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Updates: 

Census data shown below come from spreadsheets sent to me by Jose Gavinha, Mario Pezza, and David T. Wong.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). Both of them use "Taiwan, Province of China" as the official name of this area (which is a slight misnomer, as it neglects the ROC part of Fukien).

Under this heading, the draft standard listed all the divisions mentioned above on both levels: two provinces, two special municipalities, sixteen districts, and five municipalities. There was an unexplained overlap: Taiwan province actually included the territory of all sixteen districts and five municipalities. Each division was given a three-letter code. Whenever possible, the IATA airport code for the division's main city was used; elsewhere, the ISO working group assigned arbitrary three-letter abbreviations. There were some ambiguous codes. TNN represented both Tainan district and Tainan municipality, which are actually disjoint but adjacent entities on the secondary level. KHH represented both Kaohsiung special municipality and Kaohsiung district, which are not only disjoint but on different levels.

The final standard lists two special municipalities, five municipalities, and sixteen districts; the two provinces were dropped. Also, the name and code of one municipality were changed from Chilung (CHI) to Keelung (KEE). (Chilung and Keelung are alternate romanizations of the same Chinese name.) Dropping the two provinces avoids dual coverage of Taiwan province, but now the ROC-administered part of Fukien province, consisting Quemoy, Matsu, and other islands, is not covered by any code in the standard. The duplicate codes were still a problem, until ISO 3166-2 Newsletter number I-4 was issued on 2002-12-10. It modified the codes for six of the districts, eliminating duplicate codes.

Country overview: 

Short name	TAIWAN
ISO code	TW
FIPS code	TW
Language	Chinese (zh)
Time zone	+8
Capital	Taipei

 

Taiwan belonged to Japan in 1900, as a spoil of the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. When World War II ended, Taiwan returned to Chinese rule. As Communists extended their control throughout mainland China, the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-Shek retreated to Taiwan. At present, the position of most governments and international organizations is that there is only one China. The open question is whether its legitimate government is the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing, or the Republic of China (ROC) in Taipei. According to the ROC government, the provinces of China still stand as they did in 1949. The province which the ROC calls Fukien is the same as the one which the PRC, using Pinyin transcription, calls Fujian. However, in the listing below, only the area and population under the control of the ROC are shown.

Other names of country: 

1. Chinese: Chung-hua Min-kuo (formal)
2. Danish: Taiwan, Formosa (obsolete)
3. Dutch: Taiwan, Republiek China (formal)
4. English: Taiwan Province of China, Republic of China (formal), Formosa (obsolete)
5. Finnish: Taiwan, Kiinan tasavalta (formal)
6. French: Taïwan Province f de Chine, République f de Chine f (formal), Formose (obsolete)
7. German: Taiwan n, Republik f China n (formal)
8. Icelandic: Taívan
9. Italian: Taiwan
10. Portuguese: Taiwan, Formosa f, Taipé Chinês, República f da China f (formal)
11. Spanish: Taiwán
12. Swedish: Taiwan

Origin of name: 

Chinese tai: terrace, wan: bay, referring to a harbor on the western coast

Primary subdivisions: 

Taiwan is divided into two provinces and two special municipalities.

Province	HASC	FIPS	Pop-2000	Pop-1990	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Fukien	TW.FK	TW01	74,050	107,454	182	70	(Fuzhou)
Kaohsiung	TW.KH	TW02	1,493,806	1,380,663	154	59	Kaohsiung
Taipei	TW.TP	TW03	2,624,257	2,760,475	272	105	Taipei
Taiwan	TW.TW	TW04	18,108,816	16,145,036	35,570	13,734	Chung-hsing-hsin-tsun
4 divisions			22,300,929	20,393,628	36,178	13,968
Province: except Kaohsiung and Taipei, which are chuan-shih (special municipalities). HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4. Pop-2000: 2000-12-16 census Pop-1990: 1990-12-16 census

 

Notes: Chung-hsing-hsin-tsun is translated Chunghsing New Village. Fuzhou is in the PRC's part of Fukien.

Further subdivisions:

See the Counties of Taiwan page.

On a secondary level, the provinces of Taiwan and (the ROC part of) Fukien are subdivided into hsien (counties, districts) and shih (municipalities, cities). Kaohsiung and Taipei don't have any subdivisions at this level.

Territorial extent: 

1. Fukien province consists of two island groups, each constituting a hsien. One of them is Kinmen (islands of Quemoy (Kinmen), Tatan Tao, Hsiaochinmen Tao, Tungting Tao). The other is Lienkiang (islands of Matsu, Changhsu Chan, Tungyin Tao, Tungchuan Tao).
2. Kaohsiung includes the area around Kaohsiung city on the main island, and the island of Liuch'iu Yü.
3. Taipei is completely surrounded by Taiwan province.
4. Taiwan province includes the Penghu island group, called the Pescadores (fisherman islands) by early Portuguese explorers, and some smaller islands: Pengchia Yü, Chihwei, Kueishan, Huoshao, and Hungfou Hsü (Lan Yü).
5. Taiwan, as a country, also claims the Spratly and Paracel Islands.

Origins of names: 

Taipei means "Taiwan north".

Change history: 

1. 1967: Taipei special municipality split from Taiwan province.
2. ~1989: Capital of Taiwan province moved from Taichung to Chung-hsing-hsin-tsun.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Fukien: Fuchien, Fujian (variant)
2. Kaohsiung: Gaoxiong (Pinyin)
3. Taipei: Taibei (Pinyin); Taipé (Portuguese); Taipeh (German, Italian)

Sources:

1. [1] Statistical Yearbook of the Republic of China 1992. Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Executive Yuan, Republic of China, 1992.