Taitung City
A county-administered city in Taitung County, Taiwan
Taitung City (Chinese: 臺東市; pinyin: Táidōng Shì; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-tang-chhī) is a county-administered city and the county seat of Taitung County, Taiwan. It lies on the southeast coast of Taiwan facing the Pacific Ocean, southwest of the Beinan River estuary. Taitung City is the most populous subdivision of Taitung County and it is one of the major cities on the east coast of the island.
Taitung City is served by Taitung Airport. Taitung is a gateway to Green Island and Orchid Island, both of which are popular tourist destinations.
History
Before the 16th century the Taitung plain was settled by agriculturalist Puyuma and Amis aboriginal tribes. Under Dutch rule and during Qing rule, a large part of eastern Taiwan, including today's Taitung, was called "Pi-lam" (Chinese: 卑南; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Pi-lâm). Many artifacts of the prehistoric sites of the city are located at Beinan Cultural Park, which was discovered in 1980 during the construction of Taitung Station.
In the late 19th century, when Liu Mingchuan was the Qing Governor of Taiwan, Han Chinese settlers moved into the Taitung region. Pi-lam Subprefecture (卑南廳) was established in 1875, and was upgraded and renamed to Taitung Prefecture in 1888, after the island was made Fujian-Taiwan Province.
“Taitung City” enters the record as a county-administered city in Taitung County, Taiwan. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Taitung, City and county-administered can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Taitung City” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Taitung, City and county-administered provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q713381. Authority coordinates are 22.758, 121.144. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1980, 1875 and 1888.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Taitung City”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Taitung City primary sources, Taitung City archive and Taitung research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Taitung City”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Taitung City” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.