Keelung

English

Alternative forms

• Kelung
• Kilung
• Kiirun

Etymology

From the Postal Romanization of the Nanking court dialect Mandarin 雞籠 (Jīlóng), from before the modern palatalization of /k/ to /tɕ/.

Pronunciation

• enPR: kēʹlo͝ongʹ

Proper noun

Keelung

1. A city in north-eastern Taiwan.
   • 1857, George H. Preble, “Sailing Directions and Nautical Remarks by Officers of the Late United States Naval Expedition to Japan”, in Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan‎^[2], Washington, D.C.: Alfred O. P. Nicholson, pages 377–378:

     SAILING DIRECTIONS FOR THE HARBOR OF KEELUNG, ISLAND OF FORMOSA.
     . . .
     Keelung harbor, or Keelung-taw, head (or promontory) is situated near the northeastern point of the island of Formosa.
     . . .
     Making and keeping Keelung island well to the eastward, the entrance may be approached without fear, as the soundings are deep, and free from hidden dangers....The town of Keelung is situated at the head of the harbor, about a mile from this last anchorage, and surrounded by extensive mud flats, bare at low water, and can only be approached by small boats at high tides.
     . . .
     There is a covered market or bazaar at Sowan Point, near the junk anchorage, and another in the town of Keelung.

   • 1866, Reports on Trade at the Ports in China Open by Treaty to Foreign Trade for the Year 1865‎^[3], Shanghai: Imperial Maritime Customs' Press, page 57:

     This trade is as yet undeveloped, but would increase were greater facilities for communication in existence. The principal imports at present are Coal and Rice, but in time of dearth the export from Formosa of the latter commodity is prevented by the Native authorities. Keelung Coal is brought over almost exclusively for the use of coasting steamers.

   • 1866 February 1, Reports from the Foreign Commissioners at the Various Ports in China, for the Year 1865‎^[4], London: Harrison and Sons, page 127:

     The mines of Keelung (Formosa) might also be made to furnish good coals, but they are for the present only used by steamers for want of better, and it was only towards the end of 1865, when other coals were very dear, that any Formosa coals were brought here and sold from 5 taels to 6½ taels.

   • 1873, “China”, in The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1868 (Annual Cyclopædia)‎^[5], number VIII, New York: D. Appleton & Company, page 115:

     The Island of Formosa suffered greatly from an earthquake which took place on December 18, 1867. The shock pursued almost a direct course over the island from Keelung to Yamsin, at which latter place it was felt very severely, as well in loss of life as in the destruction of property and houses, including a temple which had just been completed at a cost of $30,000.

   • 1887 October, F. H. H. Guillemard, “The Cruise of the 'Marchesa' to Kamschatka and New Guinea”, in Edinburgh Review‎^[6], number CCCXL, page 318:

     Keelung and Tamsui in the north of the island are the principal harbours ; the former town partly owes its prosperity to the proximity of some coal beds, which the Chinese have for a long time worked ' in the most primitive fashion ;' shafts were abandoned from having become flooded....The country round Keelung is charming in its rich green dress of bamboo groves and paddy ; but the odours of the town, which Mr. Taintor has stigmatised as the ' filthiest town in the universe,' are probably unrivalled.

   • 1896 October 24, “Earthquakes in Formosa”, in The Friend‎^[7], volume LXX, number 14, page 107:

     Years ago, at Keelung, rumbling sounds were heard, and the waters of the harbor receded until fish of all sizes were left wriggling and floundering in the mud and pools. Women and children rushed out to secure such rare and enticing prizes, but shrieks from the shore warned them of the return of the water. Back it came, furious as a charge of battle, overleaping its appointed bounds, and sweeping away all the houses in the low-lying land along the shore. The story of that tidal wave is handed down as one of the great catastrophes in history.

   • 1905 May 18, “The War on Sea and Land”, in The Independent‎^[8], volume LVIII, number 2946, page 1096:

     The Japanese have made extensive preparations for the defense of Formosa and the Pescadores. [For a description of the Pescadores and a map, see THE INDEPENDENT for February 16th.] The Pescadores Islands have been supplied with provisions and ammunition for two years and heavy guns mounted in strategic positions. In Formosa the ports of Keelung and Tamsui are strongly protected by mines. The garrison is estimated at 15,000 men. The island is declared to be under martial law and in a state of siege.

   • 1919 December, “More Coal in the East”, in South African Mining and Engineering Journal‎^[9], page 163:

     Good quality coal at present costs about 19 yen per ton at Keelung.

   • 1929, “Formosa, Japan's Island Province”, in R. Bruce Taylor, editor, Lands and Peoples : The World in Color‎^[10], volume IV, page 234:

     Added to other drawbacks to shipping, violent typhoons occur from four to five times a year during which the wind has been known to blow at a velocity of 125 miles an hour, while the rain falls in torrents. Keelung in the north has known years when there were 242 days of rain.

