Tainan or T'ai-nan [key], special municipality (2010 pop. 1,840,257), W central Taiwan, on the Taiwan Strait. It was created in 2010 when Tainan city was merged with Tainan co. Tainan has industries producing metals, textiles, machinery, processed foods, and handicrafts. It is also a center for the marketing and processing of sugarcane, rice, peanuts, and salt, and there is an important fishing industry. Settled in 1590, Tainan is the oldest city of Taiwan. It was taken over by the Dutch and used as their headquarters from 1624 to 1662. It then became the island's capital under Koxinga and his son. It remained the political center of the island under the Ch'ing and was known as Taiwanfu, until the transfer of government to Taipei in 1885, when the city was renamed Tainan. A cultural center, it has many temples, the shrine of Koxinga, and a modern college of engineering.
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