T’ai-nan

T’ai-nan, former county (hsien, or xian), southwestern Taiwan. Since 2010 it has been incorporated administratively into the T’ai-nan special municipality.

The former county is bordered by Chia-i (Jiayi) county to the north, Kao-hsiung (Gaoxiong) special municipality to the southeast, and the Taiwan Strait to the west. In the mid-17th century, what is now T’ai-nan special municipality was part of the territory ruled by the pirate leader Zheng Chenggong (Cheng Ch’eng-kung, or Koxinga), who established Chinese control over Taiwan and had his capital at T’ai-nan city.

Agriculture is the mainstay of the region’s economy. Irrigated rice, sugarcane, sweet potatoes, and fruits are grown on the fertile alluvial coastal plains that constitute most of the land area. The major industries are food and fish processing; textile, paper, machinery, chemicals, and gunny bag manufacturing; and sugar and rice milling. Asbestos, dolomite, zircon, and salt are extracted, and oil and natural-gas fields are located in the central part of the region.

Taiwan’s only international research institute, the Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center, is at Shan-hua (Shanhua), and a large industrial park is at Wang-hsing (Wangxing). T’ou-she (Toushe) village is known for the religious celebrations of local aboriginal peoples. Tseng-wen (Zengwen) Reservoir, in the northern part of the region, provides irrigation for a 336-square-mile (870-square-km) area and supplies water for the scenic man-made Shan-hu (Shanhu; Coral) Reservoir, 9 miles (15 km) south of Hsin-ying (Xinying), the former administrative seat of the county.