50 Fun Facts About Taiwan

Which river, about 186 kilometres long, is the longest in Taiwan?

The Zhuoshui River, about 186 kilometres long, is Taiwan's longest; it drains westward from the Central Mountain Range and marks the traditional north–south divide.

Which sea washes Taiwan's eastern coast?

The Philippine Sea lies off Taiwan's east coast, where the island drops steeply into the Pacific; the East China Sea lies to the north and the South China Sea to the southwest.

Which European trading concern built Fort Zeelandia on a sandbar called Tayouan in 1624?

The Dutch East India Company built Fort Zeelandia in 1624 as its base for the China and Japan trade; 'Tayouan', the sandbar's name, later became 'Taiwan'.

Which Ming loyalist, also known as Zheng Chenggong, expelled the Dutch and founded Tungning?

Koxinga, the Ming loyalist Zheng Chenggong, besieged Fort Zeelandia and expelled the Dutch in 1662; his Kingdom of Tungning fell to the Qing in 1683.

In which year was Taiwan ceded to Japan after the First Sino-Japanese War?

Pro-Qing officials briefly proclaimed a 'Republic of Formosa' in May 1895 to resist the handover.

On what date did the Republic of China government evacuate to Taiwan and make Taipei its capital?

7 December 1949 was the day the Nationalist government formally moved its seat to Taipei after losing the mainland; roughly two million soldiers, officials and civilians fled to the island, joining about six million residents.

The February 28 incident of 1947 began with what event?

The shooting of a civilian bystander by a Tobacco Monopoly agent in Taipei on 27 February 1947 sparked island-wide protests, crushed by Nationalist troops; the date is now Peace Memorial Day.

In which year did Chiang Ching-kuo lift Taiwan's martial law, imposed in 1949?

1987 ended 38 years of martial law on 15 July; the Democratic Progressive Party had been founded illegally the year before as the first opposition party.

Who became the first Taiwan-born ROC president in 1988 and later won the first direct election?

Lee Teng-hui, a Cornell-trained agricultural economist, succeeded Chiang Ching-kuo in January 1988 and went on to win the first popular presidential vote with 54 percent.

In 1971 the United Nations voted to recognise which government in place of the ROC?

The People's Republic took China's UN seat under Resolution 2758 on 25 October 1971, and the ROC delegation walked out before the vote.

Under what name does Taiwan compete at the Olympic Games?

Chinese Taipei has been the Olympic name since the 1981 Nagoya agreement with the IOC; a 2018 referendum on competing as 'Taiwan' at Tokyo 2020 failed.

On 17 May 2019, Taiwan became the first country in Asia to legalise what?

Same-sex marriage became law on 17 May 2019 after the Constitutional Court's 2017 ruling that the marriage code was unconstitutional and its two-year deadline.

Who won Taiwan's presidential election in January 2024?

Lai Ching-te of the DPP won on 13 January 2024 with about 40 percent of the vote in a three-way race, succeeding Tsai Ing-wen in May.

Taiwan's government is divided into how many branches, or Yuan?

Five branches, or Yuan, share power: Executive, Legislative, Judicial, Examination and Control, following Sun Yat-sen's five-power constitution.

What did the Japanese call Taiwan's highest peak, a name later used in the coded order to attack Pearl Harbor?

Mount Niitaka, 'new high mountain', was so named because Yushan out-tops Mount Fuji; 'Climb Mount Niitaka' was the signal launching the Pearl Harbor attack in December 1941.

By Yushan's height, where does Taiwan rank among the world's highest islands?

Fourth is the rank: only New Guinea, Hawaii's Big Island and Borneo rise higher than Yushan's 3,952 metres.

Which line of latitude passes through Taiwan?

The Tropic of Cancer crosses Taiwan near Chiayi in the west and Ruisui in Hualien County in the east, both marked by monuments.

The '921 earthquake' that killed more than 2,400 people struck on 21 September of which year?

1999's Jiji (Chi-Chi) earthquake, magnitude 7.6, struck at 1:47 a.m. on 21 September along the Chelungpu Fault in central Taiwan, killing about 2,400 people.

Taipei 101 was the world's tallest building from 2004 until overtaken by which tower?

Burj Khalifa in Dubai, opened in January 2010 at 828 metres, ended Taipei 101's reign; the Taipei tower's Toshiba lifts reached the 89th floor in 37 seconds.

How tall is Taipei 101?

508 metres is the height to the spire, 101 floors up; in 2011 the tower became the world's tallest building with LEED Platinum certification.

Taroko Gorge, carved by the Liwu River, cuts through which stone?

Marble walls, metamorphosed from limestone, line the gorge the Liwu River carved; veterans built the Central Cross-Island Highway through it between 1956 and 1960.

Sun Moon Lake, Taiwan's largest body of water, is home to which indigenous people?

The Thao, one of Taiwan's smallest recognised indigenous peoples, live on the lake's shore at Ita Thao village; swimming is normally banned, except for a yearly mass swim around the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Taiwan's indigenous peoples are the originators of which language family, spread across the Pacific?

Austronesian languages, from Malagasy to Hawaiian, trace back to Taiwan under the 'Out of Taiwan' model; the island's indigenous Formosan languages are the family's most diverse branch.

Which ethnic group, native speakers of Taiwanese, makes up about 70% of the population?

Hoklo people, descended from Fujian migrants, make up about 70 percent; the Hakka are roughly 15 percent and the post-1945 mainland migrants and their descendants about 12 percent.

Which chipmaker, founded in 1987 by Morris Chang, was the world's first dedicated semiconductor foundry?

