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Taipei City is the largest city of Taiwan and the capital of the Republic of China (commonly known as “Taiwan”). Situated at the tip of the island, Taipei is located on the Danshui River, and is about 25 km southwest of Keelung, its port on the Pacific Ocean. Another coastal city, Danshui, is about 20 km northwest at the river’s mouth on the Taiwan Strait. It lies in the two relatively narrow valleys of the Keelung () and Xindian () rivers, which join to form the Danshui River along the city’s western border.The city proper (Taipei City) is home to an estimated 2,607,428 people. Taipei City, Taipei County, and Keelung City together form the Taipei metropolitan area with a population of 6,776,264. However, they are administered under different local governing bodies. “Taipei” sometimes refers to the whole metropolitan area, while “Taipei City” refers to the city proper. Taipei is the political, economic, and cultural center of Taiwan. The National Taiwan University is located in Taipei, as well as the National Palace Museum, which has one of the largest collections of Chinese artifacts and artworks in the world. Considered to be a global city, Taipei is part of a major industrial area. Railways, high speed rail, highways, airports, and bus lines connect Taipei with all parts of the island. The city is served by two airports – Taipei Songshan and Taiwan Taoyuan. Taipei was founded in the early 18th century and became an important center for overseas trade in the 19th century. The Chinese government, then the Qing Dynasty, made Taipei the provincial capital of Taiwan in 1886. When the Japanese acquired Taiwan in 1895 after the First Sino-Japanese War, they retained Taipei as the capital of the island. The Republic of China took over the island in 1945 after Japan’s defeat in World War II. After losing the Chinese Civil War to the Communists, Chiang Kai-shek and his government retreated to Taiwan and declared Taipei the provisional capital of the Republic of China in December 1949. In Mandarin Chinese, however, the pronunciation is slightly different. Under the official Hanyu Pinyin romanization scheme, as well as the previously used Tongyong Pinyin system, the city’s name is romanized as Táibi. In recent years, Taipei City and other government authorities have made efforts to convert signage and other official spellings to conform with Hanyu Pinyin and, previously, also Tongyong Pinyin. However, due to the prevalence and international recognition of the “Taipei” spelling, the City government, as well as other government authorities, have retained the original spelling of “Taipei” as an exception. The National Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall is a famous monument that was erected in memory of Chiang Kai-shek, former President of the Republic of China. The monument, surrounded by a park and a large square incorporating the National Concert Hall and National Theater, stands within sight of the Republic of China’s Presidential Building in Taipei’s Zhongzheng District. The National Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall is a memorial to one of the most recognizable founding fathers of the Republic of China, Sun Yat-sen, and was completed on May 16, 1972. From the opening of the hall, majority of the exhibits displayed were revolutionary events of the national founding fathers at the end of the Qing Dynasty. However, recently its function moved toward a multi-purpose social, educational and cultural center for the Taiwanese public. The National Palace Museum houses over 600,000 ancient Chinese artifacts. The National Palace Museum is an art gallery and museum built around a permanent collection centered on ancient Chinese artifacts. It should not be confused with the Palace Museum in Beijing (which it is named after); both institutions trace their origins to the same institution. The collections were divided in the 1940s as a result of the Chinese Civil War. The National Palace Museum in Taipei now boasts a truly international collection while housing one of the world’s largest collections of artifacts from ancient China. The Taipei Fine Arts Museum was established in 1983. Located in a building that used to house the city government, is also the first modern art museum. The artworks in the museum are mostly done by Taiwanese artists. There are more than 3,000 artworks in the museum. Most of them are done after 1940 by Taiwanese artist, and are organized into 13 groups. In 2001, Museum of Contemporary Art Taipei (;MOCA Taipei) was established in the Taipei City government old building. The National Taiwan Museum is the oldest museum in Taiwan. It was established as the Taiwan Governor Museum by the colonial government of Japan on October 24, 1908 to commemorate the inauguration of the North-South Railway during the Japanese rule in Taiwan. The museum had a collection of over 10,000 items in its initial stages. In 1915, the new building of the museum in Taipei New Park was inaugurated and became one of the major public buildings during Japanese rule. Since 1999, it has been renamed to the “National Taiwan Museum”. Taipei 101 is a 101-floor landmark skyscraper that claimed the title of world’s tallest building when it opened in 2004. Designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners and constructed by KTRT Joint Venture, Taipei 101 recently lost the title of the tallest completed skyscraper in the world, measuring 449 m (1,473 ft) from ground to roof. (The tallest skyscraper is now the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE). Built to withstand typhoon winds and earthquake tremors, the building incorporates many