Taisi, Yunlin


Taisi Township or Taixi Township, is a rural township in Yunlin County, Taiwan, lying to the west of Dongshi, south of Mailiao and north of Sihu, and including a section of coastline on the Taiwan Strait.

History

The town was formerly called Haikou, a direct toponym describing the town's location at the end of the Huwei River where the river empties into the ocean. In 1941, the town was renamed Taisi. The reason for this name change was due to a perceived national shortcoming: in Taiwan, there existed four cities called Taipei, Taichung, Taitung, and Tainan, but there was no place called Taihsi. To correct this gaping hole in Taiwan's geography, the town, which is located in the approximate middle of Taiwan's west coast, was renamed Taisi.
Taixi was first settled by Han Chinese in the Kangxi era of the Qing Dynasty and gradually flourished through the reigns of the Yongzheng Emperor and the Qianlong Emperor. Families from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou with the typical Fujian surnames Chen, Chang, Wu, Lin, and Ting cultivated the land and built a port. The port brought great prosperity to the town, and by the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, the town was thriving. Unfortunately, in 1898 a powerful storm hit the area, bringing floods and torrential rain which washed debris and silt from the nearby mountains down to the mouth of the river and the port. Almost overnight, the port was silted up, and Taixi was reduced to the small and relatively impoverished town that it is today.
Taixi's coastal waters were traditionally used in oyster farming, but in 1991 they were zoned for offshore industrial use.

Geography

As of December 2016, Taixi had 8,727 households and a total population of 24,212, including 11,244 females and 12,968 males.

Administrative divisions

The township comprises 15 villages: Fuqi, Gwanghua, Haibei, Haikou, Hainan, Hefeng, Niuxi, Quanzhou, Shanliao, Taixi, Wengang, Wugang, Wuxiang, Xiding and Yongfeng.

Economy

The township produces radishes.

Transport

In 1982, a novel was published telling the story of a young Taixi man who escaped prison and went on a killing spree in Taiwan. Although this was fiction, it had a large impact on the way other Taiwanese people perceive its villagers to this day.