Local short name form

Official name

Area

Population

Capital

Currency

International telephone access code

ISO 3166 country codes

Car nationality plate code

Internet country code

GRC Country Code

   1,234.45

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

   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 

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

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 , surnames/family names , family name prefixes , forms of address , job titles 

   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:

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

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 lù) 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
島	Island
jiē 街	Street
lóu 樓	Floor (abbreviated to F in transliteration)
lù 路	Road, Boulevard
nòng/long 弄	Alley
xian 縣	Province
qī	“For the attention of” (literally “to open”), placed after the name of the person who is to open the letter – used on envelopes only.
室	Room
shiang/xiang 鄉 or zhen 鎮	Township
shou	“For the attention of” (literally “receive”), placed after the name of the person who is to open the letter. Is interchangeable with qī, but only shou can be used on postcards as there is nothing to open.
cun 村 or li 里	Village
xiàng 巷	Lane
zhī 之	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 

   A table containing information about the relevant position of elements within address blocks can be acquired 

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

   Note: This section last updated 4th March 2020

On 3^rd 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 

Taiwan - Postal code format graphic

Taiwan - Postal code format

Taiwan - Postal code specifics

Taiwan - Postal code regular expression

Taiwan - Postal code level of coverage

Taiwan - Postal code map

   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 

   Other language place name data can be acquired at http://www.grcdi.nl/otherlanguageplace.htm 

   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  * 
    Kaohsiung  
    New Taipei  
    Taichung 
    Tainan   
    Taipei    
    Taiwan  * 

Administrative districts graphic

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

   Tables of telephone number information/formats can be acquired – see http://www.grcdi.nl/telephone.htm