A view of the Port of Keelung.
Kelung Port Croquis (in 1894)
Keelung City (sometimes called Jilong) (traditional Chinese: 基隆市; Hanyu Pinyin: Jīlóng Shì; Tongyong Pinyin: Jilóng Shìh; Wade-Giles: Chi-lung-shih; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Ke-lâng-chhī) is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. It borders Taipei County and forms the Taipei-Keelung metropolitan area, along with the City and County of Taipei. Nicknamed the Rainy Port for its frequent rain and maritime role, the city is Taiwan's second largest seaport (after Kaohsiung). Keelung is currently administered as a provincial city of Taiwan Province, Republic of China.
Name
The city of Keelung was known as Kelung or Keelung to the Western world during the 19th century. Under Japanese rule, the city was known to the west as Kirun, Kiirun or Kīrun. To the Taiwanese people, the city is known in the Taiwanese language as Ke-lâng, traditionally associated with the Chinese characters 雞籠, meaning rooster cage. The locals continue to call the city Ke-lâng despite the fact that the two characters were subsequently changed in 1875 to the more auspicious but differently pronounced 基隆 (POJ: Ki-liông), meaning prosperous base. In Mandarin, both 雞籠 and 基隆 are pronounced as Jilong (in Hanyu Pinyin; Chi-lung in Wade-Giles).
It has been proposed that the name Keelung was derived from the local mountain that took the shape of a rooster cage. However, it is more probable that the name was derived from the first inhabitants of the region, as are the names of many other Taiwanese cities. The Ketagalan people were the first inhabitants there, and Ke-lâng was likely derived from Ketagalan.
History
Keelung was first inhabited by the Ketagalan, a tribe of Taiwanese aborigine. Its first contact with the west was the Spanish. During 1642 to 1661 and 1663-1668, Keelung was under Dutch control. The Dutch East India Company attacked the Spanish and, after a short successful siege, took over their Fort San Salvador at Santissima Trinidad. They reduced its size and renamed it Fort Noort-Holland. The Dutch had three more minor fortifications in Keelung and also a little school and a preacher. When Ming Dynasty loyalist Koxinga (Cheng Ch'en-Kung) successfully attacked the Dutch in the South of Taiwan, the crew of the Keelung forts fled to the Dutch trading post in Japan. The Dutch came back in 1663 and re-occupied and strengthened their earlier forts. However, trade with China through Keelung was not what they hoped it would be and, in 1668, they left voluntarily.
In 1863, the Qing Empire opened up Keelung as a trading port.
The Keelung Campaign was an important subsidiary campaign in the Sino-French War (August 1884 to April 1885). The French occupied Keelung from 1 October 1884 to 22 June 1885, and several battles were fought during this period between Liu Ming-ch'uan's Army of Northern Formosa and Colonel Jacques Duchesne's Formosa Expeditionary Corps.
A systematic city development started during the Japanese Era, after the 8 May 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, which handed all Taiwan over to Japan, went into force.
Keelung became a town in Keelung District, Taipei Prefecture in 1920 and was upgraded to a city of Taipei Prefecture in 1924. Coal mining peaked in 1968.
Administration
Keelung administers seven districts:
| Tongyong |
Hanzi |
Pinyin |
Wade-Giles |
| Jhongjheng District |
中正區 |
Zhōngzhèng |
Chung-cheng |
| Jhongshan District |
中山區 |
Zhōngshān |
Chung-shan |
| Ren-ai District |
仁愛區 |
Rén'ài |
Jen-ai |
| Sinyi District |
信義區 |
Xìnyì |
Hsin-yi |
| Anle District |
安樂區 |
Ānlè |
An-le |
| Nuannuan District |
暖暖區 |
Nuǎnnuǎn |
Nuan-nuan |
| Cidu District |
七堵區 |
Qīdǔ |
Ch'i-tu |
Population growth
| Year |
Population |
Notes |
|
1840
|
700 households
|
|
|
1897
|
9,500
|
|
|
1924
|
58,000
|
|
|
1943
|
100,000
|
|
|
1944
|
92,000
|
decrease due to Allied air bombings |
|
1948
|
130,000
|
28,000 Mainlander influx |
|
1971
|
330,000
|
|
|
late 1990s
|
347,828
|
|
Sister cities
 Campbell, California, USA- Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
- Corpus Christi, Texas, USA
- Rosemead, California, USA
- Yakima, Washington, USA
 Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada Davao City, Philippines- Bacolod City, Philippines
 East London, South Africa Marrickville, New South Wales, Australia Miyakojima, Okinawa, Japan
See also
Sources and external links
Coordinates: 25°08′N, 121°44′E
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