Chi-lung

Keelung City 基隆市
A view of Keelung and Keelung Port
City Flag	City Seal
Abbreviation	Keelung/KLC 基隆/基市
Nickname	The Rainy Port 雨港
Capital	Jhongjheng, Keelung
Region	Northern Taiwan
Mayor	Chang, Tong-Rong (張通榮)
Area	132.758 km² (Ranked 21 of 25)
Population (October 2008)
- Population	388,976 (Ranked 19 of 25)
- Density	2,929.94 /km²
Districts	7
Website	English Trad. Chinese
Symbols
- Bird	Eagle
- Flower	Common crepe myrtle
- Tree	Formosan Sweet-gum
Template ■ Discussion Parameter ■ WikiProject Taiwan

A view of the Port of Keelung

Keelung Port Croquis (in 1894)

This article contains Chinese text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Chinese characters.

Keelung City (also: Jilong or Chilung) is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. It borders Taipei County and forms the Taipei-Keelung metropolitan area, along with the City and County of Taipei. Nicknamed the Rainy Port for its frequent rain and maritime role, the city is Taiwan's second largest seaport (after Kaohsiung). Keelung is currently administered as a provincial city of Taiwan Province, Republic of China.

Name

The city of Keelung was known as Kelung or Keelung to the Western world during the 19th century. However, the Taiwanese people have long called the city Kelang (Taiwanese language POJ: Ke-lâng, Chinese characters: 雞籠, meaning rooster cage).

It has been proposed that the name Keelung was derived from the local mountain that took the shape of a rooster cage. However, it is more probable that the name was derived from the first inhabitants of the region, as are the names of many other Taiwanese cities. In this case, the Ketagalan people were the first inhabitants, and early Han settlers probably approximated "Ketagalan" with "Ke-lâng" (phonetics of the Southern Min Language).

In 1875, during Qing Dynasty rule, the Chinese characters of the name were changed to the more auspicious 基隆 (pinyin: Jīlóng; POJ: Ki-liông, meaning prosperous base). In Mandarin, probably the working language of Chinese government at the time, both the old and new names were likely pronounced Kīlóng (hence "Keelung"). Under Japanese rule (1895-1945), the city was known to the west by Japanese readings of the new name: Kirun, Kiirun or Kīrun. In Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of the Republic of China, the new name is read Jīlóng, although the locals have continued to call the city Ke-lâng throughout changes in government.

History

Keelung was first inhabited by the Ketagalan, a tribe of Taiwanese aborigine. Its first contact with the west was with the Spanish in the early 17th century, who built a fort in Keelung as an outpost of the Manila-based Spanish East Indies. From 1642 to 1661 and 1663-1668, Keelung was under Dutch control. The Dutch East India Company took over the Spanish Fort San Salvador at Santissima Trinidad. They reduced its size and renamed it Fort Noort-Holland. The Dutch had three more minor fortifications in Keelung and also a little school and a preacher. When Ming Dynasty loyalist Koxinga (Cheng Ch'en-Kung) successfully attacked the Dutch in the South of Taiwan, the crew of the Keelung forts fled to the Dutch trading post in Japan. The Dutch came back in 1663 and re-occupied and strengthened their earlier forts. However, trade with China through Keelung was not what they hoped it would be and, in 1668, they left voluntarily.

In 1863, the Qing Empire opened up Keelung as a trading port.

The Keelung Campaign was an important subsidiary campaign in the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). The French occupied Keelung from 1 October 1884 to 22 June 1885, and several battles were fought during this period between Liu Ming-ch'uan's Army of Northern Formosa and Colonel Jacques Duchesne's Formosa Expeditionary Corps.

A systematic city development started during the Japanese Era, after the 8 May 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, which handed all Taiwan over to Japan, went into force.

Keelung became a town in Keelung District, Taipei Prefecture in 1920 and was upgraded to a city of Taipei Prefecture in 1924. Coal mining peaked in 1968.

Climate

Weather averages for Keelung, Taiwan (1971-2000)
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Average high °C (°F)	18.0 (64)	18.2 (65)	20.3 (69)	24.1 (75)	27.1 (81)	30.4 (87)	32.6 (91)	31.9 (89)	29.5 (85)	26.1 (79)	22.7 (73)	19.7 (67)	25.1 (77)
Daily Mean °C (°F)	15.8 (60)	15.8 (60)	17.6 (64)	21.1 (70)	24.2 (76)	27.1 (81)	29.0 (84)	28.6 (83)	26.8 (80)	24.0 (75)	20.8 (69)	17.6 (64)	22.4 (72)
Average low °C (°F)	13.7 (57)	13.7 (57)	15.3 (60)	18.7 (66)	21.7 (71)	24.5 (76)	26.0 (79)	25.9 (79)	24.4 (76)	22.1 (72)	18.9 (66)	15.6 (60)	20.0 (68)
Precipitation mm (inches)	335.8 (13.22)	399.1 (15.71)	332.3 (13.08)	240.9 (9.48)	296.1 (11.66)	286.7 (11.29)	150.4 (5.92)	212.8 (8.38)	360.8 (14.2)	413.4 (16.28)	394.7 (15.54)	332.1 (13.07)	3,755.1 (147.84)
Sunshine hours	54.5	48.0	65.6	83.4	90.3	125.4	203.0	192.5	149.1	94.3	58.7	52.6	1,217.4
% Humidity	81.2	82.5	83.6	81.6	81.7	79.6	75.1	76.7	78.6	79.2	79.0	78.5	79.8
Avg. precipitation days	21.0	19.6	21.1	17.2	18.8	14.2	9.2	11.5	15.0	17.7	19.9	20.1	205.3
Source: [1] 2009-06-07

Culture

One of the most popular festivals in Taiwan is the Mid-Summer Ghost Festival. The Keelung Ghost Festival is among the oldest in Taiwan, dating back to 1851 after bitter clashes between rivaling clans, which claimed many lives before mediators stepped in. The Ghost Festival of Keelung City is a reflection of Taiwan's rich cultural history that is very much alive today. ^[2]

Administration

Keelung has 7 districts (區 Qu):	District		Population	Land area
			as of 2009	km²
	■ Zhongzheng-qu	中正區	56,635	10.2118
	■ Zhongshan-qu	中山區	51,755	10.5238
	■ Ren'ai-qu	仁愛區	50,475	4.2335
	■ Xinyi-qu	信義區	51,436	10.6706
	■ Anle-qu	安樂區	85,093	18.0250
	■ Nuannuan-qu	暖暖區	38,184	22.8283
	■ Qidu-qu	七堵區	55,18	56.2659

Population growth

Sister cities

• Bacolod City, Philippines
• Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands
• Campbell, USA
• Corpus Christi, USA
• Davao City, Philippines
• East London, South Africa
• Marrickville, Australia
• Miyakojima, Japan
• Rosemead, USA
• Salt Lake City, USA
• Thunder Bay, Canada
• Yakima, USA

See also

• Taipei City (Municipality)
• Taipei County
• List of cities in the Republic of China (Taiwan)
• Administrative divisions of the Republic of China

References

Sources and external links

Find more about Keelung on Wikipedia's sister projects: Definitions from Wiktionary

Textbooks from Wikibooks
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Images and media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews

Learning resources from Wikiversity

• Keelung travel guide from Wikitravel
• Keelung City Government official website (English)
• Keelung Harbor Bureau official website (English)
• WorldStatesmen.org — Taiwan

Coordinates: 25°08′N 121°44′E / 25.133°N 121.733°E / 25.133; 121.733