Taiwan

Where is Taiwan?

Located in Eastern Asia, Taiwan is an island nation. It has a 1,566.00 km coastline. Taiwan is involved in a complex dispute with Brunei, China, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Vietnam over the Spratly Islands.

The capital city of Taiwan is Taipei, located in the northern region of the island. Taipei is political, cultural, and economic center for the Republic of China, or Taiwan. The city was founded in 1949 in the 18th century. The city area has 2,607,428 residents while the large metropolitan area has 6,776,264 residents. Taipei is the most populated city in Taiwan and one of the world's most densely populated cities. The capital of Taiwan is made up several districts including Songsha, Daton, and Daan. The latter city is the most populated district it has a population density of 71,295 people per square mile. The city also has several tourist hot spots. Some of the must-see sites are the Taipei 101 skyscraper which has an observatory deck to view the city. The building offers the best scenes of the city during the day and night. Other must-see sites are the san-ying waterfront, tasumi Old Street, taianyuan xizhi, among other places. The city experiences four distinct seasons.

Taiwan is an Asian country covering 35,980.00 km² of which 10.34% is water and 32,260.00 km² is land. The area includes includes the Pescadores, Matsu, and Quemoy islands. and slightly smaller than Maryland and Delaware combined. Its geographic coordinates are 23 30 N, 121 00 E and Taipei is the capital city.

The name comes from "Tayowan", which was the name of the coastal sandbank where the former Dutch colonial headquarters stood.

Its ISO code is TW.

Its constitution was last ratified in 1947.

Geography

Taiwan has a mean elevation of 1,150 m above sea level.

It has a continental climate with hot summers and mild winters; some areas in the mountainous regions are semiarid. Its terrain consists of rugged mountains and gently rolling plains.

Population

Taiwan has a population of 23,464,787 making it the 55th largest in the world. The majority of the population can be found on the periphery.

Mandarin Chinese is the official language. More than 95% of the population identifies as Han Chinese. The majority of the population identifies as having Buddhist, Taoist, and to a lesser extent, Christian, beliefs.

The Republic of China has one official language: Mandarin Chinese. It is spoken widely across the island. It has two dialects, of standard Chinese Mandarin and Taiwanese mandarin. Chinese Mandarin is spoken only by 20% of the population while the Taiwanese Chinese is spoken by 70% of the population. When tourists visit Taiwan, it might be hard to communicate with the locals since 70% of the population speaks the official language. Apart from Chinese, there are some minority languages spoken on the island. They include foreign languages like English, Vietnamese, Tagalong, Indonesian, Javanese, and Hakka among others.

The dialing code for the country is 886.

The official name of the government of Taiwan is the Republic of China (ROC). It has existed in its current form since the 1947 constitution, although many amendments were made afterward. The form of government is a unitary, semi-presidential and constitutional republic with the president as the chief of state and the premier as the head of government. The seat of government is found in Taiwan’s capital of Taipei. The office of the president of Taiwan is housed in the presidential office building located in Zhongzheng District, Taipei. The building was designed during the Japanese rule in the country between 1895 and 1945. The building initially was the office of Governor-General of Taiwan but was damaged extensively during WWII. It was restored later and housed the office of the president in 1950 when ROC lost control of mainland China and relocated to Taipei. Members of Taiwan’s parliament are eligible for re-election after serving the first four-year term. Elections are held both at the national and local level. Voters are eligible to vote if they are 20 years and above, and have resided in Taiwan for at least four months. The Central Election Commission is responsible for election supervision. Dominant political groups in Taiwan are the Democratic Progressive Party, Kuomintang, People First Party, and the Taiwan Solidarity Union.

Economy

Factoring in Purchasing Power Parity, Taiwan's GDP is $1,130,000,000,000.00 (USD) with $49,500.00 (USD) per capita. This makes it the 21st largest economy and its citizens the 27th richest in the world. The currency of Taiwan is the Dollar (TWD).

Its major export partners are China, Hong Kong, and the United States. Its main exports are semiconductors, petrochemicals, automobile/auto parts, and ships. Its major import partners are Japan, China, and the United States. Its major imports include oil, semiconductors, natural gas, and coal.

Flag

The present national flag of Taiwan is known as the blue sky, white sun and a red earth in Chinese. The flag was officially made Taiwan’s state flag in the 1928. This flag was designed by Lu Haodong and was later modified by Sun Yat-Sen to include a red part. The three colors of the flag are red, blue, and white are symbolic of the bloodshed to make Taiwan a Republic, the blue sky, and the white sun respectively. The three colors also symbolize the principles of the people of Taiwan. The flag has not undergone many changes through the years. The original flag was made up of the navy blue square having a white sun with 12 rays, and the red part of the flag was added later. The blue sky with a white sun part of the flag is used as the Taiwanese Coat of Arms. The official dimensions of the flag are in the ratio of 2 to 3 and the blue part occupies one fourth of the whole flag.