Taishan, Guangdong

Taishan is in the Pearl River Delta, in southwestern Jiangmen Prefecture. It has 95 islands and islets, including Shangchuan Island, Guangdong's largest island now that Hainan is a separate province. Taishan is one of Guangdong's "Four Counties" (Sze Yup), which excluded Heshan and is now part of the Greater Taishan Region.

During the Ming dynasty, the area of present-day Taishan was carved out of Xinhui County on 12 February 1499 as "Xinning County". By the 19th century, Xinning was already a source of migrant and emigrant workers, but a series of subsequent natural and political disasters in the area exacerbated the situation. Aside from the disruption of the Sea Ban regulations (Haijin) themselves, their revocation led to an influx of northern settlers who began long-running feuds with the returning locals; this erupted into full-scale war in the 1850s and '60s.[8] The 1842 Treaty of Nanking that ended the First Opium War opened China to greater foreign trade just before the California Gold Rush made the prospect of emigration to the United States appealing. Many also served as contract workers abroad, as in Hawaii, Peru and Cuba and—most famously—for the Central Pacific half of America's Transcontinental Railroad, where the Chinese made up 80% of the company's workforce as they laid track over the mountains and deserts of the west.[9] By 1870, there were 63,000 Chinese in the U.S., almost all in California.[10]

Chin Gee Hee's Sun Ning Railway Company connected Sun Ning (Xinning) with its hinterland in 1908 and reached Jiangmen (Kongmoon) in 1913. It was notable as one of only three railways financed, built, owned, and run by the Chinese themselves before the 1949 Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War.[11]

In 1914, the new Republican government renamed the area Taishan County to avoid confusion with other places named Xinning.[12][13] (Foreign sources now frequently confuse it with Mount Tai in Shandong.) During the Second World War, the Sun Ning Railway was destroyed to prevent its use by the Japanese.[11] Japanese soldiers entered Taicheng, the county seat, in March 1941 and killed nearly 280 people. One quarter of the "Flying Tigers", a joint American and Chinese group of airmen who fought the Japanese before the U.S. entered the Second World War, hailed from Taishan.[14]

Taishan was promoted to county-level city status on 17 April 1992, reflecting its increasing level of urbanization.[13]

Chixi (labeled CH'IH-CH'I (CHIKKAI) 赤溪) (1954)

Taishan administers one subdistrict and 16 towns,[15] which in turn are subdivided into 313 administrative villages (村委会), and residential communities (社区委会).[13] The city has 3,655 natural villages, but they do not function as administrative divisions (自然村).[13]

Taishan's township-level divisions are:

Some of the city's natural villages include Annanjiangchao (安南江潮), Bihou (庇厚), Jilong, and Guanbuli (官步里).

Counting the total Greater Taishan Region or Sze Yap Region, which includes Kaiping, Xinhui, Enping and Taishan, there are about 8 to 9 million Taishanese people worldwide. According to American historian Him Mark Lai, approximately 430,000 or 70% of Chinese Americans in the 1980s were Taishanese according to 1988 data.[17] About 500,000 Chinese Americans claim Taishanese origins today.[17]

While Taishan itself has a population of about 1 million, there are around 1.3 million Taishanese people overseas, distributed in 91 countries and regions.[18] It is estimated that, up to the mid- to late-20th century, over 75% of all overseas Chinese in North America claimed origin in Taishan, so Taishan has been called the "Home of Overseas Chinese".[5][19]

In 2018, Taishan's GDP reached 43.25 billion Yuan, government revenue was 2.92 billion Yuan, fixed-asset investment was 27.33 billion Yuan, retail sales totaled 25.52 billion Yuan, and foreign trade totaled 13.76 billion Yuan.[1]

Education enjoys significant support from Overseas Chinese professionals and businessmen. Many secondary schools were built and financed by Chinese living in China's Special Administrative Regions, as well as various foreign countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Brazil. To honor their benefactors, these schools often bear either their names or the names of said donor's parents.

For example, the Peng Quan School (鹏权中学; 鵬權中學) is a prime example, which was constructed during 1999–2001, and is now integrated into Taishan's public school system. It is situated on the west side of Taicheng, and was built by a Hong Kong businessman.[24]

There are many middle schools and high schools in Taishan, but no academic universities. Students must study rigorously in order to be accepted at universities located in other cities.

Taishan schools include:

University:

• Taishan Panshi Television University (台山磐石电视大学)

Secondary schools (including combined junior-senior high schools and senior high schools):

Taishan railway station, which is built to resemble the former Ningcheng Station of the Sunning Railway

Taishan is accessible by bus with a long-distance bus station in Taicheng, and through a port at GongYi on the Tan River which flows into the Pearl River Delta. The ferry service between GongYi and Hong Kong has been discontinued.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Taishan, Guangdong.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Taishan.

• China Taishan Web
• Taishan City Government
• Chinese Genealogy
• Map of Taishan
• Hoisanese to English Dictionary
• Taishan Culture & Loisirs (Association of the Taishan expatriate community)