Taishan (Taishanese: Hoisan [hɔi˨san˧]; Chinese: 台山; Cantonese: Toisan; Mandarin: Taishan; Other: Toishan, Toisaan) is a coastal county-level city in Guangdong Province, China. The city is located in the Pearl River Delta, southwest of Jiangmen (to which it administratively belongs) and 140 kilometers west of Hong Kong, with a population of approximately 1 million. It contains 95 islands and islets, including the largest island in Guangdong, Shangchuan Island. It is one of four county-level cities in an area known as Sze Yup (四邑, four counties). It is famous for being the birthplace of Chinese Volleyball, that was brought to Taishan by overseas Chinese, and the city won many provincial and national championships.
Because it is estimated that over 75% of all overseas Chinese in North America until the mid- to late-20th century claimed origin in Taishan, the city is also known as the "Home of Overseas Chinese."[1][2] As late as 1988, those with ancestry from Taishan accounted for 70% of Chinese Americans.
Taishanese speak the Taishan dialect of Chinese, which is derived from and somewhat similar to Cantonese. Before the 1980s, Taishanese was the predominant Chinese language spoken throughout North America's Chinatowns.[2] It is the de facto language of Taishan.
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On February 12, 1499 in the 12th year of the reign of the emperor Hongzhi during the Ming Dynasty, Taishan was founded as Xinning County (新宁县) from land in the southwest of Xinhui County. Xinning has also been romanized as Sunning, Sinning, Hsinning, Hsînnîng, and Llin-nen.
From 1854 to 1867 a genocidal war broke out mainly in Taishan County between the Punti and Hakka people with disastrous results for both sides.
In 1914, Xinning was renamed Taishan to avoid confusion with the Xinnings of Hunan and Sichuan. Unfortunately it is now confused in English with Taishan Mountain in Shandong Province.
On April 17, 1992, Taishan's status was upgraded from county (县) to county-level city (县级市).
Education in the city of Taishan enjoys significant support from overseas Chinese professionals and businessmen[2]. Many secondary schools were built and financed by Chinese living in the SAR (Hong Kong and Macau) and various foreign countries, such as the US, Canada and Brazil. To their credit, almost no strings are attached to their beneficence.
To honor their benefactors, these schools often bear their names or the names of their parents. An outstanding example is the Pengquan Middle School (鹏权中学), which was constructed during 1999–2001, and is now integrated into the city's public school system. It is situated on the west side of the city, and was built by a Hong Kong businessman.
The only university is the Deng Xiaoping-era Television University (电视大学).
Taishan is under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen. In a jurisdiction of 3,286 km², Taishan contains 20 townships (镇), which are subdivided into 503 village residential committees (村居委会) and 3,655 natural villages (自然村).
These townships (镇) are:
These "natural villages" (自然村) include:
Taishan is currently accessible by bus and hydrofoil ferry. There is a bus station in Taicheng and a port at GongYi on the Tan River which flows into the Pearl River Delta.
Up until the Japanese War, there was a limited railway system constructed by Chen Yixi linking various parts of Taishan with Jiangmen, then known as Kong Moon. It was one of only three built, owned and run by Chinese during the years prior to the Communist Revolution of 1949.[3]
Today, some 1.3 million people living overseas can trace their ancestry to Taishan, outnumbering those who now live in Taishan.[4] According to American historian Him Mark Lai, approximately 430,000 or 70% of Chinese Americans in the 1980s were Taishanese according to 1988 data.[5] Currently some 500,000 Chinese Americans claim Taishanese origins.[5]
An office of the local Taishan Bureau of Overseas Chinese can help to arrange visits of overseas Chinese people.[6]
Some notable people that are from Taishan include:
Coordinates: 22°14′55″N 112°47′06″E / 22.24861°N 112.785°E
Taishan (台山; Táishān; Cantonese pronunciation toisan) is a city in Guangdong Province in China. It falls under the administration of Jiangmen.
The language of Taishan is a variant of Cantonese known as Taishanese, which is only marginally mutually intelligible with standard Cantonese. However, as Cantonese is the lingua franca of Guangdong province, most locals will be able to speak and understand standard Cantonese. Mandarin is the primary language of instruction in all schools so most younger individuals would also be reasonably fluent in it.
| Routes through Taishan |
| Beijing ← Jinan ← | N  S |
→ Xuzhou → Shanghai |
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Category: Outline articles
   | China Taishan Web - Taishan International Web - English Version Introduction |
| | Taishan City Government - OFFICIAL WEB OF TAISHAN |
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