative subdivisions of Taiwan's special municipalities of the second level and provincial cities of the third level formerly under its provinces. There are two types of district in the administrative scheme:
Ordinary districts are governed directly by the municipality/city government, with district administrators appointed by mayors to four-year terms. The mountain indigenous district is a local government body with elected district chiefs as well as district council serving four-year terms.
In August 1950, another administrative division reform was undertaken, leading to a reduction in the size of counties and all townships becoming directly administered by counties. County-controlled districts were all made defunct in this reform. At the same time, provincial cities including Changhua, Chiayi, Hsinchu, and Pingtung were downgraded to county-administered cities, of which certain districts also became defunct. This made districts a type of division exclusively under the five remaining provincial cities: Kaohsiung, Keelung, Taichung, Tainan, and Taipei.
When Taipei was promoted to a special municipality by the central government in 1967, several townships surrounding the city were merged into Taipei City and 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 to a special municipality in 1979. Siaogang Township was merged into Siaogang District.
In December 2010, four new special municipalities were established, namely Kaohsiung, New Taipei, Taichung, and Tainan. Subsequently, all the county-administered 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 was done to Taoyuan on 25 December 2014, with the addition of 13 new districts.
These municipalities and provincial cities use "district administrative centers" to serve residents of these districts. 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, 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.
Districts in Taiwan
Districts by cities
In Taiwan, districts are the only subdivisions of special municipalities and provincial cities. Currently, there are 164 districts and 6 mountain indigenous districts in the country.
^ abcdefHas an elected executive and an elected legislative council.
^ abcHas an appointed district administrator for managing local affairs and carrying out tasks commissioned by superior agency.
^Has an elected village administrator for managing local affairs and carrying out tasks commissioned by superior agency.
Notes
^Mountain indigenous districts have self-governing bodies consisting of a district office and a representative council; there are currently six such districts.
^Also known as the Taiwan area or Tai–Min area (Chinese: 臺閩地區; lit. 'Taiwan–Fujian area')
^The mainland area consists of Mainland China, Tibet and (previously) Outer Mongolia
^Special municipalities, cities, and county-administered cities are all called shi (Chinese: 市; lit. 'city')
^Nominal; provincial governments have been abolished
^Constitutionally having the same structure as the free area, these are currently under the Chinese Communist Party control with a different structure
^Sometimes called cities (Chinese: 市) or provincial cities (Chinese: 省轄市) to distinguish them from special municipalities and county-administered cities
^There are two types of townships: rural townships or xīang (Chinese: 鄉) and urban townships or zhèn (Chinese: 鎮)
^Villages in rural townships are known as cūn (Chinese: 村), those in other jurisdictions are known as lǐ (Chinese: 里)
1 The provinces are merely retained as nominal entities within the constitutional structure, as they have no governing power following the formal dissolution of the provincial administrative organs in 2018. Cities and counties are de facto regarded as the principal constituent divisions of the ROC.
Sarah Shair-Rosenfield (November 2020). "Taiwan Combined"(PDF). The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
