Taiwanname/ˌtaɪ̯ˈwɑn/

• 1

  A partly-recognized country in East Asia consisting of a main island and 167 smaller islands. Official name: Republic of China. Capital: Taipei.

  • India was not alone in its predicament or in its policy. While a few developing countries like Taiwan, Mexico, and Thailand had made remarkable progress in agriculture and had experienced success in curbing their population increases, others were nearly as bad off as India, even without a drought.
  • Pei Ling Wu, 30, said: "I am worried about my family, but they do not want to leave Taiwan. They want to defend their country and fight to the end. If China continues to push us, independence is the only solution."
• 2

  An island between the Taiwan Strait and Philippine Sea in East Asia.

  • The Government claims suzerainty over and receives tribute more or less regularly from Corea, and also from Anam, Siam, Burmah, and part of the Loochoo Islands, and it has recently erected the beautiful and extensive Island of Formosa, or Taiwan, hitherto attached to the province of Fo-Kien, into a separate province with its own governor-general who, like those of the other provinces, is appointed directly from Peking.
  • The Pescadores or Hoko islands, lying between Formosa (Taiwan) and the Chinese coast, are described by Koto (Notes on the Geology of the dependent isles of Taiwan, Journ. Coll. Sci., Imp. Univ., Tokyo, xiii, 1899, pt. 1) as the ragged remnants of a series of nearly horizontal basalt sheets with intercalated strata of supposed Tertiary age.
• 3

  historicalA former administrative division including Taiwan and nearby islands.

  • TAIWAN, or Chinese Formosa, is considered a Foo or district of the province of Fokien, and is governed by a Taoutai extraordinary, who, though responsible to the provincial viceroy, possesses the privilege of memorialising the Throne direct. “The district of Taiwan,” says the Chinese Government Chart, of which a copy was supplied to me by the Formosan authorities, “is bounded in the rear by mountains, and in front by the sea. The ancestral hills of Formosa derive their origin from the Woo-hoo-mun (Five Tiger Gate), the entrance to Foochow, whence they glided across the sea. In the ocean towards the east are two places called Tungkwan (Damp Limit) and Pih-mow (White Acre), which mark the spots where the dragons of the Formosan hills emerged. These sacred reptiles had pierced unseen the depths of ocean, and announcing their ascent to the surface by throwing up the bluff at Kelung-head, by a number of violent contortions heaved up the regular series of hills, valleys, and plains that extend north and south in varied undulations for the space of 1000 leagues (applied figuratively). The mountain-peaks are too multitudinous to enumerate, and the geography of the island too comprehensive to take into present consideration ; we will therefore confine ourselves to a few general remarks. In rear of the hills, eastward, flows the ocean ; facing them, to the westward, is the sea ; and between lies the prefecture of Taiwan.”
  • THE PESCADORES, consisting of over twenty inhabited islands, besides several inlets and rocks, lie off the south-western coast of Formosa at a minimum distance of about twenty-five miles, and the entire group is set down on the charts as extending from latitude 23° 12′ to 23° 47′ N., and from longitude 119° 19′ to 119° 41′ E. They form together the Dashing Lake District or Ting, 澎湖廳, of the Taiwan Prefecture, and are placed under the control of resident civil and military mandarins who report to their superior officers at Taiwanfoo.
• 4

  historicalA former administrative division including Taiwan and nearby islands.

  • In 1885 Governor LIU determined to reconstruct Taipei and make it the temporary capital until, the railway having on its way to Taiwan reached the old town of Changhua, in about the middle of Formosa, he should build a city near that place and make it, under the name of Taiwan, the capital of the province of Taiwan.
  • Near Bang-ka is Twa-tu-tia, the great center of the tea-trade of Formosa, and the capital of the province of Taiwan (i. e. Formosa) from 1885 to 1896.
• 5

  historicalA former administrative division including Taiwan and nearby islands.

  • Taiwan (Formosa) and Hōkotō (the Pescadores) were ceded to Japan upon the close of the Chinese War of 1895. Taiwan has a Governor-General with extreme powers, and is now an integral part of Japan.
  • Taiwan is governed by a Governor-General. Since 1895 three Governors have resigned. The present in office is General Count Samata Sakuma.
• 6

  lawA former administrative division including Taiwan and nearby islands.

  • Recent reports from Taiwan (Formosa), although fragmentary, begin to give a picture of economic conditions following the conclusion of the war. Now officially referred to as Taiwan Province, the island's former Japanese administration is being replaced by Chinese officials with little change, at least as yet, in the administrative pattern. Although there is no indication that ideographs will be changed, Chinese readings rather than Japanese will be followed for place names. Taihoku, for example, will be read in our alphabet as Taipei. This city presumably will continue to be the capital of Taiwan.
  • The Chinese Government today, with its program of local self-government in Taiwan, provides a revealing contrast to the Communist totalitarian "democratic dictatorship" on the mainland. Herein lies the foundation for our eventual victory against Communism.
• 7

  lawA former administrative division including Taiwan and nearby islands.

• 8

  A former administrative division including Taiwan and nearby islands.

  • The eastern part of Taiwan Province is washed by the Pacific Ocean while the mainland coast borders on the Pohai, the Yellow, the East China and the South China Seas, each with its different depth and water temperature.
  • China (excluding Taiwan Province) has 381 cities as of the end of 1987, including 3 provincial-level cities, 170 provincially administered cities and 208 township-level cities. In addition there are 1,985 counties (including autonomous counties, banners and autonomous banners) in China.