# Taipei
## English
### Alternative forms

* Tʻai-pei (Wade–Giles)
* Taibei (Hanyu Pinyin)
* Taipeh (Postal Romanization)

### Etymology

19th c., from Wade–Giles romanization of Mandarin 臺北／台北 (Tʻai²-pei³, literally “Taiwan north”), composed of 臺／台 (tái) (short for Taiwan) and 北 (běi, “north”).

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /taɪˈpeɪ/, enPR: tīʹpāʹ
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* enPR: tīʹbāʹ
* Rhymes: -eɪ

### Proper noun

Taipei
* The capital city of and a special municipality of Taiwan, located in the northern part of the island of Taiwan. [from late 19th c.]
** 1896, J. D. Clark, Formosa‎, Shanghai: Shanghai Mercury, →OCLC, page 44:In 1885 Governor LIU determined to reconstruct Taipei and make it the temporary capital until, the railway having on its way to Taiwan reached the old town of Changhua, in about the middle of Formosa, he should build a city near that place and make it, under the name of Taiwan, the capital of the province of Taiwan.
** 1947 February 1, “China”, in Foreign Commerce Weekly‎, volume XXVI, number 5, Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 14, column 2:Radiotelephonic communications were established in November 1946 between Taipei and Canton, thus augmenting the line already existing between Taipei and Shanghai. The Chinese National Aviation Corporation, which operated air service between Shanghai and Taipei three times a week, has added weekly air service between Foochow and Taipei. The Southwest Aviation Corp. is reportedly planning a Canton-Taipei air service, and damaged Japanese military transport aircraft have been under repair for use on this route.
** 1964 November, “New Look at Changing China”, in National Geographic Magazine‎, volume 126, number 5, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 641, column 2:The “Beautiful Island” wears a necklace of rails and new roads dangling from Taipei, such as the 17-mile MacArthur Expressway linking the capital to the seaport of Chilung. Taiwan has two other international seaports —recently opened Hualien, on the east coast, and Kaohsiung, facing the mainland a scant 200 miles away.
** 2000, Shui-Bian Chen, “Learning and Transformation”, in David J. Toman, transl., The Son of Taiwan: The Life of Chen Shui-Bian and His Dreams for Taiwan‎, Taiwan Publishing Co., Ltd., →ISBN, →OCLC, page 19:In my bid for re-election as mayor of Taipei, I lost to Ma Ying- jeou, representing the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan's ruling party. Analysis of the election results revealed that the overwhelming majority of "mainlanders"² in Taipei cast their votes for Mr. Ma.
** 2005, Bill Clinton, My Life‎, volume I, New York: Vintage Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 219:Years later, when I was governor, I found myself in the same hotel with Nureyev in Taipei, Taiwan.
** 2014, Lu Hsiu-lien, Ashley Esarey, My Fight for a New Taiwan‎, University of Washington Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, pages 19–20:We lived in the county of Taoyuan, in northern Taiwan, around twenty-five miles south of the capital of Taipei.
** 2022 April 14, Ben Blanchard, “Six U.S. lawmakers arrive in Taiwan on unannounced trip”, in Raissa Kasolowsky, editor, Reuters‎, archived from the original on 14 April 2022, Asia Pacific:The bipartisan group, which will meet with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Friday morning on their two-day visit, arrived at Taipei's downtown Songshan airport on a U.S. Air Force aircraft and were greeted by Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu.
** For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Taipei.
* A former county of Taiwan, which became New Taipei City. [from 20th c.]
** 2008, Scott B. Freiberger, “Taiwan From A to Z”, in Taipei in a Day‎, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 123, column 1:A century ago, the cities of Taipei County were rustic faming societies made up of mostly aboriginal tribes. After the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan in 1949 the area met with a vast influx of Chinese immigrants, and during the 1950s and 1960s small manufacturing facilities began appearing. Taipei County has since become a Taiwanese melting pot of sorts as young people relocate from overseas and southern parts of the island for advanced schooling and settle in the area.
** 2011 March, Robert Kelly, Joshua Samuel Brown, “Northern Taiwan”, in Taiwan (Lonely Planet)‎, 8th edition, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 120, column 1:C is for Ceramics. C is for - Yingge? Well, not quite, but ‘Yingge is for ceramics’ is something almost any Taiwanese can chant. This little town in the very southern part of Taipei County lives by and for the production of high- and low-quality ceramic and pottery objects: everything from cupboard handles to Song-dynasty vases.
** For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Taipei.
* (metonymically) The government of the Republic of China (Taiwan). [from 20th c.]
** 1992, Richard Nixon, “The Pacific Triangle”, in Seize the Moment‎, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 181:In the Shanghai Communiqué of 1972, we recognized the fact that both Beijing and Taipei viewed Taiwan as part of China but unequivocally expressed our support for a peaceful settlement of the unification issue. While we should not alter the fundamental pillars of our policy, we should consider certain steps that will raise Taiwan's international standing.
** 2003, “Decisive Dates”, in Vivien Kim, editor, Taiwan (Insight Guides)‎, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 19, column 2:1993 The first official governmental contacts between Taipei and Beijing take place in Singapore.
** For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Taipei.