engineering innovations. Taipei 101 also set new records for ascending elevator speed which has also recently been surpassed by Burj Khalifa. The landmark has won numerous international awards for its innovations. A large mall is located at the base of the tower. Its indoor and outdoor observatories draw visitors from all over the world and its New Year’s Eve fireworks display is a regular feature of international broadcasts. National Theater and Concert Hall stand at Taipei’s Liberty Square and host a non-stop series of events by performers from Taiwan and every region of the world. Other leading concert venues include the historic Zhongshan Hall at Ximen and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall near Taipei 101. A new cultural landmark, the Taipei Performing Arts Center, is slated to open in 2013. The venue will stand near the Shilin Night Market and will house three theaters for events with multi-week runs. The architectural design was determined in 2009 in an international competition. The same design process is also in place for a new Taipei Center for Popular Music and Taipei City Museum. Taipei is known for its many night markets, the most famous of which is the Shilin Night Market in the Shilin District. The surrounding streets by Shilin Night Market are extremely crowded during the evening, usually opening late afternoon and operating well past midnight. Most night markets feature individual stalls selling a mixture of food, clothing, and consumer goods. Ximending has been a famous area for shopping and entertainment since the 1930s. Historic structures include a concert hall, a historic cinema, and the Red House Theater. Modern structures house karaoke businesses, art film cinemas, wide-release movie cinemas, electronic stores, and a wide variety of restaurants and fashion clothing stores. The pedestrian area is especially popular with teens and has been called the “Harajuku” of Taipei. The newly-developed Xinyi District is popular with tourists and locals alike for its many entertainment and shopping venues, as well as being the home of Taipei 101, a prime tourist attraction famous for being one of the world’s tallest buildings. Malls in the area include the sprawling Shin Kong Mitsukoshi complex, Taipei 101 mall, Eslite Bookstore’s flagship store (which includes a boutique mall), The Living Mall, New York New York shopping mall, and the Vieshow Cinemas (formerly known as Warner Village). The thriving shopping area around Taipei Main Station includes the Taipei Underground Market and the original Shin Kong Mitsukoshi department store at Shin Kong Life Tower. Other popular shopping destinations include the Zhongshan Metro Mall, Dihua Street, the Guang Hua Digital Plaza, and the Core Pacific City. The Miramar Entertainment Park is known for its large ferris wheel and IMAX theater. Taipei maintains an extensive system of parks, green spaces, and nature preserves. Parks and forestry areas of note in and around the city include Yangmingshan National Park, Taipei Zoo and Da-an Forest Park. Yangmingshan National Park (located 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) north of the central city) is famous for its cherry blossoms, hot springs, and sulfur deposits. It is the home of famous writer Lin Yutang, the summer residence of Chiang Kai-shek, residences of table tennis foreign diplomats, the Chinese Culture University, the meeting place of the now defunct National Assembly of the Republic of China, and the Kuomintang Party Archives. The Taipei Zoo was founded in 1914 and covers an area of 165 hectares for animal sanctuary. Taipei is rich in beautiful, ornate temples housing Buddhist, Taoist, and Chinese folk religion deities. The Longshan Temple, built in 1738 and located in the Wanhua District, demonstrates an example of architecture with southern Chinese influences commonly seen on older buildings in Taiwan. Xinsheng South Road is known as the “Road to Heaven” due to its high concentration of temples, shrines, churches, and mosques. Other famous temples include Baoan Temple, a national historical site, and Xiahai City God Temple, located in the old Dadaocheng community, constructed with architecture similar to temples in southern Fujian.  The Taipei Confucius Temple traces its history back to 1879 during the Qing Dynasty and also incorporates souther Fujian-style architecture. Besides large temples, small outdoor shrines to local deities are very common and can be spotted on road sides, parks, and neighborhoods. Many homes and businesses may also set up small shrines of candles, figurines, and offerings. Some restaurants, for example, may set up a small shrine to the Kitchen god for success in a restaurant business. During the Lantern Festival at the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall Many yearly festivals are held in Taipei, including the Taipei Lantern Festival when thousands of sky lanterns are released in Pingxi.