Zhongli District (Chinese:中壢區; pinyin:Zhōnglì Qū) is a district in Taoyuan City, Taiwan. Zhongli is spelled variously as Jungli, Jongli, Jhongli or Chungli on railway stations, bus stops and road signs. Historically, the city is the site of the Zhongli Incident of 1977, the most significant event of the democratization movement prior to the 1980s. Ethnically, it is considered a capital city for Hakka Taiwanese, who live in great numbers here and in surrounding areas; many elderly persons can speak Hakka in addition to Mandarin and Taiwanese Hokkien.[1] In recent years many foreign workers (mainly from the Philippines and Thailand) have also settled in and around the city due to the heavy industry in the suburbs of the city, making it a center for foreign laborers.[2] The district of Zhongli has three large parks and over 70 green reserves.
Zhongli District is the busiest district in Southern Taoyuan (南桃園), as well as the location of the Taoyuan HSR station.
History
Map of Zhongli (labeled as CHŪREKI) and surrounding area (1944)
Zhongli's population was estimated at 426,326 in March 2023, including 10,084 Taiwanese aborigines.[5] Zhongli is subdivided into 85 villages, with the eight biggest but least populated villages on the western side of the district (39 square kilometers but with 35,000 people),[citation needed] while the eastern side is occupied by industrial factories and the heart of the metropolitan area. This reflects the imbalance of development of western and eastern Zhongli.
Zhongli TRA Station is surrounded by shops on the street, and Zhongli also has a SOGO-branched department store. Zhongli Night Market opens daily, usually from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. In addition, there are two shopping districts: Ta-tung (大同商圈) and Jung-ping (中平商圈), both within half an hour's walk from the Zhongli train station.[6]
Industry
The Zhongli–Neili Industrial Park was established in December 1976. This is a combined multipurpose industrial park, controlled by Taiwan's Economic Bureau, with a total area of 433 sq. yards. There are currently 480 companies that have built either factories or offices here, belonging to electronic, metal, chemical, mechanical, food, textile and plastic manufacturers.
Education
Library
Zhongli District Library, four floors of books, allowed to be borrowed for a month
Zhongli is centered around the Zhongli railway station, the third-busiest railway station in Taiwan. There is also the Neili railway station and the under-construction Chungyuan railway station. The Taoyuan HSR station on the Taiwan High Speed Rail (THSR) is a 15-minute drive from central Zhongli. There are free shuttle buses from central Zhongli to the THSR station every 15–20 minutes. The Taoyuan Airport MRT has been open to the public since 2017. An extension of this MRT line from Huanbei Station (A21) to the TRA station is still under construction as of October 2022. Laojie River Station (A22) opened on 31 July 2023, while Zhongli Railway Station (A23) is expected to open in 2028. In addition, the Taiwan Railway Zhongli Station provides conventional train connections to other Taiwanese cities.
