Tsai Ying-wen, the DPP candidate, said today that she favors “New Taipei City”.
And also some Tongyong-ists were out earlier to protest against the dreaded letter X.
Me, I think that calling the soon-to-be-abolished “Taipei County” “New Taipei City” would be an incredibly bad idea, given the increased chances for confusion with the real city of Taipei.
If they are going for something like New Delhi and Old Delhi, me thinks -asking forgiveness from Divea and other Indians in the forum- that that is not so as New Delhi is the modern, organized part of the city. Xinbei/New Taipei City lags behind in many aspects, starting with sidewalsk, parks, transportation, parking, schools, etc.
Ironically, one of the ads for the local elections says: kids spend thousands of hours comunting for a good education. Elect me and you’ll get good schools here where you live, so your kids can be happier… 
Note: when teh Ministry of Education increased the number of English lessons in Taipei County -what do you know, it was less than Taipei City!- the rich parents protested as then their kids couldn’t go to piano lessons and other extras, while poor parents were happy as they couldn’t afford buxiban. The clash continues, my local teacher friends say.
I just read that the KMT candidate has also come out in favor of “New Taipei City.”
Well, EYE am not going to sound so ridiculous. It’ll never catch on. Both Xinbei Shi and Xinbei City roll of the tongue with less effort…
Don’t apologise Icon. 
New Taipei?? Belittles Taipei City. And the direct translation of the Chinese is NEW NORTH CITY. NO “Tai” in it at all.
So maybe just call it New North City, Taiwan Or maybe make it a bit fancier with Nouveau Nord ?? Or El Norte ciudad.
New Taipei??? Nah.
La Nueva, Mejorada, Independizada y Homogenizada Real, Muy Leal y Honrosa Ciudad de Taipei del Norte.
The New, Improved, Independent, Homgenized Royal and Loyal Honored City of North Taipei
(someone give me a hand to translate this into Chinese. English does it no justice)
El ciudad real del norte formosa.
Or how bout in chinese just hsin shi (new city).
Uhm, isn’t part of Taipei County south, east and west of Taipei City?
Just asking…
I suggested on David’s R’s blog that perhaps Shuanghe — Twin Rivers 雙河 — a double reference to the Keelung and Danshui Rivers that cut through it, and to Chungho and Yungho (in English since Chinese is different). In English it is a common formation, Twin + descriptor.
Vorkosigan
[quote=“tommy525”]New Taipei?? Belittles Taipei City. And the direct translation of the Chinese is NEW NORTH CITY. NO “Tai” in it at all.
So maybe just call it New North City, Taiwan Or maybe make it a bit fancier with Nouveau Nord ?? Or El Norte ciudad.
New Taipei??? Nah.[/quote]
I thought it meant “New Taipei”
北市=Taipei
新北市= New Taipei
Still using that translation is bound to cause confusion, plus it hardly rolls of the tongue. Xinbei is at least unlikely to get confused with Taipei.
[quote=“Vorkosigan”]I suggested on David’s R’s blog that perhaps Shuanghe — Twin Rivers 雙河 — a double reference to the Keelung and Danshui Rivers that cut through it, and to Zhonghe and Yonghe (in English since Chinese is different). In English it is a common formation, Twin + descriptor.
Vorkosigan[/quote]
Would that get confused with “雙和” referring to Zhonghe and Yonghe? It would be better than 新北 though, and “雙 something” is commonly used in Chinese. As long as you didn’t translate it as “Twin Rivers” in English, sounds like a cattle ranch in Colorado.
'Cept for the problem that the government would put up heaven only knows how many signs reading “New Taipei City” and “Taipei City”, and putting those names on maps, Web sites, etc. (and spending a bundle of taxpayer money in the bargain).
And don’t get me started about adding “city” to signs, etc.
Now Zhou Xiwei is saying he likes “Greater Taipei City”.
Didn’t anyone tell him that “greater Taipei” already means something – and that what it means isn’t the same thing as the area currently known as Taipei County?
Perhaps the two entities could be renamed as Inner Taipei and Outer Taipei (內北市 and 外北市). That would be simple, clear and accurate, in both Chinese and English.
But then there’d be no more Taipei (or Taibei). There’d be just Neibei and Waibei.
But I suppose then Jilong, on the east, could be renamed eBay. 
Has anyone given any thoughts to street names in the new municipalities? Here in Taichung, for example, there is a single Zhongshan road that lies in more than one district. Or Wenxin Road which goes through three districts of the city, etc. However, many of the towns in Taichung County have road names identitical to those in Taichung City. For example, what is Fuxing Road becomes Zhongshan Road once you enter Wuri Township which will become Wuri District. Will the name of that Zhongshan Road and all of the other Zhongshan Roads from Heping Township to Wuqi Township now have to be changed once those become Heping and Wuqi districts?!?!?
I haven’t heard anything about this. I know many here are going to have a difficult time getting used to calling Dali, Taiping, and Fengyuan cities as districts. I imagine the same issues will affect New Taipei City as well as the combined Tainan and Kaohsiung municipalities…
If they use the dreaded Tongyong Pinyin, it would be … horror of horrors! … “Sinbei City”! 
I heard that some actually argued that the X would be perceived as some form of crossing out. 
Maybe they should talk to the residents of Xiamen, Xieng Khong, or Xenia, Ohio.
Sinbad City would get worldwide recognition pretty fast !