User:Cobrachen/第一生產線/修改區/About Taipei/History

Approximately four hundred years ago, the Taipei basin was mainly ignored marshland. The Dutch and later the remnant Ming Dynasty government had Tainan (literally “Taiwan South”) as the capital, while the Spaniards established Fort San Domingo in the now northern Taiwan city of Danshui (Tamshui). With the fall of the Ming Dynasty loyalist kingdom in Taiwan, the Qing Dynasty of China made Taiwan a prefecture of the Fujian Province and kept Tainan as the capital of the prefecture.

The original inhabitants of Taipei were the Ketagalan people, who were eventually driven into assimilation and extinction by Chinese settlers from Fujian Province in the 18th century. The avenue that runs into the Presidential Office is named in memory of the Ketagalans.

Trade eventually developed along the Danshui River that runs through the Taipei basin, resulting in the establishment of two rival port towns along the river: Báng-kah (now Wanhua) and Dadaocheng. Eventually northern Taiwan eclipsed Tainan in strategic and economic importance, resulting in the Qing government moving Taiwan’s capital from Tainan to northern Taiwan in 1884. A walled city with gates in the four cardinal directions was built between Báng-kah and Dadocheng to placate the people of the rival towns. The chosen name of the city was Taipei, which literally means “Taipei North” in Chinese.

In 1885, Taiwan became a province of Qing Dynasty China. A disgraced reformist court official named Liu Ming-chuan became the governor and made perhaps Taipei the most advanced and best planned city in the entire Qing Empire in order to attract international traders. Fascinated rather than suspicious with technology, Liu made Taipei to be the first city in the entire historic Chinese empire to shine an electric light bulb. Major roads and government buildings were brightened up with electric lights by 1889. He also built a railroad between Keelung, Taipei, and Hsinchu, which is still in existence today.

Unfortunately, the court officials who disgraced him became jealous of his accomplishments with Taiwan and had him recalled. There are two schools in Taipei named in honor of Liu Ming-chuan: The Taipei Ming-chuan Primary School located next to the National Taiwan University and the Ming Chuan University, located near the site of the 2007 Wikimania conference.

During the japanese ruling the society, politics and culture developped. Until the new Governor-General-palace was (now the Presidential Building) finished, the Office of the Governor-General of Taiwan was the center of the japanese rules Taiwan. In economy, the sugar industry was the most developped. Inner political Opium, Foot binding and keeping of braid by man are forbidden. On the transportation and infrastructure, the railway between Keelung and Kaohsiung was built. Several power plant was established. The reformation of the city administration made a way for the future metropole. In cultural affairs, the japanization increasingly mixed different people. The movement against the japanese rule changed from a violent resistance at the beginning to a social movement later. The Wushe Incident from 1930 was one of the strong and direct resistant incident during the japanese rule. Since than Glove puppetry and discussion about localization receded.

日本於第二次世界大戰戰敗後，中華民國政府在當時的台北公會堂（今中山堂）舉行受降儀式，日治時期結束。

1940年代國府撤退來台所帶來的200萬軍民及1960年代眾多中南部民眾北上求學、工作的風潮，使台北市的人口快速增加。過去在美援的挹注下，道路、住宅社區、學校等公共設施的新建工程也開始逐步進行；城市的已開發區域原先集中於舊市區西側，自1960年代末期起，也開始向東邊的大片田野地拓展。1970年代與1980年代為台北市的高度發展期，城市的商業重心也從此時開始逐漸向東移至東區，西區相對顯現出發展衰退的態勢；伴隨高度發展而來的是交通量的激增，最終造成嚴重的交通問題。1990年代之後，市區鐵路地下化、快速道路、捷運、公車專用道等交通建設陸續完成，相當程度地紓解了交通上的壓力；信義計畫區開始快速發展，市政府與市議會亦遷至該地；原本漸趨沒落的西區，西門町、大稻埕等地帶也開始進行局部改造、更新計畫。不過，如何兼顧傳統社區或商圈的整建，與原有特色的保留，仍是一大課題。