Zhudong

Zhudong is an urban township in central Hsinchu County, Taiwan, covering 53.51 square kilometres and home to about 96,500 people in February 2023. It lies roughly twenty minutes by road from the centre of Hsinchu and is served by freeway routes 3 and 68. Part of the Hsinchu Science Park is in the township, and the main campus of the Industrial Technology Research Institute is located there. Qing colonists settled the area in the mid-18th century and it was then known as Chhiu-ki-na or Shuqilin, meaning Ardisia sieboldii forest. Under Japanese rule it was renamed Chikuto in 1920, a name kept as Zhudong after the Republic of China took over in 1945. The name literally means bamboo east, since zhu is short for Hsinchu and the township lies east of that city. Four Taiwan Railway stations serve it, and visitors can walk up Feifong Shan and visit the Zhudong Animation and Comic Creative Park.