Taoyuan City: Taiwan's Import and Export Hub, Home to the Most Hakka People and Migrant Workers, All on This Plateau

30-Second Overview: On the evening of November 19, 1977, allegations of fraud emerged from Polling Station No. 213 in Zhongli City, Taoyuan County. Tens of thousands of people surrounded the Zhongli Police Station. Police opened fire on the crowd from a high vantage point, resulting in the deaths of Central University student Jiang Wenguo and 19-year-old Zhang Zhiping. That night, Hsu Hsin-liang was elected Taoyuan County Magistrate with a landslide victory of "230,000 votes to 140,000 votes," marking the first time in post-war Taiwan that the masses spontaneously took to the streets. One year and three months later, on February 26, 1979, the Taoyuan Zhongzheng International Airport opened, moving Taiwan's gateway to the outside world from Keelung Port to this plateau. Another 35 years later, on December 25, 2014, Taoyuan was upgraded to the sixth special municipality, the last of the six. Today, 2.35 million people live on this 1,221 square kilometer plateau. With over 800,000 Hakka people, it has the most in the country, and with 132,158 migrant workers, it also has the most. 44.92 million international passengers pass through this plateau annually. Taoyuan is Taiwan's most diverse border.

4 AM, Terminal 3 Is Still Under Construction

At 4 AM in the First Terminal of Taoyuan Airport, ground crew push luggage carts past the concrete columns built in 1979. Those gray-white columns are the original batch that began construction in 1974, was completed in late 1978, and opened on the early morning of February 26, 1979¹.

A 1979 article in Taiwan Panorama titled "Majestic Gateway" described the scene at the time: "The Far East's largest international airport—Taoyuan Zhongzheng International Airport, after four and a half years of hard work by engineering personnel, has borne rich fruit—it officially opened for navigation on February 26th of this year, opening another modernized air gateway for our country"¹. The report stated that this airport, covering an area of 1,200 hectares, was "135 hectares larger than Narita Airport in the suburbs of Tokyo, Japan"¹. Forty-seven years ago, this was the largest in the Far East.

Aerial view of Taoyuan International Airport Terminal 2. Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA via Wikimedia.

47 years later, Terminal 3 is still under construction.

In 2024, Taoyuan Airport handled 44.92 million passengers (92% of the pre-pandemic 2019 figure), with 248,000 flight movements. It ranks 13th globally for international passenger traffic and 10th for cargo volume². Over 95% of international passengers—Taiwanese going abroad, foreigners coming to Taiwan, business travelers transiting, migrant workers entering Taiwan, and Taiwanese businesspeople returning home—pass through this plateau.

But this article is about the plateau beneath the airport.

📝 Curator's Note: When Taiwanese people mention Taoyuan, their first reaction is usually "the airport." But Taoyuan simultaneously holds the identities of having the most Hakka people in the country, the most migrant workers, the special municipality upgraded last among the six, the site of the 1977 Zhongli Incident, 2,800 ponds on the plateau, the traditional territory of the Atayal people in the Fuxing mountains, and the tombs of the Two Jiangs. These identities are stacked together on one plateau. Calling Taoyuan an "airport county" reduces it to a functional transit station. Beneath the transit station lies a diverse plateau inhabited by 2.35 million people.

The Last to Be Upgraded to a Special Municipality

On January 3, 2013, the Executive Yuan's 3330th Executive Meeting announced "Taoyuan County will be transformed into a Special Municipality on December 25, 2014"³. One year and eleven months later, on Christmas Day, December 25, 2014, Cheng Wen-ts'an held his inauguration ceremony in the square in front of the Taoyuan City Government, becoming the first Mayor of Taoyuan City.

The order of the six special municipalities is: Taipei in 1967, Kaohsiung in 1979, New Taipei/Taichung/Tainan in 2010, and Taoyuan in 2014. Taoyuan is the last of the six special municipalities. After upgrading, the original 14 grassroots administrative units were reorganized into 13 special municipality districts: Taoyuan, Zhongli, Pingzhen, Bade, Yangmei, Daxi, Luzhu, Guishan, Longtan, Dayuan, Guanyin, Xinyu, and Fuxing³. The area is 1,220.9540 square kilometers, with a population of 2,356,795 as of April 2026, maintaining the highest population growth rate in the country for several consecutive years³.

The name "Taoyuan" is much older than the special municipality. During the Qianlong reign, immigrants from Quanzhou, led by Xue Qilong, settled here. Because peach trees were planted everywhere, it was called "Taoyuan" (Peach Garden). The Taiwan Prefecture Gazette already recorded "Taoyuan Zhuang" (Peach Garden Village) in 1774. It was officially renamed "Taoyuan" in 1920 during the Japanese colonial period³. From the Qing dynasty's "Taoyuan" to the 2014 "Taoyuan City," this name has been alive for 240 years.

The Day the Zhongli Police Station Caught Fire

37 years before the upgrade, an election that changed modern Taiwanese history took place on this plateau.

November 19, 1977, was election day. Polling Station No. 213 in Zhongli City, Taoyuan County, was set up at Zhongli Elementary School. The election supervisor for the day, Fan Jiang Xinlin (then principal of Zhongli Elementary School), was accused by witnesses such as Qiu Yibin of rigging the vote, intentionally damaging the ballots of the independent candidate Hsu Hsin-liang to invalidate them⁴. Prosecutor Liao Hongming's response was to transfer the witness Qiu Yibin to the police station, allowing the accused election supervisor to continue on duty.

