Taipei

Taipei
Taipei; 臺北
	Special municipality
	Taipei Ceety · 臺北市
	Banner Seal
	Eik-name(s): The Ceety o Azaleas
	Coordinates: 25°02′N 121°38′E / 25.033°N 121.633°E
Kintra	Republic o Cheenae (Taiwan)
Region	Northren Taiwan
Settled	1709
Ceety seat	Xinyi Destrict
Destrict-diveesions	12 destricts
Govrenment
• Teep	Taipei Ceety Govrenment
• Mayor	Hau Lung-pin (KMT)
Area
• Special municipality	271.7997 km2 (104.9425 sq mi)
• Water	2.7 km2 (1.0 sq mi) 1.0%
Population (December 2014)
• Special municipality	2,702,315 (Ranked 4 o 22)
• Urban	7,438,000 (Jan '15)
• Metro	7,021,482
	(Metropolitan aurie)
Time zone	UTC+8 (CST)
Postal code	100–116
Area code(s)	(0)2
Districts	12
Bird	Formosan Blue Magpie (Urocissa caerulea)
Flouer	Azalea (Rhododendron nudiflorum)
Tree	Banyan (India laurel fig, Ficus microcarpa)
Website	taipei.gov.tw (in Inglis)
	The metropolitan aurie (or tri-ceeties) o Taipei includes Taipei, New Taipei, an Keelung.

Taipei Ceety (traditeeonal Cheenese: 臺北市; simplifeed Cheenese: 台北市; pinyin: Táiběi Shì; literally "Northren Taiwan Ceety") is the seicont lairgest ceety o Taiwan an the caipital o the Republic o Cheenae (commonly kent as "Taiwan"). Situatit at the tip o the island, Taipei is locatit on the Danshui River, an is aboot 25 km soothwast o Keelung, its port on the Paceefic Ocean. Anither coastal ceety, Danshui, is aboot 20 km northwast at the river's mooth on the Taiwan Strait. It lies in the twa relatively nairae valleys o the Keelung (基隆河) an Xindian (新店溪) rivers, which jyne tae form the Danshui River alang the ceety's wastren border. The ceety proper (Taipei Ceety) is hame tae an estimatit 2,607,428 fowk. Taipei Ceety, New Taipei, an Keelung Ceety thegither form the Taipei metropolitan aurie wi a population o 6,776,264. Housomeivver, thay are admeenistered unner different local govrenin bodies. "Taipei" whiles refers tae the whole metropolitan aurie, while "Taipei Ceety" refers tae the ceety proper.

Taipei is the poleetical, economic, an cultural centre o Taiwan. The Naitional Taiwan University is locatit in Taipei, as well as the Naitional Palace Museum, which haes ane o the lairgest collections o Cheenese airtifacts an airtwirks in the warld. Considered tae be a global ceety, Taipei is pairt o a major industrial aurie. Railways, hicht speed rail, hichtways, airports, an bus lines connect Taipei wi aw pairts o the island. The ceety is served bi twa airports - Taipei Songshan an Taiwan Taoyuan.

Taipei wis foondit in the early 18t century an became an important centre for owerseas tred in the 19t century. The Cheenese govrenment, then the Qing Dynasty, made Taipei the provincial caipital o Taiwan in 1886. When the Japanese acquired Taiwan in 1895 efter the First Sino-Japanese War, thay retained Taipei as the caipital o the island. The Republic o Cheenae teuk ower the island in 1945 efter Japan's defeat in Warld War II. Efter losin the Cheenese Ceevil War tae the Communists, Chiang Kai-shek an his govrenment retreatit tae Taiwan an declared Taipei the proveesional caipital o the Republic o Cheenae in December 1949.

Romanization

The spellin "Taipei" derives frae the Wade-Giles romanization T'ai-pei, which is pronoonced [ˌtʰaɪˈpʰeɪ] in Inglis.

In Mandarin Cheenese, housomeivver, the pronunciation is slichtly different ([tʰǎipèi]). Unner the offeecial New Phonetic seestem (an' a' kent as Hanyu Pinyin) romanization seestem, which is uised tae romanize aw street signage in Taipei, an the formerly offeecial Tongyong Pinyin seestem, the ceety's name is romanized as Táiběi. Housomeivver, the familiarity o the langstandin "Taipei" spellin led govrenment authorities tae retain it as ane o several exceptions tae the general staundart.