TSMC pioneered the pure-play foundry model, making chips designed by others; Morris Chang founded it with backing from the ROC government and Philips.

In which science park is TSMC headquartered?

Hsinchu Science Park, opened in 1980 and modelled on Silicon Valley, hosts the chipmaker's headquarters and its sister foundry UMC, an hour southwest of Taipei.

Along with Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, Taiwan's rapid growth earned it membership of which group?

Four Asian Tigers is the label for Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea, whose export-led boom from the 1960s is known in Taiwan's case as the 'Taiwan Miracle'.

Which two Taiwanese companies are best known as personal computer makers?

Acer and Asus, both Taipei-founded, grew into two of the world's largest PC brands; Foxconn, by contrast, assembles iPhones as a contract manufacturer.

Bubble tea originated in Taiwan in which decade?

The 1980s produced bubble tea in Taichung and Tainan tea shops, with Chun Shui Tang and Hanlin Tea Room both claiming the invention; the chewy pearls are tapioca, a cassava starch.

Taiwan's famous red-braised beef noodle soup was first created by veterans from which Chinese province?

Sichuan veterans of the Nationalist army are credited with the red-braised version, built on their home province's spicy doubanjiang bean paste, after 1949.

Din Tai Fung, famous for xiaolongbao, was founded in 1958 as what kind of business?

A cooking-oil retailer is what founder Yang Bingyi opened in Taipei in 1958; when tinned oil undercut the trade, the family began selling xiaolongbao in 1972.

Substantial Taiwanese snacks sold at night markets, compared to tapas or meze, are known as what?

Xiaochi, literally 'small eats', covers oyster omelettes, gua bao and the other dishes sold at night markets such as Taipei's Shilin; fried chicken and bubble tea grew out of the same tradition.

Traditionally, what is stinky tofu soaked in to develop its smell?

Brine with vegetables and meat, left to ferment for months, is the traditional soak; the tofu itself steeps for hours to days, and unlike cheese there is no fixed starter culture.

Which Taiwanese filmmaker directed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi?

Ang Lee, born in Pingtung County in 1954, won Best Director Oscars for Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi and Best Foreign Language Film for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Which Taiwanese 'King of Mandopop' played Kato in The Green Hornet?

Jay Chou, the Taipei-born singer-songwriter who debuted with the album 'Jay' in 2000, played Kato opposite Seth Rogen in the 2011 film.

A 1980s mainland saying paired Teresa Teng's songs by night with which leader's speeches by day?

Deng Xiaoping was 'Old Deng' in the saying, Teresa Teng 'Little Deng'; her ballads spread across the mainland on cassette in the late 1970s despite an official ban.

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, founded in 1973 by Lin Hwai-min, later gave its name to what?

A minor planet was named Yunmen, the troupe's Chinese name, after its discovery by Taiwanese astronomers; in 2003 Taipei declared a Cloud Gate Day and renamed the company's lane.

Taipei's national art collection was mostly moved in 1949 from which imperial site?

Beijing's Forbidden City held the imperial collection until 1933, when it was crated and sent to Shanghai ahead of the Japanese; the best pieces sailed to Taiwan in 1948–49.

Taiwan High Speed Rail, opened in 2007, is based primarily on which country's technology?

A rival bid based on TGV and ICE technology lost out; the fastest Taipei-Zuoying run is 1 hour 45 minutes.

Taipei Metro, the island's first rapid transit system, opened in which year?

1996 saw the first line, the elevated Muzha line (later renamed Wenshan), open on 28 March; by the late 2010s the system carried around two million trips a day.

Which port city is Taiwan's busiest container port?

Kaohsiung, on the southwest coast, is the island's largest port; the Japanese renamed it Takao in 1920, borrowing the characters of a Kyoto district.

Kinmen, also called Quemoy, lies only about 10 km from which mainland Chinese city?

Xiamen, the Fujian port once romanised as Amoy, sits just across the water from Kinmen, which the PLA shelled heavily from August 1958 in the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis.

The Penghu archipelago in the Taiwan Strait is also known by what European name?

The Pescadores, Portuguese for 'fishermen', is the European name for Penghu; the Dutch held the islands from 1622 to 1624 before moving to Taiwan proper.

In which year was the Formosan black bear listed as endangered under Taiwan's Wildlife Conservation Act?

1989 was the year Taiwan passed its Wildlife Conservation Act and listed the bear as endangered; it is a subspecies of the Asiatic black bear and the island's largest land animal.

Taiwan's National Health Insurance system was introduced in which year?

1995 was the launch year, on 1 March, of the single-payer National Health Insurance scheme, which merged earlier labour, farmer and government plans and covers nearly the whole population.

Which goddess is honoured by the nine-day Dajia pilgrimage held each spring in Taiwan?

Mazu, the sea goddess, is carried from Dajia's Jenn Lann Temple on a nine-day procession through central Taiwan each spring that draws hundreds of thousands of pilgrims.

Taiwan's professional baseball league, the CPBL, played its first season in which year?

1990 was the CPBL's first season, with four founding teams including the Brother Elephants; the league itself was established the year before.

Chiang Kai-shek was president of the ROC until his death in which year?

1975 was the year Chiang Kai-shek died, on 5 April, aged 87; Vice President Yen Chia-kan served out the term before Chiang Ching-kuo became president in 1978.

Roughly what is Taiwan's population?

About 24 million people live in Taiwan, packed at over 650 per square kilometre on to the western plains of an island of 35,808 square kilometres.

Which Taichung-based company is the world's largest bicycle manufacturer?

Giant, founded in 1972 by King Liu in Taichung, is the world's largest bicycle maker and long built frames for Western brands before selling under its own name.