When the news spread, hundreds of people came to the polling station to protest. By evening, over 10,000 people had surrounded the Taoyuan County Police Station Zhongli Branch⁴. At 7 PM, police fired tear gas at the crowd. In the darkness, shots were fired from a high vantage point: "In the darkness, police fired at the crowd from a high point, causing National Central University student Jiang Wenguo (from Yuanli) to die from a gunshot wound to the head, and another 19-year-old, Zhang Zhiping (from Zhongli), also died"⁴. 16-year-old Liu Shirong was severely injured. The people burned down the Zhongli Police Station.

The election results were revealed that night. Hsu Hsin-liang was elected Taoyuan County Magistrate with a landslide victory of "230,000 votes to 140,000 votes"⁴, "beating the KMT-nominated Ou Xianyu by nearly 100,000 votes" (Reporter's words)⁵. In the same "Five-in-One Election," the independent camp won 4 county/city magistrate seats, 21 provincial assembly seats, and 146 county/city council seats.

Forty years later, in an interview with The Reporter, Hsu Hsin-liang left these words: "Even if the vote was rigged, I had a way to beat him, I was full of confidence." "Strike the ringleader first. There were many spies in Zhongli at the time; if I hadn't left, I would have been controlled immediately." "I went to shake hands with the police; they turned their heads away when they saw me, and some even spat. But they couldn't do anything to me; I had already been elected magistrate."⁵

The Zhongli Incident was the first time in post-war Taiwan that the masses spontaneously took to the streets to protest election fraud. From the February 28 Incident in 1947 to the Zhongli Incident in 1977, for thirty years, Taiwanese people had not taken to the streets again. After the Zhongli Police Station caught fire, the Qiaotou Incident in January 1979 and the Formosa Incident on December 10, 1979, followed.

📝 Curator's Note: The common narrative is "The Formosa Incident opened Taiwan's democratization." This narrative misses two years of the Zhongli Incident. Reversing the causality: The moment the Zhongli Police Station caught fire on November 19, 1977, was the starting point of post-war mass movements in Taiwan; the 1979 Formosa Incident was its downstream effect. Zhongli Elementary School, Zhongli Junior High School, and the Zhongli Police Station—these place names are places where Zhongli people eat lunch, pick up children, and ride bikes today. But on the evening of November 19, 1977, these points were the physical coordinates of Taiwan's independent movement. Jiang Wenguo was 22, Zhang Zhiping was 19, and Liu Shirong was 16.

One year and three months after the Zhongli Police Station caught fire, on February 26, 1979, the Taoyuan Zhongzheng International Airport opened, moving Taiwan's gateway to the outside world from Keelung Port to this plateau¹. The Second Terminal opened in 2000. In 2006, "Zhongzheng International Airport" was renamed "Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport"⁶. On March 2, 2017, the Airport MRT officially opened, spanning 51.95 kilometers, the longest in Taiwan⁷. It takes 38 minutes from Taipei Main Station to the Airport MRT Terminal 2 Station.

Over 800,000 Hakka People, Lined Up Along the Southern Edge of the Plateau

Driving south from the airport for 20 minutes, you arrive in Zhongli.

Zhongli District is the second most populous district in Taoyuan City, with the Hakka population accounting for about 50%. The Hakka population in all of Taoyuan City was nearly 800,000 according to early surveys by the Hakka Affairs Council, and a 2022 China Times report stated "over 850,000"⁸. Conservatively, "over 800,000," Taoyuan is the county/city with the largest Hakka population in the country.

Fan Jiang Ancestral Hall, Xinyu. Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA via Wikimedia.

The Hakka are lined up along the southern edge of the plateau: Zhongli, Pingzhen, Longtan, Yangmei, Xinyu, Guanyin. These six districts in southern Taoyuan form the largest Hakka settlement belt on the main island of Taiwan. Hakka immigrants moving north from Miaoli crossed the Fengshan Creek, Touqian Creek, and the Hsinchu Plain, finally settling along the southern edge of the Taoyuan plateau. In 1751 (16th year of Qianlong), the five Fan Jiang brothers crossed the sea from Huizhou, Guangdong, to Taiwan. In 1855 (5th year of Xianfeng), they built the Ancestral Hall and welcomed ancestral spirits from Guangdong. Residents called it "Qixin Cuo" (Building a New House), and these four characters later became the origin of the place name "Xinyu" (New House)⁹. The Pingzhen Baozhong Shrine (Yimin Temple) is even older, established in 1791 (56th year of Qianlong), primarily worshipping the Yimin Ye (Righteous People Lord), enshrining the first Yimin Ye golden statue in Taiwan⁹.

Taoyuan's Hakka are not just inland. In Xinyu and Guanyin districts, there is the only coastline in Taiwan primarily composed of Hakka settlements. Yongan Fishing Port is the "only fishing port in Taiwan primarily composed of Hakka settlements"¹⁰. The stone fish traps (Shihu) in Xinyu District are the most numerous and complete remaining on the main island of Taiwan, with about 10 structures, 3 of which are still used by fishermen today¹⁰. The term "Sea Hakka" describes the Hakka fishermen in the Guanyin and Xinyu areas: developing "net fishing, stone fish traps, and blowing conch shells" maritime Hakka culture on the coastal areas primarily composed of Hakka settlements¹⁰.

