Houlong

Houlong Township
Houlong Township
Chinese	後龍鎮
Hanyu Pinyin	Hòulóng Zhèn
Wade–Giles	Hou4-lung2 Chen4
Pha̍k-fa-sṳ	Heu-liùng-chṳ́n
Hokkien POJ	Āu-lâng-tìn

Houlong Township
後龍鎮

Houlung
Houlong Township; 後龍鎮 Houlung
Urban township
	Houlong Township in Miaoli County
Location	Miaoli County, Taiwan
Area
• Total	75.81 km2 (29.27 sq mi)
Population (January 2023)
• Total	34,355
Website	www.houlong.gov.tw (in Chinese)

24°37′N 120°47′E / 24.617°N 120.783°E / 24.617; 120.783

Houlong Township^[1] 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.^[2] It lies at the mouth of the Houlong River. Miaoli HSR station is located in Houlong.

Name

The township's name originates from that of a Taiwanese Plains Aborigines settlement. During the Kingdom of Tungning, the area was called Aulangsia (Chinese: 後壠社). Other variants of Aulang existed (e.g., Chinese: 凹浪/後壟; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Āu-lâng).^[3] In 1920, during Japanese rule, the place was renamed Kōryū Village (Japanese: 後龍庄), under Chikunan District (竹南郡), Shinchiku Prefecture. This name closely matched the Japanese pronunciation of the previous names but with different kanji (Chinese characters). 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

Map of western Houlong area (1944)

Area: 75.81 square kilometres (29.27 sq mi)
Population: 34,355 (January 2023 estimate)^[4]

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.