An-p’ing

An-p'ing

An-p’ing, Pinyin Anping, seaport and former town, now a city district (ch’ü, or qu) of T’ai-nan special municipality, southwestern Taiwan. Situated on the Taiwan Strait, it is the traditional port for T’ai-nan.

An-p’ing is the oldest Chinese settlement in southern Taiwan, dating from the late 16th century. It is connected to central T’ai-nan by canal and by light railway. Until the late 19th century, An-p’ing was a busy port, with strong commercial connections with Fuzhou and Xiamen (Amoy) and other ports on the Chinese mainland. The harbour, however, was always shallow and subject to silting, and by the early 1970s it was largely reduced to use as a fishing harbour. The growth of nearby Kao-hsiung (Gaoxiung) to the south and the construction of the railway system, giving T’ai-nan access both to Kao-hsiung and to Chi-lung (Jilong, or Keelung) at the northern end of Taiwan, led to An-p’ing’s rapid decline as a commercial port. Pop. (2015 est.), 65,380.