📝 Curator's Note: The common narrative binds "Hakka" with "mountain areas," "tea leaves," "leicha (pounded tea)," and "hard neck," resembling the image of Miaoli or Hsinchu Meimei. Taoyuan's Hakka went further than the Minnan people: from the northern movement of the Liudui in the south to the Taoyuan-Hsinchu-Miaoli area, they lined up along the southern edge of the Taoyuan plateau, and then crossed the plateau to push to the coastline of Guanyin and Xinyu. Yongan Fishing Port and the Xinyu stone fish traps are physical evidence of these "Sea Hakka" still present today. Thinking of Hakka only in the mountains misses this unique layer of Taoyuan.

Zhongli Station Front and Back Streets, Signs of Twelve Countries Side by Side

East exit of Zhongli Station, front street.

Walking out and looking up, you see signs in Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, and Filipino Tagalog. Grocery stores, restaurants, remittance companies, hair salons, karaoke shops—this is the "Taoyuan Migrant Worker Business District," one of the largest gathering places for migrant workers in the country.

In the 1990s, the Taiwanese government opened the entry of foreign migrant workers for employment. Zhongli was initially the most concentrated area for Thai migrant workers, initially called "Thailand Street"¹¹. After the 2000s, the structure of migrant workers changed, and the number of Vietnamese and Indonesian restaurants exceeded Thai restaurants. Today, in the front and back streets of Zhongli Station (around Yuanhua Road, Zhongping Road, and Xinxing Road), there are over a hundred Southeast Asian shops and stalls¹¹.

According to the Ministry of Labor statistics in 2023: "As of the end of 2023, the number of migrant workers in Taoyuan City reached 132,158, accounting for 17.5% of the national total of 753,430 migrant workers, ranking first in the country"¹². There are 111,885 industrial migrant workers (the most in the country), mainly Vietnamese; about 20,000+ social welfare migrant workers, mainly Indonesian; and 103,513 manufacturing industry migrant workers, accounting for 92.5% of Taoyuan's industrial migrant workers. For every six migrant workers in Taiwan, one lives in Taoyuan.

Why Taoyuan? In an interview with NCTU Castnet, an old Zhongli resident left this sentence: "30 years ago, the front of Zhongli Train Station was the world of soldiers. Back then, brothers from the Hukou and Pingzhen military camps would come to Zhongli to take buses and consume when they were on leave. Later, as the government reduced the military, and as factories hired migrant workers, migrant workers replaced the troops."¹³

This sentence compresses three periods of history. After the post-war retreat of the Nationalist Government in 1949, Taoyuan was a concentration point for large Air Force bases (the Black Cat Squadron was secretly established at the Taoyuan Air Force Base in 1961) and Army units (Hukou and Pingzhen military camps). In 2004, Taiwan had 879眷村 (military dependent villages), with 80 in Taoyuan, the most in the country¹⁴. In the 1990s, the government reduced the military. The Taoyuan plateau industrialized simultaneously; the Guanyin, Luzhu, and Zhongli industrial zones were developed in succession, and factories needed labor. Over one-third of Taiwan's Top 500 Manufacturing Companies have factories in Taoyuan, and industrial output value has been first in the country for many consecutive years¹⁵. After the opening of migrant workers in the 1990s, migrant workers hired by factories replaced the decreasing number of soldiers. The Southeast Asian business district in front of Zhongli Station is the most physical manifestation of this structure.

✦ "As of the end of 2023, the number of migrant workers in Taoyuan City reached 132,158, accounting for 17.5% of the national total of 753,430 migrant workers, ranking first in the country." (Verbatim from Taoyuan City Government Press Release¹²)

The Reservoir Rises to 133.1 Meters, Beneath the Plateau Lie 2,800 Ponds

The water of the Taoyuan plateau has never been evenly distributed.

On June 14, 1964, Vice President Chen Cheng presided over the completion ceremony of Shimen Reservoir¹⁶. The dam is 133.1 meters high, with a total storage capacity of 309,120,000 cubic meters, making it the "largest reservoir in the Far East region" at the time¹⁶. Construction costs were "approximately NT$3.2 billion, including NT$1.9 billion in US aid assistance"¹⁶. From the preparation starting in 1954 plus an 8-year construction period, over 7,500 people were mobilized. Shimen Reservoir is located at the border of Longtan District, Daxi, and Fuxing District in Taoyuan City. Shimen Grand Canal was completed in June 1964, irrigating 22,000 hectares of farmland.

_Shimen Reservoir. Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA via Wikimedia._

Before the reservoir was built, the Taoyuan plateau relied on ponds (bitang).

A Taiwan Panorama article "Hometown of a Thousand Ponds" left this description: "As the plane slowly descends at Taoyuan Zhongzheng Airport, what comes into view are shimmering mirrors. This network of ponds (i.e., bitang) scattered across the Taoyuan plateau is a masterpiece of hydraulic engineering that witnessed ancestors turning deserts into fertile fields. Its large area and high density are rare in the world."¹⁷

The geographical background of the Taoyuan plateau is as follows: The Dahan River originally flowed north through the Taoyuan plateau. 30,000 years ago, a river capture occurred: The water of the Dahan River was taken by the Tamsui River system, changing course to flow east into the Taipei Basin. The plateau lost its main water source and became a dry highland¹⁷. Settlers could only dig ponds to store rainwater. "One pond represents a system of production, life, and ecology." (Words of Professor Chen Qipeng from Chung Yuan Christian University)¹⁷

Before the drought of 1913, the number of ponds on the Taoyuan plateau reached its peak of over 10,000. In the early Japanese colonial period, "Taoyuan Prefecture had 6,685 pond and canal systems," the highest density in the country¹⁷. The Taoyuan Grand Canal began construction in 1916 and was completed in 1924, connecting these ponds. 285 ponds had a storage capacity of 34 million tons, equivalent to 1/3 of Shimen Reservoir's capacity. After Shimen Reservoir was completed in 1964, the function of some ponds was replaced, and many ponds were filled in:

"Over the past thirty years, due to urban and industrial-commercial development, the over 10,000 ponds of Taoyuan have been filled in one by one, and only 2,800 remain"¹⁷.

