Taipei City is the provisional capital of the Republic of China (ROC) and the largest city on Taiwan island. Home to 2,619,022 people (2005 census data, excluding Taipei County), it is the center of Taiwan's commerce, government, and culture. Major industries include electrical and electronic equipment, textiles, metals, ship-building, and motorcycles.
Taipei City is a special municipality administered directly under the central government of the ROC. It is not part of but surrounded entirely by Taipei County, which is administered as part of Taiwan Province.
Taipei City is located in the Taipei Basin in northern Taiwan and is bordered on the south by the Sindian River (Hsintien), and the Danshuei (Tamsui) on the west. The northern districts of Shihlin and Beitou extend north of the Keelung River and are bordered by Yangmingshan National Park. Because of its location in a valley, the city commonly experiences high temperatures and humidity during the summer months, a problem enhanced by the high population density and the use of air conditioning. The climate is subtropical.
There are many yearly Taiwanese festivals that commonly are held in Taipei including the Lantern Festival and Double Tenth Day. A common location for festivities in Taipei is the square in front of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall. Recently, some of the major festivals normally held in Taipei (specifically, the Double Tenth Day fireworks) have been moved to others cities in Taiwan.
The spelling Taipei derives from the Wade-Giles romanization T'ai-pei, in which "p" is pronounced more like an English "b". Thus "Taipei" should accurately be pronounced like the English words Tie-Bay, rather than Tie-Pay, its common English pronunciation.
Both Hanyu Pinyin, which is used both in the PRC and in Taipei City itself, and Tongyong Pinyin, which is mandated by the central government, reflect this pronunciation, romanizing Taipei as Taibei, a spelling that is closer to the Mandarin pronunciation. However, this romanization is very rarely seen.
Though Taipei City has converted all its street signs to Hanyu Pinyin, it has retained the original spelling of "Taipei" as an exception.
Taiwan is an island in East Asia located off the coast of mainland China, south of Japan and north of the Philippines. "Taiwan" is commonly used to refer to the territories currently governed by the Republic of China (ROC), which include the Taiwan island group (including Lanyu (Orchid Island) and Green Island), the Pescadores in the Taiwan Strait, Kinmen and Matsu off the coast of mainland Fujian, and Taiping and the Pratas in the South China Sea. The current political status of Taiwan is contested by the People's Republic of China, which claims it as one of its provinces.
The main island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa (Portuguese sailors called it Ilha Formosa, which means "beautiful island"), is bounded to the east by the Pacific Ocean, to the south by the South China Sea and the Luzon Strait, to the west by the Taiwan Strait and to the north by the East China Sea. The island is 394 kilometers (245 miles) long and 144 kilometers (89 miles) wide and consists of steep mountains covered by tropical and subtropical vegetation.