#### Usage notes

* Since the immediate aftermath of World War II, the city has almost universally been known as Taipei. The Taiwan (ROC) government's official name for the city is Taipei, which has been adopted by geographic naming databases, international organizations, and by many other reference sources.
* The choice between the Hanyu Pinyin-derived name Taibei and the Wade–Giles-derived name Taipei may be interpreted as having political overtones.
* Taipei was first used in the late 19th century, but during the Japanese rule of Taiwan (1895-1945), Taihoku became the more commonly-used name.

#### Synonyms

* (abbreviation) TPE
* (from Japanese) Taihoku, Daihoku

#### Derived terms

* Chinese Taipei
* New Taipei, New Taipei City

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ Leon E. Seltzer, editor (1952), “Taipei, Taipeh, or T'ai-pei”, in The Columbia Lippincott Gazetteer of the World‎, Morningside Heights, NY: Columbia University Press, →OCLC, page 1864, column 3
* ↑ “China”, in Foreign Commerce Weekly‎, volume XXII, number 7, Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, United States Department of Commerce, 1946 February 16, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 26, column 2: “Although there is no indication that ideographs will be changed, Chinese readings rather than Japanese will be followed for place names. Taihoku, for example, will be read in our alphabet as Taipei. This city presumably will continue to be the capital of Taiwan.”
* 1 2 Taipei, Taipeh, Taihoku, T'ai-pei, Tai-pei, Taibei at the Google Books Ngram Viewer. (Archived)
* ↑ Alka Acharya, G. P. Deshpande (2002 December) “A Taibei Diary”, in Economic and Political Weekly‎, volume 37, number 49, Mumbai, →JSTOR, page 4904, column 1: “The whole world spells the name of the capital of Taiwan with a 'p' rather than a 'b'.”
* ↑ Fish, Isaac Stone (2016 January 15) “Stop Calling Taiwan a ‘Renegade Province’”, in Foreign Policy‎, archived from the original on 2016-01-15‎: “Mainland Chinese use a system for transcribing Chinese words into English letters called Pinyin, while Taiwan uses a system called Wade-Giles. “Taipei” is the Taiwanese spelling; Beijing prefers “Taibei,” the Pinyin version.”

### Further reading

* “Taipei”, in Collins English Dictionary.
* “Taipei, pn.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* “Taipei”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
* “Taipei”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
* “Taipei” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.

## Afrikaans
### Proper noun

Taipei
* Taipei (the capital city of Taiwan)

#### Derived terms

* Nieu-Taipei
* Taipeier
* Taipeis

## French
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /taj.pɛj/

### Proper noun

Taipei m
* Taipei (a city in Taiwan)

## Italian
### Proper noun

Taipei ?
* Taipei (a city in Taiwan)

## Japanese
### Romanization

Taipei
* Rōmaji transcription of たいぺい
* Rōmaji transcription of タイペイ

## Portuguese
### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /tajˈpej/ [taɪ̯ˈpeɪ̯]
* (Portugal) IPA: /tajˈpɐj/
* (Portugal) IPA: /tajˈpɐj/
** (Northern Portugal) IPA: /tajˈpej/
** (Central Portugal) IPA: /tajˈpej/
** (Southern Portugal) IPA: /tajˈpe/
* Hyphenation: Tai‧pei

### Proper noun

Taipei m
* Alternative form of Taipé