Chiayi

Chiayi
Climate diagram
	Temperature in ° C , precipitation in mm
	Source: Taiwan Central Weather Bureau

	Chiayi ; 嘉義市
	; Chiayi train station
emblem	flag
State :	Republic of China (Taiwan)
County :	independent city
Coordinates :	23 ° 29 ′ N , 120 ° 27 ′ E Coordinates: 23 ° 29 ′ 0 ″ N , 120 ° 27 ′ 0 ″ E
Area :	60.0256 km²
Residents :	269.091 (May 2018)
Population density :	4,483 inhabitants per km²
Time zone :	UTC + 8 (Chungyuan time)
Telephone code :	(+886) (0) 5
Postal code :	600
ISO 3166-2 :	TW-CYI
Community type :	District-free city
Structure :	2 districts
Mayor :	Huang Min-hui (黃敏惠) ( KMT )
Website :	www.chiayi.gov.tw
City flower:	Bauhinia blakeana

Chiayi ( Chinese 嘉義市 / 嘉义市 , Pinyin Jiāyì Shì , Tongyong Pinyin Jiayì Shìh , W.-G. Chia-i Shih , Pe̍h-ōe-jī Ka-gī chhī ) is an independent city in the Republic of China on Taiwan . It is located in the southwestern part of Taiwan and is enclosed by Chiayi County . With an area of 60 km² and around 275,000 inhabitants, it is the smallest independent city in the Republic of China.

geography

Chiayi is located on the northeastern edge of the Jianan Plain , the largest plain in Taiwan. In the eastern part of the urban area there are some hills that gradually rise to the Alishan Mountains, some 25 km to the east, up to 2,663 m high .

The city lies between the east-west flowing rivers Puzi in the north and Bazhang in the south.

Chiayi is located on the Tropic of Capricorn , which runs south of the urban area, and thus at the transition between the subtropical and tropical climatic zones .

Administrative structure

After Chiayi had obtained its district freedom in 1981, there was initially no division into districts. On October 6, 1990 the city was divided into two districts ( 區 , Qū ), "West" and "East":

district			Population (May 2018)	Area [km²]

Xī Qū	西區	("Western district")	147.284	030.9061
Dōng Qū	東區	("Eastern District")	121,807	029.1195

traffic

Chiayi has a downtown train station on the main Taiwanese railroad . From there, the Alishan Forest Railway branches off , a narrow-gauge railway to the municipality of Alishan and the mountains of the same name . Taiwan High Speed Rail's Chiayi Station is west of the city in Taibao in Chiayi County. The nearest airport is Chiayi Airport , which is no longer in the urban area, but in the southern neighboring municipality of Shuishang and from which flights go to the peripheral islands of Kinmen and Magong (Penghu) .

In the west of the urban area there is a junction of the Autobahn 1 ( national road 1 ). The Highway 3 ( National Road 3 ) passes Chiayi in the east.

history

The city of Chiayi on a map of Taiwan during the reign of Emperor Qianlong

City map of Kagi towards the end of the Japanese colonial rule

The area of today's Chiayi was originally settled by the Hoanya people , who belonged to the Austronesian indigenous people of Taiwan . Han Chinese settlers began pouring into the country in the 17th century . The first documented settlement on the site of today's Chiayi was called Zhu Luoshan (in different spellings, 諸羅山 , Zhūluóshān ) or simply Tsulo . In 1787, a revolt against the rule of the Qing Dynasty broke out on the island of Taiwan . The settlement of Tsulo was besieged by the rebels for a long time in vain and was loyal to the Qing dynasty, which is why Emperor Qianlong gave the settlement the current name 嘉義 , Jiāyì (literally roughly "praiseworthy righteousness") on November 3, 1787 .

During the Japanese rule of Taiwan (1895 to 1945), the city was named Kagi (Japanese pronunciation, with the same characters 嘉義 ). In 1906, the Meishan earthquake struck, which destroyed much of the historic city walls from the 18th century. The Alishan Forest Railway , built between 1907 and 1912, was of great economic importance. It started in Chiayi and led into the mountainous interior and was used to transport the wood extracted from the forests there. In 1930 Chiayi was promoted to city. After Taiwan's handover to the national Chinese government, Chiayi became a provincial city in Taiwan Province, but lost that status again with the administrative reorganization of Taiwan on August 16, 1950 when it became part of Chiayi County . On July 1, 1982 Chiayi regained the status of an independent city.

City symbols

The official flower of the city is the flower of the "Hong Kong orchid tree" ( Bauhinia blakeana ), which can also be found in stylized form on the Hong Kong flag . The plant species was first introduced to Taiwan from Hong Kong in 1967 and is therefore a neophyte . It enjoys a certain popularity in Taiwan because it has very decorative flowers and, in contrast to the native, closely related Bauhinia variegata and Cercis chinensis, is relatively cold-resistant.

The city emblem consists of a stylized white plum blossom against a blue background, in the middle of which the monument of the Tropic of Cancer is depicted. In the middle there is the number '71', to commemorate the achievement of freedom of circle in 1982 (the 71st year in the Minguo calendar ).

climate

A measuring station of the Taiwanese Meteorological Service is located in Chiayi. The climate is subtropical, humid and warm and characterized by the monsoon . The mean annual temperature is 23.1 ° C. The rainy season lasts from April to September.

Climate data from the years 1981–2010

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Max. Temperature ( ° C )	22.1	22.4	24.8	27.8	30.5	32.3	33.1	32.6	31.6	29.8	27.1	23.9	O	28.2
Min. Temperature (° C)	12.5	13.8	15.9	19.2	22.1	24.3	25.2	24.9	23.7	20.9	17.3	13.2	O	19.4
Temperature (° C)	16.5	17.3	19.7	23	25.8	27.8	28.6	28.2	27	24.5	21.3	17.7	O	23.1

Precipitation ( mm )	23.6	57.4	63.4	103	176.2	314	369.9	380.2	222.6	27.5	15.2	21.3	Σ	1,774.3

Hours of sunshine ( h / d )	5.3	4.8	4.9	5	5.6	6th	6.9	6.2	6th	6.1	5.5	5.5	O	5.7

Rainy days ( d )	4.9	6.5	7.7	9.2	10.1	13.7	14.4	17th	10.4	2.6	2.8	3.4	Σ	102.7