Concept

Kaohsiung

Summary
Kaohsiung (Mandarin Chinese: AUDZh-gāoxióng.wavgao1xiong2; Wade–Giles: Kao1-hsiung2; Pinyin: Gāoxióng), officially Kaohsiung Citytw, is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan. It ranges from the coastal urban center to the rural Yushan Range with an area of . Kaohsiung City has a population of approximately 2.73 million people as of March 2023 and is Taiwan's third most populous city and largest city in southern Taiwan. Since founding in the 17th century, Kaohsiung has grown from a small trading village into the political and economic centre of southern Taiwan, with key industries such as manufacturing, steel-making, oil refining, freight transport and shipbuilding. It is classified as a "Gamma −" level global city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, with some of the most prominent infrastructures in Taiwan. Kaohsiung is of strategic importance to the nation as the city is the main port city of Taiwan; the Port of Kaohsiung is the largest and busiest harbor in Taiwan and more than 67% of the nation's exports and imports container throughput goes through Kaohsiung. Kaohsiung International Airport is the second busiest airport in number of passengers. The city is well-connected to other major cities by high speed and conventional rail, as well as several national freeways. It also hosts the Republic of China Navy fleet headquarters and its naval academy. More recent public works such as Pier-2 Art Center, National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts and Kaohsiung Music Center have been aimed at growing the tourism and cultural industries of the city. Hoklo immigrants to the area during the 16th and 17th centuries called the region Takau (). The surface meaning of the associated Chinese characters was "beat the dog". According to one theory, the name Takau originates from the aboriginal Siraya language and translates as "bamboo forest". According to another theory, the name evolved via metathesis from the name of the Makatao tribe, who inhabited the area at the time of European and Hoklo settlement.
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.