Houlong


Houlong Township is an urban township in western Miaoli County, Taiwan. It is bordered by the Taiwan Strait on the west and Zaoqiao Township on the east. It lies at the mouth of the Houlong River.

Name

The township's name originates from that of a Taiwanese Plains Aborigines settlement. During the Kingdom of Tungning, the area was called Aulangsia. Other variants of Aulang existed. In 1920, during Japanese rule, the place was renamed Kōryū Village, under, Shinchiku Prefecture. This name closely matched the Japanese pronunciation of the previous names but with different kanji. This written form was retained after the Kuomintang takeover of Taiwan in 1945; the characters are pronounced Hòulóng in Mandarin Chinese. The Taiwanese Hokkien pronunciation remains Āu-lâng, based on the pre-1920 name.

Geography

It lies at the mouth of the Houlong River.

Administrative divisions

The township comprises 23 villages: Beilong, Dashan, Dazhuang, Dongming, Fengfu, Funing, Fuxing, Haibao, Haipu, Jiaoyi, Longjin, Longkeng, Nangang, Nanlong, Puding, Shuiwei, Waipu, Wanbao, Xinmin, Xiushui, Xizhou, Zhonghe and Zhonglong.

Education

Houlong Township is accessible from Dashan Station, Houlong Station, Longgang Station and Fengfu Station of the Taiwan Railway Administration. Taiwan High Speed Rail has one station in the township, which is Miaoli Station.

Notable natives