Reduced from over 10,000 to 2,800, but the 2,800 remain. Today, when planes land at Taoyuan Airport, the small reflective mirrors you see out the window are the remnants of 200+ years of hydraulic culture. Beneath the airport are the ponds.

The Battle of Yiwei, Cihu, and the Atayal Mountains

Ponds are older than war. But the Taoyuan plateau is also a battlefield.

On May 29, 1895, Japanese troops landed at Aodi, Keelung. By the end of June, they occupied Taipei. Moving south from Taipei, every kilometer forward encountered resistance from Hakka righteous armies. On July 12, 1895, the Battle of Sanjiaoyong (now Sanxia, New Taipei City): a Japanese army 35-person supply team was ambushed at Long'enpu and almost completely wiped out. On the same day, another 894-person troop was ambushed at Fen Shui Lun, "the most brutal battle for Japanese troops after entering Taipei"¹⁸.

Also on July 12, the battlefield moved to Daxi, Taoyuan. The Battle of Dakun (1895/07/12–16) took place on the banks of the Dahan River in today's Daxi District, Taoyuan City. The righteous army had about 1,000 people, led by martial artist Jiang Guohui¹⁹. The important Japanese support troops were ambushed by the righteous army while crossing the Dahan River. After days of bitter fighting, only four disguised as beggars escaped. Subsequent Japanese reinforcements captured Dakun and burned the villages. One of the three heroes of anti-Japanese resistance, Jiang Shaozu (1877–1895), a descendant of people from Lufeng County, Guangdong, and from Beipu, Hsinchu, recruited hundreds of villagers to resist Japan at the age of 19. He is known as one of the "Three Heroes of Hakka Anti-Japanese Resistance" along with Wu Tangxing and Xu Xiang. After the fall of Hsinchu City on July 9, 1895, he was captured, refused to surrender, and committed suicide by poison, at the age of 19¹⁹.

19 years old. The 19-year-old Jiang Shaozu in July 1895, the 19-year-old Zhang Zhiping in November 1977, and the 22-year-old Jiang Wenguo. Three numbers lined up together; youths of different centuries on this Taoyuan plateau died in this area.

Daxi was then called Dakun. In the late Qing dynasty, it was the most upstream river port of the Tamsui River system. After the opening of Hushi (Tamsui) port in 1863, Dakun became Taiwan's most inland trading port, a distribution center for tea, camphor, and timber²⁰. In the Japanese colonial period, the 1919 "Urban Improvement" plan stipulated that "shops must adopt 'Baroque-style' architecture... Brothers Chen Wanglai and Chen Sanchuan applied the cut-stick and cross-fire techniques commonly used in temples to the facades of their archway houses"²⁰. ⚠️ Strictly speaking, this is a "Taiwanese Western-style Archway House" facade, not authentic European Baroque²⁰, but the common term "Baroque" is conventional. It was listed as a historic site for preservation starting in 1985.

The other half of Taoyuan is mountainous. Fuxing District is the largest in area and smallest in population among Taoyuan's 13 districts, with an area of about 351 square kilometers, accounting for two-sevenths of Taoyuan City's total area²¹. The population is only 13,000, "about 70% are indigenous peoples, mainly Atayal"²¹, making it the township/district with the largest Atayal population in Taiwan. The Atayal language name for Lalashan (Daguan Mountain) is "R'ra," meaning "beautiful, admiring, watching over"²¹. In 1975, the Nationalist Government renamed it "Daguan Mountain." Since the 2000s, the original Atayal name "Lalashan" has gradually been restored as the common name.

Lalashan. Photo: Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA via Wikimedia.

Another historical trace in Fuxing District has nothing to do with the Atayal: Cihu. In 1955, the Lin family of Banqiao donated land to the government for free. Chiang Kai-shek was fascinated by the scenery of this land, which resembled his hometown Fenghua, Zhejiang. On June 13, 1959, the Dongkou Guest House was completed, and Chiang Kai-shek named it "Cihu," missing his mother, Madame Wang²². On April 5, 1975, Chiang Kai-shek died, and his coffin was moved to the Cihu Mausoleum. In 1988, Chiang Ching-kuo died and was laid up in the Daxi Mausoleum. In 2006, the "Two Jiangs Cultural Park" was established. The Cihu Memorial Sculpture Park concentrates the Chiang Kai-shek statues removed from public spaces across Taiwan during the "De-Chiangization" movement, making it the "only memorial park in Taiwan established for a single person's statue"²².

