Hong-Chih Kuo

Tainan is a city in southern Taiwan. It is the fifth largest city of Taiwan, one of special municipalities directly under the Executive Yuan by central government of the ROC. Tainan faces the Taiwan Strait in the west and south. Tainan's complex history of comebacks, redefinitions and renewals... inspired its popular nickname "the Phoenix City." Tainan was initially established by the Dutch East India Company as a ruling and trading base which called Fort Zeelandia during the period of Dutch rule on Taiwan. After Dutch colonists were defeated by Koxinga in 1661, Tainan was remained as the capital of the Tungning Kingdom until 1683 and afterwards the capital of Taiwan prefecture under the rule of Qing Dynasty until 1887, when the Qing Dynasty established Taipei as the new provincial capital. Tainan has been historically regarded as one of the oldest cities in Taiwan, and its former name, Tayouan , has been claimed to be the source of the name Taiwan. It is also one of Taiwan's cultural capitals, for its rich folk cultures including the famous local snack food, extensively preserved Taoist rites and other living local traditions covering child birth to funeral.
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