From Takow to Kaohsiung

Taiwan High Speed Rail (HSR) Stations

01 Nangang HSR Station (南港) Nangang District, Taipei City
02 Taipei HSR Station (臺北) Zhongzheng District, Taipei City
03 Banqiao HSR Station (板橋) Banqiao District, New Taipei City
04 Taoyuan HSR Station (桃園) Zhongli District, Taoyuan City
05 Hsinchu HSR Station (新竹) Zhubei City, Hsinchu County
06 Miaoli HSR Station (苗栗) Houlong Township, Miaoli County
07 Taichung HSR Station (台中) Wuri District, Taichung City
08 Changhua HSR Station (彰化) Tianzhong Township, Changhua County
09 Yunlin HSR Station (雲林) Huwei Townhship, Yunlin County
10 Chiayi HSR Station (嘉義) Taibao City, Chiayi County
11 Tainan HSR Station (台南) Gueiren District, Tainan City
12 Zuoying HSR Station (左營) Zuoying District, Kaohsiung City

05 Hsinchu (新竹) HSR

Hsinchu (新竹) HSR Station, is located on Gaotie (lit. “High Iron”; i.e., HSR) 7th Road (高鐵七路) in Zhubei (竹北) City, Hsinchu County, about 5km east of Hsinchu TRA Station in Hsinchu City.

. ...................(photo Wikipedia)

The name Zhubei (竹北) literally means “[Hsin]Chu North”, and this is the area of Hsinchu County immediately north of Hsinchu (HP: Xinzhu 新竹) [whereas counterintuitivly, Zhunan (竹南), to the south of Hsinchu, is actually across the county border in Miaoli County]. For details of the evolution of its name, see here.



06 Miaoli HSR Station (苗栗)

Miaoli HSR Station is located on Gaotie (lit. “High Iron”; i.e., HSR) 3rd Road (高鐵三路) in Houlong Township, Miaoli (苗栗; lit. "Seedling Chestnut", but actually a transliteration of the Taokas (道卡斯) plains aboriginal place name Bari,) County.

(photo THSR)

Houlong (後龍; lit. “Back Dragon”) is an example of a name with apparent meaning in Chinese, thus its Aboriginal origins is easily forgotten.
Transliterated from the Taokas name Auran into either Hakka or Hoklo Taiwanese using the characters 後壟 (or 壠; au-leng; lit. “Back + Raised-path-in-paddy-field”). This was changed to the present form 後龍 in 1920 under Japanese rule.
The accessible image of “paddy-field paths” located“behind” the village, is often assumed to have provided the true origin of the name, but this is not so.



07 Taichung HSR Station (台中)

Taichung HSR Station (台中; lit. “Taiwan’s Center”) is located on Zhanqu (lit. "Station District") 2nd Road (站區二路) in Wuri District, Taichung City, about 9km WSW of Taichung TRA Station, almost on the border with Changhua County.

The origin of the district’s name, Wuri (烏日; Hoklo: O-jit; lit. “Crow /Black Sun”) is not clear, suggestions include:
i) changed characters from earlier 湖日 (Hoklo: Ô͘-jit; lit. “Lake Sun”) supposedly from a distant view of the sun over a lake, ii) perhaps, from the way the river course meandered, creating an 凹入 (Hoklo: Au-jip; lit. “indentation”) in the earth; or
iii) transliteration of a long-forgotten Plains Aboriginal name.

For more details see Wuri District, Taichung City.







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