[ Common locations for festival celebrations include Memorial Square, Taipei 101, and the Zhongshan Hall in Ximending. On Double Ten Day, celebrations are held in front of the Presidential Building. Other annual festivals include Tomb-Sweeping Day, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Ghost Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival. In recent years some festivals traditionally held in Taipei, such as the Double Ten Day fireworks and concerts, have increasingly been hosted by other cities in Taiwan. The region known as the Taipei Basin was home to Ketagalan tribes before the eighteenth century. Han Chinese mainly from Fujian Province of China began to settle in the Taipei Basin in 1709. In the late 19th century, the Taipei area, where the major Han Chinese settlements in northern Taiwan and one of the designated overseas trade ports, Tamsui, were located, gained economic importance due to the booming overseas trade, especially that of tea exportation. In 1875, the northern part of Taiwan was separated from Taiwan Prefecture (Chinese: ) and incorporated into the new Taipei Prefecture as a new administrative entity of the Chinese government (Qing Dynasty). Having been established adjoining the flourishing townships of Bangkah and Twatutia, the new prefectural capital was known as Chengnei (Chinese: ), “the inner city”, and government buildings were erected there. From 1875 (during the Qing Dynasty) until the beginning of Japanese rule in 1895, Taipei was part of Danshui County of the Taipei Prefecture and the prefectural capital. In 1886, when Taiwan was proclaimed a province of China, Taipei city was made the provincial capital. Taipei remained a temporary provincial capital before it officially became the capital of Taiwan in 1894. All that remains from the old Qing Dynasty city is the north gate. The west gate and city walls were demolished by the Japanese while the south gate, little south gate, and east gate were extensively modified by the Kuomintang (KMT) and have lost much of their original character. As settlement for losing the First Sino-Japanese War, China ceded the island of Taiwan to the Empire of Japan in 1895  as part of the Treaty of Shimonoseki. After the Japanese take-over, Taipei, called Taihoku in Japanese, was retained as the capital and emerged as the political center of the Japanese Colonial Government. During that time the city acquired the characteristics of an administrative center, including many new public buildings and housing for civil servants. Much of the architecture of Taipei dates from the period of Japanese rule, including the Presidential Building which was the Office of the Taiwan Governor-General. During Japanese rule, Taihoku was incorporated in 1920 as part of Taihoku Prefecture (). It included Bangka, Dadaocheng, and Chengnei among other small settlements. The eastern village Matsuyama () was annexed into Taihoku City in 1938. Upon the Japanese defeat in the Pacific War and its consequent surrender in August 1945, the Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) assumed control of Taiwan. Subsequently, a temporary Office of the Taiwan Province Administrative Governor was established in Taipei City. On December 7, 1949, the KMT government under Chiang Kai-shek, after being forced to flee mainland China by the Communists at the Chinese Civil War, declared Taipei as the provisional capital of the Republic of China, with the official capital at Nanjing (Nanking). Taipei expanded greatly in the decades after 1949, and as approved on December 30, 1966 by the Executive Yuan, Taipei was declared a special centrally administered municipality on July 1, 1967 and given the administrative status of a province. In the following year, Taipei City expanded again by annexing Shilin, Beitou, Neihu, Nangang, Jingmei, and Muzha. At that time, the city’s total area increased fourfold through absorbing several outlying towns and villages and the population increased to 1.56 million people. The city’s population, which had reached one million in the early 1960s, also expanded rapidly after 1967, exceeding two million by the mid-1970s. Although growth within the city itself gradually slowed thereafter — its population had become relatively stable by the mid-1990s — Taipei remained one of the world’s most densely populated urban areas, and the population continued to increase in the region surrounding the city, notably along the corridor between Taipei and Keelung. In 1990, the then 16 districts in Taipei City were consolidated into the current 12 districts. As the capital of the Republic of China, Taipei has been at the center of rapid economic development in the country and has now become one of the global cities in the production of high technology and its components. This is part of the so-called Taiwan Miracle which has seen dramatic growth in the city following foreign direct investment in the 1960s. Taiwan is now a creditor economy, holding one of the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves of over US$352 billion as of February 2010. Despite the Asian financial crisis, the economy continues to expand at about 5% per year, with virtually full employment and low inflation. As of 2007, the nominal GDP of the core city of Taipei has accrued to an amount of nearly US$160 billion, while the metro region of Taipei has a GDP (nominal) of around US$260 billion, a record that would rank it 13th among world cities by GDP. The GDP per capita of Taipei is US$48,400, and the second highest in Asia behind Tokyo, which has a GDP per capita of US$65,453. If outskirts, neighboring cities, and townships are taken into account, the GDP per capita would fall to US$25,000. Taipei and its environs have long been the foremost industrial area of Taiwan, consisting of industries of the secondary and tertiary sectors. Most of the country’s important factories producing textiles and apparel are located there; other industries include the manufacture of electronic products and components, electrical machinery and equipment, printed materials, precision equipment, and foods and beverages. Such companies include Shihlin Electric, CipherLab and Insyde Software. Shipbuilding, including yachts and other pleasure craft, is done in the port of Keelung northeast of the city. Services, including those related to commerce, transportation, and banking, have become increasingly important. Tourism is a small but significant component of the