A county-controlled city (縣轄市 xiànxiáshì) is a third level administrative division of Taiwan. On the same level as a Taiwanese township, it is the lowest-level city of Taiwan, below provincial city and special municipality. There are 17 County-controlled cities recently. A county-controlled city has urban villages (里) directly under it.
The two criteria of gaining county-controlled city status:
- population between 150,000 and 500,000
- advanced industry and commerce, sufficient funds, and advanced infrastructure
The population criterion was originally 50,000 in the 1940s, but was raised to 100,000 in 1959, and again in 1977 to the present level.
At first, in late January 1946, there were only two county-controlled cities: Hualien and Yilan, which were both prefecture-controlled cities (州轄市) under Japanese Rule. (The ROC government did not create such cities on the Mainland before they relocated to Taiwan.) Currently Taoyuan County has the most county-controlled cities (5). For current county-controlled cities, see the table below:
Read more about County-controlled City: County-controlled Cities in Taiwan, Timeline
Famous quotes containing the word city:
“The farmhouse lingers, though averse to square
With the new city street it has to wear
A number in. But what about the brook
That held the house as in an elbow-crook?”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)