The first administrative divisions entitled "districts" were established in the 1900s, when Taiwan was
under Japanese rule. After
World War II, nine out of eleven
prefectural cities established by the Japanese government were reformed into provincial cities. These were
Changhua,
Chiayi,
Hsinchu,
Kaohsiung,
Keelung,
Pingtung,
Taichung,
Tainan, and
Taipei. The
wards (
ku) and towns (
machi) under those cities were merged into larger districts. At the same time, the
districts (
kun) under
prefectures were also reformed as county-controlled districts. In August 1950, another administrative division reform was undertaken, leading to a reduction in the size of
counties and all
townships becoming directly administered by counties. County-controlled districts were all made defunct in this reform. At the same time, provincial cities including Changhua, Chiayi, Hsinchu, and Pingtung were downgraded to
county-administered cities, of which certain districts also became defunct. This made districts a type of division exclusively under the five remaining
provincial cities: Kaohsiung, Keelung, Taichung, Tainan, and Taipei. When Taipei was promoted to a
special municipality by the
central government in 1967, several
townships surrounding the city were merged into Taipei City and reorganized as its districts. Afterwards, through another reorganization in 1990, the 12 current districts were formed. In addition, Kaohsiung, the largest city in southern Taiwan, was promoted to a special municipality in 1979. Siaogang Township was merged into
Siaogang District. In December 2010, four new special municipalities were established, namely Kaohsiung,
New Taipei, Taichung, and Tainan. Subsequently, all the county-administered cities and townships in Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, and Taipei counties were reformed as districts of the new Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, and New Taipei cities, respectively. Their names, nevertheless, remained the same. The same thing was done to
Taoyuan on 25 December 2014, with the addition of 13 new districts. These municipalities and provincial cities use "district administrative centers" to serve residents of these districts. The directors of these districts and administrative centers are appointed by the mayors, with four years per term. On 4 February 2014, six districts were reclassified as "Special Municipal Mountain Indigenous District" (, shortened as "Mountain Indigenous District" ()):
Wulai in New Taipei,
Fuxing in Taoyuan,
Heping in Taichung, along with
Namasia,
Maolin, and
Taoyuan in Kaohsiung. ==Districts in Taiwan==