📝 Curator's Note: Viewing Fuxing District as "Taoyuan's tourist back garden" is a misreading from a flatland perspective. Looking down from Lalashan, the prosperity of the 12 flatland districts is only half of Taoyuan; the tribal life of the 1 mountain district is the other half. The Atayal people have lived in this mountain range for a thousand years. In the 1930s, the face-tattooing culture was suppressed by the Japanese colonial rule. After 1949, Chiang Kai-shek built Cihu at the foot of the mountain, and died in 1975, buried here. A tomb of an external supreme power lies next to the traditional territory of the Atayal people who have lived here for millennia. Today, the "Cihu Memorial Sculpture Park" houses the Chiang Kai-shek statues removed from public spaces across Taiwan. This land uses its unique way to simultaneously house symbols of authoritarianism and indigenous traditional territories.

The First Plane Is About to Take Off

Back to the opening scene.

At 4 AM in the First Terminal of Taoyuan Airport, ground crew push luggage carts past the concrete columns built in 1979. Forty-seven years ago, when this airport opened, it was the "largest in the Far East." 47 years later, its passenger ranking has dropped to 13th globally. Terminal 3 is still under construction.

But the story of this plateau beneath the airport over these 47 years is much thicker than the airport's expansion history. On the evening of November 19, 1977, the Zhongli Police Station caught fire; 22-year-old Jiang Wenguo and 19-year-old Zhang Zhiping fell and died; the first time in post-war Taiwan that the masses spontaneously took to the streets, Taoyuan was the scene. Earlier, in July 1895, 19-year-old Jiang Shaozu refused to surrender and committed suicide; Jiang Guohui ambushed 1,000 righteous armies in Dakun; Wu Tangxing moved north from Miaoli to resist Japan. Later, after the opening of migrant workers in the 1990s, the Southeast Asian business district in front of Zhongli Station grew. Deeper, 30,000 years ago, the Dahan River's water source was taken by the Tamsui River system, the Taoyuan plateau became dry, settlers dug over 10,000 ponds to store water, and in 1964, Shimen Reservoir rose to 133.1 meters.

This Taoyuan plateau, 1,221 square kilometers, 2.35 million people, 13 districts: 12 flatland districts plus Fuxing mountain. Over 800,000 Hakka people, the most in the country; 132,158 migrant workers, also the most in the country; 44.92 million international passengers pass through here annually²³⁸¹².

Next time you fly and land at Taoyuan Airport, if it's a sunny day, look down out the window. You will see those small reflective mirrors on the surface of the plateau; those are the 2,800 ponds, the remnants of 200+ years of hydraulic culture. Looking south during the landing taxi, that denser cluster of houses is Zhongli, the core of the Hakka settlement, the gathering place of migrant workers, the historical site of 1977.

Beneath the airport are the ponds. Beneath the ponds are the Yiwei battlefields of 1895. Beneath the battlefields are the lands of the Ketagalan and Atayal peoples who have lived here for a thousand years. Taiwan's import and export, the most Hakka people, the most migrant workers, are all on this plateau. Taoyuan is the busiest border between this island and the world, and also the most diverse geographical layer of ethnic groups of this island itself.

Next time you think of Taoyuan, don't just think of the airport. Think of the Vietnamese pho shops in front of Zhongli Station, the stone fish traps in Xinyu, the submerged Hakka old settlements under the surface of Shimen Reservoir in Longtan, the peaches and Atayal face-tattooing culture of Lalashan in Fuxing District, the red bricks on the 1919 archway house facades of Daxi Old Street. All of this is on the same plateau.

Further Reading

• [Keelung City](/geography/Keelung City) — 22 Counties and Cities Series pilot: In 1979, when Taoyuan Airport opened, Taiwan's gateway to the outside world moved from Keelung Port to Taoyuan, and Keelung Port dropped from 7th in the world to 113th.
• [Hsinchu County](/geography/Hsinchu County) — The neighboring county of the southern edge of Taoyuan Hakka: In 1895, Jiang Shaozu set out from Beipu, Hsinchu, north to participate in the Battle of Dakun.
• [Hsinchu City](/geography/Hsinchu City) — Together with Taoyuan, it forms the center of the northern Hakka distribution belt; in 1875, the Taoyuan area was attached to Hsinchu County.
• [Miaoli County](/geography/Miaoli County) — 22 Counties and Cities Series batch 1 sibling: The starting point of the Hakka immigrant belt moving north from Miaoli to Taoyuan; Wu Tangxing moved north in 1895 to resist Japan.
• [Nantou County](/geography/Nantou County) — 22 Counties and Cities Series batch 3: The only county without a sea coast vs. Taoyuan's plateau import and export, a contrast of two "borders."
• [Hakka Culture and Language](/culture/Hakka Culture and Language) — Over 800,000 Hakka people in Taoyuan, the most in the country.
• [Migrant Workers](/society/Migrant Workers) — 132,158 migrant workers in Taoyuan, the most in the country.
• [Battle of Yiwei](/history/Battle of Yiwei) — In 1895, Jiang Shaozu, Wu Tangxing, and Jiang Guohui resisted Japan as Hakka in Dakun, Taoyuan.
• [Chiang Kai-shek](/people/Chiang Kai-shek) — Died in 1975 and was buried in Cihu, Daxi, Taoyuan; today, the Cihu Memorial Sculpture Park houses the Chiang Kai-shek statues removed across Taiwan.

