Names of Taiwan towns and cities and villages.... ODD NAMES!

In some countries far far away, some towns have strange weird names that are funny, too. For example, there’s BORING, OREGON in the USA and NORMAL, OKLAHOMA and HONOLULU, ALASKA, among others. Someone on another post here said there is a STARBUCK, WASHINGTON too, and I am sure that Australia and NZ and the UK have many weird and interesting place names, out of the ordinary. There’s also a place called LAND’S END in Alaska I heard. And ENOLA, TEXAS got its name from the word ALONE spelled backwards, really. Small town, few people, all alone. Go figure, as Sandman would say.

So … my question… in addition to listing the towns you know of anywhere with peculiar names… overseas … ARE THERE also place names here in TAIWAN that are peculiar in CHinese Mandarin? Like some place in the mountains called , literally, “NO FOOD HERE” or something?

Just curious.

My wife was born in a little place called “Tiger Tail” down south in Taiwan.

And didn’t Kaohsiung used to be called “Hit the dog”?

In my home state of Pennsylvania, one can travel on the turnpike and go through the towns of “Intercourse”, “Climax” and “Paradise”. Thus, if one is travelling in the correct direction, it is true that he would have to go through intercourse before he could get to climax and paradise. :wink:

Its true.

Jiu Fen or something like that, near Keelung. According to my Taiwanese friends it means “9 Deliveries” (or “9 Consignments” if you want) because 9 families used to live there and once in a while a boat came to deliver 9 packages.

My wife was born in a little place called “Tiger Tail” down south in Taiwan.

TIGERMAN: would that be HU WEI by any chance, in Yunlin County?

Can you write it in Chinese script here? Thanks.

Penn story LOL!

[quote=“formosa”]TIGERMAN: would that be HU WEI by any chance, in Yunlin County?

Can you write it in Chinese script here? Thanks.[/quote]

Yes it would and yes I can:

There’s lots of names like Jiufen. Just in that area there’s Wutu, Qiuu, Badu. In Xindian there’s Qizhang.

I like Jilong. It usedto be chicken coup (you still see those characters used sometimes), but they changed the charcters (said the same) to make it ‘original land’ or something.

Brian

I like Tucheng = “Dirt City” :smiley:

Oklahoma has a lot of strange town names, but “Normal” isn’t among them.

Arkansas, Illinois, and Virginia, however, all have places named “Formosa.” I wonder what the stories are behind those.

Spoken like a true Norman! Did you know that a fellow Norman is coming back to Taiwan after Chinese New Year?

cranky laowai: “Arkansas, Illinois, and Virginia, however, all have places named “Formosa.” I wonder what the stories are behind those.”

How did you find that out? Cool. Look into it and report back. Maybe early immigrants from Ye Olde Taiwan? Interesting.

by the way, what does TAIWAN really mean? TAI WAN? somebody once told me “terraced bay” but I don’t see no terraced bay here… WHa???

[quote=“formosa”]cranky laowai: “Arkansas, Illinois, and Virginia, however, all have places named “Formosa.” I wonder what the stories are behind those.”

How did you find that out? Cool. Look into it and report back. [/quote]
Homework? :shock: Not until I finish the 50 or so other projects I’ve been telling myself I’ll take care of…

For place names, check the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS) and the GEOnet World Place Names Server.

That’s a popular story, but probably not true. “Taiwan” probably comes from the name Aborigines gave to a village in the south of the island. AFAIK, the island has been known officially as Taiwan for about 320 years.

I hadn’t heard that. Thanks for the news. Did those SF rents finally get to be too much for him?

In general Chinese place names can strike me as somewhat odd.

My wife is from 龍潭 “Dragon Pond”; not too far away, you’ll find 永安 “Eternal Peace”, not to mention 新屋 “New House”.

What do I make of it? The dragon went from the pond to the new house and found eternal peace???

A big town nearby is called 桃園 “Peach Orchard?”, and if you go 30 km south you will find 新竹 “New Bamboo!”.

You got “three plows” and “six plows” in Taipei, Sanzhangli and Liuzhangli… heard this was one trying to upstage the other!