Nantou City

Nántóu City (南投市) is the administrative center of Nantou, taking its name from a Hoanya Plains Indigenous settlement first recorded in 1695. A sub-magistrate’s office was established here in 1759, and Lantian Academy, founded in 1831, is one of the county’s oldest surviving Qing dynasty era institutions. In 1957 the Taiwan Provincial Government relocated to the purpose-built Zhongxing New Village (中興新村) on the city’s eastern outskirts, making Nantou City a rare case of a place that was simultaneously county seat and provincial capital. With a population of roughly 96,000 it is the most densely settled part of the county; Nantou Theater, in operation since 1935, is one of Taiwan’s last surviving vintage second-run cinemas.