Image Sources

This article uses 4 Wikimedia Commons CC-licensed images, hot-linked from the Wikimedia upload server:

• Hero (frontmatter) + Scene §4 AM: Taoyuan International Airport Terminal 2 — Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 4.0. The physical site of Taiwan's gateway to the outside world opened in 1979, handling 44.92 million passengers in 2024.
• Scene §Over 800,000 Hakka People: Fan Jiang Ancestral Hall, Xinyu — Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 1855, the Fan Jiang clan built the Ancestral Hall; "Qixin Cuo" (Building a New House) is the origin of the place name "Xinyu" (New House), a Taoyuan City Designated Historic Site.
• Scene §Reservoir Rises to 133.1 Meters: Shimen Reservoir — Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 3.0. Completed in 1964, the largest reservoir in the Far East, dam height 133.1 meters.
• Scene §Yiwei Battlefield, Cihu, Atayal: Lalashan — Wikimedia Commons contributor, CC BY-SA 4.0. Atayal language "R'ra" means "beautiful, admiring, watching over," located at the border of Taoyuan Fuxing District and New Taipei Wulai District.

License Terms: CC BY-SA 3.0 / CC BY-SA 4.0.

⚠️ Some image links are placeholders for Wikimedia Commons category pages; subsequent polish sessions will replace them with specific hi-res files.

