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Global Sourcebook for International Data Management

                                         by Graham Rhind

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Taiwan

Global Sourcebook | Index | Properties

TAIWAN
TAIWAN

The diplomatic situation between Taiwan and Mainland China is complex, with the government of each claiming to be the true government of the other. Diplomatic recognition of either varies by country. Taiwan is de facto a separate entity and should be treated as such outside the realms of politics.

For supplementary information, see links to post office home pages here External, to postal code pages here External and to other personal name and addressing issues pages here External.

Table of Contents

Taiwan - Country information

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Local short name form

Official name

Area

Population

23 829 897 (2020) [1]

Capital

Currency

International telephone access code

886

ISO 3166 country codes

Car nationality plate code

RC

Internet country code

TW

GRC Country Code

TAI

Taiwan - Number format

   1,234.45

(where . indicates the decimal separator and , the thousands separator)

Taiwan - Date and time formats

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   Note: This section last updated 17th June 2021
   yyyy-mm-dd
   yyyy/mm/dd
   yyyy.mm.dd

Chinese separators are also used.

Formally, years in Taiwan are counted from the founding of the republic in 1912. Thus, 2007 corresponds to the 96th year of the republic. Informally, the Gregorian calendar is also used. To avoid confusion, the Gregorian calendar date year is always written in full. Also, the term gongyuan (公元, "common era") is used for Gregorian dates and minguo, (民國,"republic") for the Republic date.

   14:32 

Taiwan - Languages

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29 languages are spoken in Taiwan. The national language is Mandarin Chinese External, with 4 323 000 speakers. There are 2 366 000 speakers of Hakka Chinese External and 14 345 000 speakers of Min Nan Chinese External. For transliteration purposes (into Latin script), Taiwan uses the Wade-Giles External system.

Taiwan - Personal names

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Please refer to the chapter on China for a full discussion of Chinese personal names.

Taiwan differs from the Chinese norms in that the Taiwanese tend to hyphenate both their given names and to use both in this way:

   Hsieh Ou-yang

Some women add their husband’s name to their own surname upon marriage in this way:

   Chang Chiu Ya-chun

where Chang is her husband’s family name and Chiu is her maiden family name. She would be addressed as Taitai Chang. Other women retain their maiden names.

   Tables of names can be acquired: given names External, surnames/family names External, family name prefixes External, forms of address External, job titles External

Taiwan - Address formats

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   Note: This section last updated 31st March 2023

Taiwanese address formats tend to be shown differently according to the language in which they are written. Addresses written in Latin script are often translated as well as transliterated, so English thoroughfare strings and format is used:

image

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The format may also be written in this way (as it is formatted when written in Chinese script):

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The generic order of elements (if required) for addresses written in Latin script is:

   Personal name, floor, building number, alley, lane, section, street name, district, city or  province, postal code. 

Add a comma between each element. In Chinese this order is reversed.

F in the address means floor. In Taiwan, Roads and Streets (jiē and ) have names, whereas smaller streets (xiàng and nòng, normally translated as Lanes and Alleys) have numbers. Longer roads are divided into sections (duàn), and numbers commence anew in each section. The section number in the address is therefore essential for delivery purposes.

Jen means "town" and shiang "township".

The 之 character transliterates to a dash in Latin script. Thus 8之12 means 8-12.

Variable transliteration means that the same street name may be found written in several ways in Latin script – Chungshan, Zhongshan or ZhongShan for example.

When addresses are not translated, the following settlement, thoroughfare and (sub-)building types may be identified:

Mandarin English
shi 市 City
qu 區 District
duàn 段 Section
lin 鄰 Neighbourhood
hào 號 No. (number) – it is followed by a number
Island
jiē Street
lóu Floor (abbreviated to F in transliteration)
Road, Boulevard
nòng/long 弄 Alley
xian 縣 Province
image“For the attention of” (literally “to open”), placed after the name of the person who is to open the letter – used on envelopes only.
Room
shiang/xiang 鄉 or zhen 鎮 Township
shou image“For the attention of” (literally “receive”), placed after the name of the person who is to open the letter. Is interchangeable with , but only shou can be used on postcards as there is nothing to open.
cun 村 or li 里 Village
xiàng Lane
zhī Box/Appartment. It is followed by a number.

[2]

Longer roads are split into sections (duàn 段) and building numbering recommences from 1 or 2 at the border between each section. New numbers may be inserted, for example a new building between numbers 5 and 7 may be numbered 5-1. [3]

   Comprehensive tables of these strings can be acquired – see http:www.grcdi.nl/addresses.htm External
   A table containing information about the relevant position of elements within address blocks can be acquired External

Taiwan - Post office box

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For transliterated and translated texts, this is written P.O. Box.

Taiwan - Postal codes

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   Note: This section last updated 4th March 2020

On 3rd March 2020 Chunghwa Post announced that all 3+2 postal codes were becoming 3+3 postal codes. The first three digits remain unchanged from the previous format. The final three digits indicate the delivery zone. Taiwanese postal codes now have 3 or 3+3 digits, written after the city name. The 3+3 format may be found written as 6 consecutive digits or with a hyphen between the two parts of the code:

Expect to continue to find 3+2 codes in use for some time to come.

   Metadata containing postal code formatting rules, exceptions and regular expressions can be acquired External

Taiwan - Postal code format graphic

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image

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Taiwan - Postal code format

Taiwan - Postal code specifics

n/a.

Taiwan - Postal code regular expression

\A(\d{3,3}|\d{6,6}|\d{3,3}(-)\d{3,3})\Z

Taiwan - Postal code level of coverage

2

Taiwan - Postal code map

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Place names in Taiwan

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   Note: This section last updated 9th December 2015

Refer to Exonyms in Taiwan for full lists of place names in Taiwan in other languages.

   Alternate place name forms/postal code tables can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/settlements.htm External
   Other language place name data can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/otherlanguageplace.htm External

Taiwan - Administrative districts

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   Note: This section last updated 21st July 2016

Taiwan has 2 provinces (shown in the list below with an asterisk) and 5 special municipalities:

    Fujian External * 
    Kaohsiung External 
    New Taipei External 
    Taichung External
    Tainan External  
    Taipei External   
    Taiwan External * 

Administrative districts graphic

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Telephone numbers in Taiwan

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Taiwanese area codes have the length of 1-3 when called from abroad, and full numbers range in length between 8 and 9 digits.

References

  1. ^ citypopulation.de/en/taiwan/admin/ External 20230511
  2. ^ Some information in this table from: zhongruige.wordpress.com/2014/04/15/how-the-taiwanese-address-system-works/ External 20230331
  3. ^ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_addresses_in_Taiwan External 20230401

Every effort is made to keep this resource updated. If you find any errors, or have any questions or requests, please don't hesitate to contact the author.

All information copyright Graham Rhind 2024. Any information used should be acknowledged and referenced.