local economy with international visitors totaling almost 3 million in 2008. Taipei has many top tourist attractions and contributes a significant amount to the US$6.8 billion tourism industry in Taiwan. National brands such as ASUS, Chunghwa Telecom, Mandarin Airlines, Tatung, and Uni Airare headquartered in Taipei City. Taipei City is administered as a direct-controlled municipality directly under the Executive Yuan, while Taipei County and Keelung City are administered as part of Taiwan Province. The mayor of Taipei City had been an appointed position since Taipei’s conversion to a centrally administered municipality in 1967 until the first public election was held in 1994. The position has a four-year term and is elected by direct popular vote. The first elected mayor was Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party. Ma Ying-Jeou took office in 1998 for two terms, before handing it over to Hau Lung-bin who won the 2006 mayoral election on December 9, 2006. Both Chen Shui-bian and Ma Ying-Jeou went on to become President of Republic of China. Based on the outcomes of previous elections in the past decade, the vote of the overall constituency of Taipei City shows a slight inclination towards the pro-KMT camp (the Pan-Blue Coalition);however, the pro-DPP camp (the Pan-Green Coalition) also has considerable support. Ketagalan Boulevard, where the Republic of China’s Presidential Office Building and other government structures are situated, is often the site of mass gatherings such as inauguration and national holiday parades, receptions for visiting dignitaries, political demonstrations,and public festivals. Public transport accounts for a substantial portion of different modes of transport in Taiwan, with Taipei residents having the highest utilization rate at 34.1%. Private transport consists of motor scooters, private cars, and bicycles. Motor-scooters often weave between cars and occasionally through oncoming traffic. While there is little respect for traffic laws there are increasing numbers of police roadblocks checking riders for alcohol consumption and other offenses. Taipei Station serves as the comprehensive hub for the subway, bus, conventional rail, and high speed rail. A contactless smartcard, known as EasyCard, can be used for all modes of public transit and contain credits that are deducted each time a ride is taken. The EasyCard is read via proximity sensory panels on buses and in MRT stations, and it does not need to be removed from one’s wallet or purse. Taipei’s public transport system, the Taipei Metro (commonly referred to as the MRT), incorporates a metro and light rail system based on advanced VAL and Bombardier technology. In addition to the rapid transit system itself, the Taipei Metro also includes several public facilities such as the Maokong Gondola, underground shopping malls, parks, and public squares. Modifications to existing railway lines to integrate them into the metro system are underway, as well as a rapid transit line to connect the city with Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taoyuan County. The Taiwan High Speed Rail system opened in 2007. The bullet trains connect Taipei with the west coast cities of Banciao, Taoyuan, Hsinchu, Taichung, Chiayi, and Tainan before terminating at Zuoying (Kaohsiung) at speeds that cut travel times by 60% or more from what they normally are on a bus or conventional train. The Taiwan Railway Administration also runs passenger and freight services throughout the entire island.  extensive city bus system serves metropolitan areas not covered by the metro, with exclusive bus lanes to facilitate transportation. Riders of the city metro system are able to the EasyCard for discounted fares on buses, and vice versa. Several major bus terminals are located throughout the city, including the Taipei Bus Station and Taipei City Hall Station. All scheduled international flights are served by Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in nearby Taoyuan County. Songshan Airport at the heart of the city in the Songshan District serves mostly domestic flights, with the exception of some cross-strait and charter flights. The latter is accessible by the Taipei Metro Neihu Line; the former is not yet accessible by rail but a line is under construction. Both airports are linked to the city by highways. Taipei City is home to 2,607,428 people, while the metropolitan area has a population of 6,776,264 people. The population of the city proper has been decreasing in recent years while the population of the adjacent Taipei County has been increasing. Due to Taipei’s geography and location in the Taipei Basin as well as differing times of economic development of its districts, Taipei’s population is not evenly distributed. The districts of Daan, Songshan, and Datong are the most densely populated. In 2008, the crude birth rate stood at 7.88% while the mortality rate stood was at 5.94%. A decreasing and rapidly aging population is an important issue for the city. By the end of 2009, one in ten people in Taipei was over 65 years of age. Residents who had obtained a college education or higher accounted for 43.48% of the population, and the literacy rate stood at 99.18%. Like the rest of Taiwan, Taipei is composed of four major ethnic groups: Hoklos, Mainlanders, Hakkas, and aborigines. Although Hoklos and Mainlanders form the majority of the population of the city, in recent decades many Hakkas have moved into the city. The aboriginal population in the city stands at 12,862 (<0.5%), concentrated mostly in the suburban districts. Foreigners (mainly from Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines) numbered 52,426 at the end of 2008.