References

1. Majestic Gateway: Taoyuan Zhongzheng International Airport Opens — Taiwan Panorama (1979) — Taiwan Panorama 1979 issue report on the airport opening, verbatim original text: "The Far East's largest international airport—Taoyuan Zhongzheng International Airport, after four and a half years of hard work by engineering personnel, has borne rich fruit—it officially opened for navigation on February 26th of this year, opening another modernized air gateway for our country" + "This international airport, covering an area of 1,200 hectares, is 135 hectares larger than Narita Airport in the suburbs of Tokyo, Japan." Contemporary witness to construction starting in 1974, completion in late 1978, and opening on 1979/02/26, and the scale of the First Terminal.↩
2. Taoyuan International Airport 2024 Passenger Statistics — Taoyuan International Airport Corporation — Official operational statistics of Taoyuan Airport. 2024 passenger volume 44.92 million (92% of pre-pandemic 2019), 248,000 flight movements, ranking 13th globally for international passenger traffic, 10th globally for cargo volume. Complete data. Terminal 3 is under construction, partially expected to open in 2027.↩
3. Taoyuan City — Wikipedia — Wikipedia Chinese version Taoyuan City article. Original text: "On January 3, 2013, the Executive Yuan's 3330th Executive Meeting announced that Taoyuan County would be transformed into a Special Municipality on December 25, 2014" + area 1,220.9540 square kilometers, April 2026 population 2,356,795 people, 13-district administrative division, Xue Qilong's settlement during the Qianlong reign, "Taoyuan Zhuang" recorded in the 1774 Taiwan Prefecture Gazette, and the complete history of the official renaming from "Taoyuan" to "Taoyuan" in 1920.↩
4. Zhongli Incident — Wikipedia — Wikipedia Chinese version Zhongli Incident article. Original text: "On election day, November 19, 1977, the election supervisor Fan Jiang Xinlin (then principal of Zhongli Elementary School) at Polling Station No. 213 (Zhongli Elementary School) in Zhongli City, Taoyuan County, was accused by witnesses such as Qiu Yibin of rigging the vote" + "In the darkness, police fired at the crowd from a high point, causing National Central University student Jiang Wenguo (from Yuanli) to die from a gunshot wound to the head, and another 19-year-old, Zhang Zhiping (from Zhongli), also died" + 16-year-old Liu Shirong severely injured, over 10,000 people surrounded the Zhongli Police Station, burned down the station, and Hsu Hsin-liang was elected with 230,000 votes to 140,000 votes. Complete event record.↩
5. Zhongli Incident 40th Anniversary: Hsu Hsin-liang Oral History — The Reporter — The Reporter 2017 in-depth report on the 40th anniversary of the Zhongli Incident. Hsu Hsin-liang verbatim three direct quotes: "Even if the vote was rigged, I had a way to beat him, I was full of confidence" + "Strike the ringleader first. There were many spies in Zhongli at the time; if I hadn't left, I would have been controlled immediately" + "I went to shake hands with the police; they turned their heads away when they saw me, and some even spat. But they couldn't do anything to me; I had already been elected magistrate." Includes election result statistics of the independent camp winning 4 county/city magistrate seats, 21 provincial assembly seats, and 146 county/city council seats in that "Five-in-One Election," and "beating the KMT-nominated Ou Xianyu by nearly 100,000 votes."↩
6. Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport Renamed — Wikipedia — Wikipedia Chinese version Taoyuan Airport article. Official naming history: "Zhongzheng International Airport" named by the Executive Yuan on 1979/02/15 to commemorate Chiang Kai-shek; renamed "Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport" on 2006/09/06.↩
7. Taoyuan Airport MRT — Wikipedia — Wikipedia Chinese version Taoyuan Airport MRT article. 1996 BOT preparation failed, construction started in 2006, six delays, trial operation on 2017/02/02, official opening on 2017/03/02, total length 51.95 kilometers, longest in Taiwan, budget over NT$127.7 billion, Zhongli extension line opened on 2023/07/31. Complete engineering history.↩
8. Taoyuan City Hakka Population Statistics — Hakka Affairs Council + China Times News — Hakka Affairs Council early survey "nearly 800,000," 2022 China Times News report "over 850,000" (some statistics up to over 910,000) Hakka population data. Zhongli District Hakka proportion about 50%, Taoyuan is the county/city with the largest Hakka population in the country, Zhongli/Pingzhen/Longtan/Yangmei/Xinyu/Guanyin 6 districts are the southern Taoyuan Hakka settlement belt official statistics.↩
9. Fan Jiang Ancestral Hall and Pingzhen Baozhong Shrine — Taoyuan City Government Culture Bureau — Taoyuan City Government Culture Bureau historic site data. Fan Jiang Ancestral Hall: 16th year of Qianlong (1751) five Fan Jiang brothers crossed the sea to Taiwan, 5th year of Xianfeng (1855) built Ancestral Hall and welcomed ancestral spirits from Guangdong for worship, residents called it "Qixin Cuo" which is the origin of the place name "Xinyu," now a city-designated historic site. Pingzhen Baozhong Shrine (Yimin Temple): Temple built in 56th year of Qianlong (1791), first Yimin Ye golden statue in Taiwan, believers cover the 13 major villages of Zhongli/Pingzhen/Yangmei "jurisdiction," Hakka faith center record.↩
10. Xinyu Stone Fish Traps + Yongan Fishing Port — Taoyuan City Government Tourism Bureau — Taoyuan City Government Tourism Bureau official data. Xinyu Stone Fish Traps: Most numerous and complete remaining on the main island of Taiwan, total 10 structures (another source 11), 3 still in use today, origin in Qing dynasty built by Han ancestors manually stacking pebbles. Yongan Fishing Port: "The only fishing port in Taiwan primarily composed of Hakka settlements," under the jurisdiction of Zhongli District Fishermen's Association. "Sea Hakka Culture" (net fishing, stone fish traps, blowing conch shells) in Xinyu/Guanyin two districts — the only coastline in Taiwan primarily composed of Hakka settlements.↩
11. Zhongli Migrant Worker Business District: The Formation of Little Southeast Asia — GVM Magazine — GVM Magazine 2019 in-depth report on Zhongli Migrant Worker Business District. 1990s government opened entry of migrant workers to Taiwan, Zhongli was mainly Thai migrant workers forming "Thailand Street," after 2000s Vietnamese/Indonesian restaurants exceeded Thai restaurants, front and back streets of Zhongli Station (Yuanhua Road, Zhongping Road, Xinxing Road) over a hundred Southeast Asian shops and stalls formation history.↩
12. End of 2023 Taoyuan City Migrant Worker Statistics — Taoyuan City Government Press Release — Taoyuan City Government 2023 end migrant worker statistics press release. Original verbatim: "As of the end of 2023, the number of migrant workers in Taoyuan City reached 132,158, accounting for 17.5% of the national total of 753,430 migrant workers, ranking first in the country." Industrial migrant workers 111,885 (most in the country) mainly Vietnamese, social welfare migrant workers mainly Indonesian, manufacturing industry migrant workers 103,513 accounting for 92.5% of Taoyuan's industrial migrant workers official first-hand data.↩
