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Toishan

Taishan
台山市
County-level city
Taicheng Subdistrict
Location of Taishan City (pink) within Jiangmen City (yellow) and Guangdong
Location of Taishan City (pink) within Jiangmen City (yellow) and Guangdong
Taishan is located in Guangdong
Taishan
Taishan
Location of the city centre in Guangdong
Coordinates: 22°15′N 112°47′E / 22.250°N 112.783°E / 22.250; 112.783Coordinates: 22°15′N 112°47′E / 22.250°N 112.783°E / 22.250; 112.783
Country People's Republic of China
Province Guangdong
Prefecture-level city Jiangmen
Area
 • Total 3,285.91 km2 (1,268.70 sq mi)
Population (2010 census)
 • Total 941,095
 • Density 290/km2 (740/sq mi)
Time zone China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code 529200 - 529267
Area code(s) 750
Taishan
Chinese
Postal Toishan
Former names
Xinning
Traditional Chinese
Simplified Chinese
Postal Sunning

Taishan, formerly romanized in Cantonese as Toishan, in local dialect as Hoisan, and formerly known as Xinning or Sunning, is a county-level city in southwestern Guangdong, China. It is administered as part of the prefecture-level city of Jiangmen. During the 2010 census, there were 941,095 inhabitants, of which 394,855 were classified as urban. Taishan calls itself the "First Home of the Overseas Chinese". An estimated half a million Chinese Americans are of Taishanese descent.

Taishan is located in the Pearl River Delta in southwestern of Jiangmen Prefecture. It contains 95 islands and islets, including Shangchuan Island, the largest island in Guangdong now that Hainan has become a separate province. Taishan is one of Guangdong's "Four Counties" (Sze Yup), which excluded Heshan and is now part of the Greater Taishan Region.

During the Ming dynasty, the area of present-day Taishan was carved out of Xinhui County on 12 February 1499 as Xinning County. Xinning was a source of migrant and emigrant workers, but a series of natural and political disasters in the 19th century exacerbated the situation. Aside from the disruption of the Sea Ban regulations (Haijin) themselves, their revocation led to an influx of northern settlers who began long-running feuds with the returning locals; this erupted into full-scale war in the 1850s and '60s. The 1842 Treaty of Nanjing that ended the First Opium War opened China to greater foreign trade just before the California Gold Rush made the prospect of emigration to the United States appealing. Many also served as "coolie" contract workers abroad, as in Hawaii and Cuba and—most famously—for the Central Pacific half of America's Transcontinental Railroad, where the Chinese made up 80% of the company's workforce as they laid track over the mountains and deserts of the west. By 1870, there were 63,000 Chinese in the United States, almost all in California.


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