Meanings
alternative also T'aitung · alternative also T'ai-tung · alternative Hanyu Pinyin Taidong
- A county in eastern Taiwan.
In 1995, an earthquake demolished a school in Taitung County, but fortunately this occurred at night when no students were inside.
1998, Robert Storey, Taiwan (Lonely Planet), 4th edition, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 145 more examples
A thorough reorganization and redivisioning of the island was now necessitated. In former days, Formosa comprised one complete prefecture, four districts and three sub-prefectures. Now the island became a province with four prefectures (Taipeh, Taiwan, Tainan, and Taitung), eleven districts, and three sub-prefectures.
1903, James W. Davidson, The Island of Formosa Past and Present, page 244In 1987 and 1988, 12 deaths among prisoners were questioned by Taiwan human rights groups. Incidents occurred in prisons and detention centers under the jurisdiction of both civil and military authorities. In one instance, eight prison guards were convicted in July for torturing to death a Taitung detention center prisoner. They received sentences ranging from 10 months to 4 years.
1989 February 28, “Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1988”, in United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Government Printing Office, page 785During the 1990s the annual landings of sailfish off Taiwan ranged between 600 and 2000 metric tons, of which approximately 54% came from waters off Taitung (eastern Taiwan).
2004 January 28, Wei-Chuan Chiang, Chi-Lu Sun, Su-Zan Yeh, “Age and growth of sailfish (Istiophorus platypterus) in waters off eastern Taiwan”, in Fishery Bulletin, volume 102, number 1, page 251The gray sand and rock coastline of Taitung county is almost 144 miles long, but few people live there, thanks to its penchant for typhoons and earthquakes. The Chinese did not establish themselves in the region until the late nineteenth century, and even by the 1970s few Mandarin-speaking Nationalist Chinese had made their way south to Taitung.
2010, Mei-Ling Hopgood, Lucky Girl, Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 36Taiwan could opt to conserve some of its fighters. It has an air base, Hualien, connected to a shelter tunneled into a mountain that is large enough to house 200 aircraft. Another smaller second facility, Taitung, also has been reported.²⁴ . . . ²⁴The larger of the two shelters is called Jiashan (also spelled Chashan), an aircraft sanctuary tunneled into a mountain next to Hualien air base, while a smaller shelter is located at the Taitung air base (Wendell Minnick, "Taiwan's Hidden Base Will Safeguard Aircraft," Defense News, May 3, 2010).
2016, Air Defense Options for Taiwan, RAND Corporation, →ISBN, →OCLC, →OL, page 17 - A city in and the administrative seat of Taitung County, in eastern Taiwan.
The "other cities" of Taiwan have their unique attractions: Hualien and Taitung on the remote east coast, quiet and friendly.
1973 October 8, “Island Beautiful With Much to See and Do”, in Newsweek, page 21A5 more examples
Early in the morning the group left by train for Taitung, the port of exit from where they would take a boat over the choppy ocean.
1958 August 12, Mrs. Peter J. Pankratz, “Visit to Orchid Island”, in The Mennonite, volume 73, number 31, page 485Before the widening of the eastern line, trains from Taipei could only travel as far as Hualien. Passengers going on to Taitung, had to either change trains or take a bus, which meant an additional three and a half hours journey.
1982 July 4, “Newly widened railway boost for East Taiwan”, in Free China Weekly, volume XXII, number 26, Taipei, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 1As of 11 p.m. local time (11 a.m. Eastern) Thursday, Nepartak was positioned about 225 miles south-southeast of Taipei and was headed northwest at nine miles per hour. The latest forecast information suggests landfall should occur about 5 a.m. local time close to Taitung City, which has a population of just over 100,000.
2016 July 7, Jason Samenow, “‘Exceptionally strong’ typhoon to slam Taiwan early Friday”, in The Washington Post, Washington, D.C.: The Washington Post Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 08 Jul 2016The Puyuma express train was carrying more than 300 passengers toward Taitung, a city on Taiwan's southeast coast when the accident took place.
2018 October 21, “Taiwan train accident leaves several dead, many injured”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 21 Oct 2018, NEWS“We are trying very hard to keep our rights here,” First Lieutenant Kai-Lin Chiang, 24, told NBC News during a visit to 7th Wing Airforce Base in Taitung, a city on the southeast coast.
2023 July 5, Richard Engel, Charlotte Gardiner, Larissa Gao, “Taiwan doesn’t see conflict as ‘imminent,’ but it’s preparing anyway”, in NBC News, archived from the original on 05 Jul 2023, WORLDSynonyms: TTT
Synonyms & antonyms
proper nounA city in and the administrative seat of Taitung County, in eastern Taiwan.
from Japanese
Origin
From Wade–Giles romanization of Mandarin 臺東/台東 (Táidōng, literally “eastern Taiwan”) Wade–Giles romanization: Tʻai²-tung¹, from Taitung Prefecture (臺東直隸州), created ca. 1887.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Chinese Cantonese 臺東 /台东, 台東
- 臺東 /台东county in Taiwan
- 台東county in Taiwan
Chinese Mandarin 臺東 /台东, 台東
- 臺東 /台东 (Táidōng)county in Taiwan
- 台東 (Táidōng)county in Taiwan
Japanese 台東
- 台東 (Taitō)county in Taiwan
Vietnamese Đài Đông
- Đài Đôngcounty in Taiwan
Cite this entry
Taitung. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Taitung
“Taitung.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Taitung. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Taitung,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Taitung.
Source: Taitung on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.