13. Zhongli, a Migrant Worker Gathering Place of Little Southeast Asia — NCTU Castnet — NCTU Castnet migrant worker special in-depth report, old Zhongli resident verbatim: "30 years ago, the front of Zhongli Train Station was the world of soldiers. Back then, brothers from the Hukou and Pingzhen military camps would come to Zhongli to take buses and consume when they were on leave. Later, as the government reduced the military, and as factories hired migrant workers, migrant workers replaced the troops." Records the three-stage history of the Zhongli Station front business district transitioning from the soldier consumption era to the migrant worker business district.↩
14. Black Cat Squadron and Taoyuan Dependent Villages — Story Studio — Story Studio Cold War history special. 1961 Sino-US cooperation "Project Razor" secretly established the Air Force 35th Reconnaissance Squadron (nickname "Black Cat Squadron") at Taoyuan Air Force Base to operate U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. 28 pilots executed 220 missions, 10 martyred, 2 shot down by communist forces. In 2004, Taiwan had 879 dependent villages, 80 in Taoyuan, the most in the country.↩
15. Taoyuan City Industrial Statistics — Taoyuan City Government Economic Development Bureau — Taoyuan City Government Economic Development Bureau official statistics. Over one-third of Taiwan's Top 500 Manufacturing Companies have factories in Taoyuan, 42 industrial zones, industrial output value first in the country for many consecutive years, main industries TFT-LCD/Semiconductor/Aerospace Maintenance/Optoelectronics/Auto Parts/Textile Dyeing complete industrial structure record.↩
16. Shimen Reservoir — Wikipedia — Wikipedia Chinese version Shimen Reservoir article. Original verbatim: "On June 14, 1964, after 8 years of construction, Shimen Reservoir was officially completed" + "Shimen Reservoir was once the largest reservoir in the Far East region" + "Maximum dam height: 133.1 meters" + "Total storage capacity: 309,120,000 cubic meters" + "Construction cost approximately NT$3.2 billion, including NT$1.9 billion in US aid assistance" + Vice President Chen Cheng presided over the completion ceremony, Taiwan's first multi-functional reservoir, Shimen Grand Canal irrigates 22,000 hectares. Complete record.↩
17. Hometown of a Thousand Ponds: Taoyuan Ponds — Taiwan Panorama — Taiwan Panorama "Hometown of a Thousand Ponds" special report, original verbatim: "As the plane slowly descends at Taoyuan Zhongzheng Airport, what comes into view are shimmering mirrors. This network of ponds (i.e., bitang) scattered across the Taoyuan plateau is a masterpiece of hydraulic engineering that witnessed ancestors turning deserts into fertile fields. Its large area and high density are rare in the world" + "Over the past thirty years, due to urban and industrial-commercial development, the over 10,000 ponds of Taoyuan have been filled in one by one, and only 2,800 remain" + "One pond represents a system of production, life, and ecology" (Words of Professor Chen Qipeng from Chung Yuan Christian University) + "For example, the famous Fan Jiang Ancient House in Xinyu Township, Taoyuan, and the nearby Xinyu Pond and other ponds are living materials for exploring the development history of Hakka settlements" + Before the 1913 drought, over 10,000 ponds on the Taoyuan plateau, Taoyuan Prefecture pond and canal system count 6,685 places highest density in the country, Taoyuan Grand Canal started construction in 1916 completed in 1924 285 ponds storage capacity 34 million tons equivalent to 1/3 of Shimen Reservoir, listed as "World Cultural Heritage Potential Site" complete record.↩
18. Yiwei War — Wikipedia — Wikipedia Chinese version Yiwei War article. 1895/05/29 Japanese troops landed at Aodi, Keelung, end of June occupied Taipei, 1895/07/12 Battle of Sanjiaoyong (Long'enpu Battle + Fen Shui Lun Battle): Japanese army 35-person supply team almost completely wiped out, 894-person troop casualties over 200 "the most brutal battle for Japanese troops after entering Taipei" complete timeline and battlefield record.↩
19. Battle of Dakun + Three Heroes of Hakka Anti-Japanese Resistance — Wikipedia — Wikipedia Chinese version Yiwei War including Battle of Dakun (1895/07/12-16): Location banks of Dahan River in Daxi District, Taoyuan City, righteous army about 1,000 people led by martial artist Jiang Guohui, deputy Lü Jianbang, assistant Li Jiadong, Japanese army important support troops ambushed by righteous army while crossing Dahan River after days of bitter fighting only four disguised as beggars escaped, later Japanese reinforcements captured Dakun burned villages. Three Heroes of Hakka Anti-Japanese Resistance Jiang Shaozu (1877-1895): Descendant of people from Lufeng County, Guangdong, from Beipu, Hsinchu, 19 years old recruited hundreds of villagers to resist Japan, participated in Dagukou ambush (June)/Hsinchu City defense/battles in various places in Taoyuan, known as "Three Heroes of Hakka Anti-Japanese Resistance" with Wu Tangxing and Xu Xiang, captured after fall of Hsinchu City on 1895/07/09 refused to surrender committed suicide by poison.↩
20. Daxi Old Street and Daxi Tofu — Taoyuan City Government Culture Bureau + Ju Media Verification — Taoyuan City Government Culture Bureau Daxi Old Street official data + Ju Media verification text. After Hushi (Tamsui) port opened in 1863, Dakun became Taiwan's most inland trading port, tea camphor timber coal distribution center, late Qing Liu Mingchuan established "Fukanshen Bureau" in Daxi, 1919 Japanese colonial urban improvement "stipulated that shops must adopt 'Baroque-style' architecture... Brothers Chen Wanglai and Chen Sanchuan, who had learned masonry skills from the Japanese, applied the cut-stick and cross-fire techniques commonly used in temples to the facades of their archway houses, attracting other shopkeepers and residents to imitate" + ⚠️ Strictly speaking "Taiwanese Western-style Archway House" not European authentic Baroque, 1985 historic site preservation. Daxi Tofu: Early Republic of China Fujian Zhangzhou person Lin Rong crossed the sea to Taiwan bringing five-spice black bean curd braising technology (brown sugar cooked into sugar black added with five-spice powder braising), old brands Huang Rixiang (Republic Year 13 approx 1924)/Wanlixiang/Dafang Tofu/Liao Xinlan, fundamentally Daxi has good water quality from the upper reaches of the Dahan River, Taoyuan City Government statistics Daxi tofu products factories about 21.↩
21. Fuxing District and Lalashan — Taoyuan City Government Fuxing District Office — Taoyuan City Government Fuxing District Office official data. Fuxing District area about 351 square kilometers (accounting for two-sevenths of Taoyuan City's total area), population 13,000, largest area smallest population district in Taoyuan City, about 70% are indigenous peoples mainly Atayal, Taiwan Atayal population most township/district. Lalashan (Daguan Mountain): Atayal language "R'ra" means "beautiful, admiring, watching over," renamed Daguan Mountain in 1975, restored Lalashan common name since 2000s, located at border of Taoyuan Fuxing District and New Taipei Wulai District altitude 1,500-2,000+ meters, famous for giant trees and peaches.↩
22. Jingfu Temple, Taoyuan Grand Temple — Taoyuan City Government Culture Bureau — Taoyuan City Government Culture Bureau Jingfu Temple official data. Qianlong 10th year (1745) started, landowner Xue Qilong donated 20 jia of land and advocated building the temple, main deity Kai Zhang Sheng Wang (Chen Yuanguang) is the guardian deity of Zhangzhou immigrants, core of 15 streets and villages faith in Taoyuan, people commonly call it "Grand Temple," special municipality designated historic site, 1809 (Jiaqing 14th year) built Taoyuan City after 15 villages Zhangzhou people rebuilt together.↩