Keelung Totally Explained

Everything about Keelung totally explained

Keelung City (sometimes called Jilong) is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. It borders Taipei County and forms the Taipei-Keelung metropolitan area, along with the City and County of Taipei. Nicknamed the Rainy Port for its frequent rain and maritime role, the city is Taiwan's second largest seaport (after Kaohsiung). Keelung is currently administered as a provincial city of Taiwan Province, Republic of China.

Name

The city of Keelung was known as Kelung or Keelung to the Western world during the 19th century. Under Japanese rule, the city was known to the west as Kirun, Kiirun or Kīrun. To the Taiwanese people, the city is known in the Taiwanese language as Ke-lâng, traditionally associated with the Chinese characters 雞籠, meaning rooster cage. The locals continue to call the city Ke-lâng despite the fact that the two characters were subsequently changed in 1875 to the more auspicious but differently pronunced 基隆 (POJ: Ki-liông), meaning prosperous base. In Mandarin, both 雞籠 and 基隆 are pronunced as Jilong (in Hanyu Pinyin; Chi-lung in Wade-Giles).
It has been proposed that the name Keelung was derived from the local mountain that took the shape of a rooster cage. However, it's more probable that the name was derived from the first inhabitants of the region, as are the names of many other Taiwanese cities. The Ketagalan people were the first inhabitants there, and Ke-lâng was likely derived from Ketagalan.

History

Keelung was first inhabited by the Ketagalan, a tribe of Taiwanese aborigine. Its first contact with the west was the Spanish. From 1642 to 1661 and 1663-1668 Keelung was under Dutch control. The Dutch East India Company attacked the Spanish and, after a short successful siege, took over their Fort San Salvador at Santissima Trinidad. They reduced its size and renamed it Fort Noort-Holland. The Dutch had three more minor fortifications in Keelung and also a little school and a preacher. When Ming Dynasty loyalist Koxinga (Cheng Ch'en-Kung) successfully attacked the Dutch in the South of Taiwan, the crew of the Keelung forts fled to the Dutch trading post in Japan. The Dutch came back in 1663 and re-occupied and strengthened their earlier forts. However, trade with China through Keelung wasn't what they hoped it would be and in 1668 they left voluntarily.
   In 1863, the Qing Empire opened up Keelung as a trading port.
   From 1 October 1884 to July 1885, during the Sino-French War, the French occupied Keelung (and from 29 March 1885 the Pescadores too); the commander was Admiral Amédée Courbet (b. 1827 - d. 1885).
   A systematic city development started during the Japanese Era, after the 8 May 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, which handed all Taiwan over to Japan, in force.
   Keelung became a town in Keelung District, Taipei Prefecture in 1920 and was upgraded to a city of Taipei Prefecture in 1924. Coal mining peaked in 1968.

Administration

Keelung administers seven districts:

Tongyong	Hanzi	Pinyin	Wade-Giles
Jhongjheng District	中正區	Zhōngzhèng	Chung-cheng
Jhongshan District	中山區	Zhōngshān	Chung-shan
Ren-ai District	仁愛區	Rén'ài	Jen-ai
Sinyi District	信義區	Xìnyì	Hsin-yi
Anle District	安樂區	Ānlè	An-le
Nuannuan District	暖暖區	Nuǎnnuǎn	Nuan-nuan
Cidu District	七堵區	Qīdǔ	Ch'i-tu

Population growth

Year	Population	Notes
1840	700 households
1897	9,500
1924	58,000
1943	100,000
1944	92,000	decrease due to Allied air bombings
1948	130,000	28,000 Mainlander influx
1971	330,000
late 1990s	347,828

Sister cities

Further Information

Get more info on 'Keelung'.

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