   • 1935 July 29, “SCORES FLEE TYPHOON”, in Santa Ana Journal‎^[11], volume 1, number 76, Santa Ana, Orange Co., Cal., page 1:

     More than 100 ships, including one with 160 passengers aboard, sought shelter tonight in Keelung, the principal port of Formosa, from a typhoon reported approaching.

   • 1943, Roy Chapman Andrews, Under a Lucky Star‎^[12], New York: Viking Press, page 78:

     It required a week to make repairs in Keelung; then we went northward to the Loo Choo Islands, that "Forgotten Kingdom of the East."

   • 1952, Robert Sherrod, History of Marine Corps Aviation in World War II‎^[13], Washington, D.C.: Combat Forces Press, page 417:

     On the morning of 5 September Cooley approached Keelung in destroyer Gary; it was ticklish—the Japanese initially refused to answer radio messages and nobody could be certain whether the troops on Formosa would obey the Emperor's Rescript, or whether they had even heard of it.
     The American ships got through the minefields all right, and were finally escorted to the dock by the Japanese, who decided to co-operate. With the help of a British colonel, a POW, who had organized the prisoners into companies, Cooley evacuated from Taipeh and Keelung 1,160 prisoners, mostly British, but also including 3 Australians, 12 Netherlanders, 69 Americans (of whom one was a corporal in the old 4th Marines). All prisoners were suffering from malnutrition, and 121 had to be left in hospitals for later evacuation.

   • 1968, Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships‎^[14], volume 3, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations, page 290:

     Helena's 1958 cruise in the Far East began 3 August. Her first port of call was Keelung, Taiwan, arriving 21 August. Next day students and faculty of the Taiwan National Defense College were received on board for a tour of the ship.

   • 1980 October 26, “People enjoy modern lifestyle”, in Free China Weekly‎^[15], volume XXI, number 42, Taipei, page 4:

     Today Kaohsiung and Keelung are the two busiest harbors in Taiwan, handling modern containerized traffic. At the time of Retrocession, they could accommodate ships only up to 8,000 tons.
     . . .
     Taiwan's main railway has been electrified, and an expressway has been built. It now takes only four hours to go from Keelung in the north to Kaohsiung in the south by train, or five hours by car.

   • 1997, Willem van Kemenade, translated by Diane Webb, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Inc.‎^[16], New York: Alfred A. Knopf, →ISBN, page 50:

     It was not until early-March that China announced its new round of surface-to-surface missile tests near the Taiwanese ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung, to be held from 8 to 15 March, partly coinciding with a new round of air-sea live-ammunition exercises, to be held from 12 to 20 March.

   • 2005, Bertil Lintner, Great Leader, Dear Leader: Demystifying North Korea under the Kim Clan‎^[17], Silkworm Books, →ISBN, page 103:

     In July 2002, the police in Taiwan seized 79 kilograms of high-grade heroin and arrested six suspects in a daring raid in the port city of Keelung.

   • 2014 February, Peter Dutton, Andrew S. Erickson, Ryan Martinson, editors, China's Near Seas Combat Capabilities‎^[18], Newport, R.I.: Naval War College, →ISBN, page 103:

     A retired senior PLA official alleges that PLA analysis has concluded that unexpected Global Positioning System (GPS) disruption likely caused the PLA to lose track of the second and third missiles of a three-missile salvo fired into the East China Sea 18.5 kilometers from Taiwan's Keelung naval port in March 1996, as part of a larger effort to deter what Beijing perceived to be pro-Taiwan independence moves.

   • 2021 January 29, Clarissa Wei, “A city guide to Taipei, Taiwan's culinary capital”, in National Geographic‎^[19], archived from the original on 29 January 2021:

     2. Keelung
     Around 15 miles north east of Taipei proper, in oceanside Keelung City, Keelung Night Market is a great place for seafood. With more than 60 vendors spread out across multiple blocks, it’s expansive, with a huge amount of variety. Go there for barbecue-sauce-coated squid, creamy butter crabs, eel noodles and plump oyster pancakes.

   • 2022 November 6, Damien Cave, Amy Chang Chien, “Taiwan’s Bomb Shelters: ‘A Space for Life. And a Space for Death.’”, in The New York Times‎^[20], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 06 November 2022, Taiwan Dispatch‎^[21]:

     There are nearly 700 bomb shelters in this city of 360,000 people, leading officials to declare that Keelung has a higher density of places to hide than anywhere else in heavily fortified Taiwan. And for a loosely organized band of urban planners, artists and history lovers, Keelung’s bomb shelters have become a canvas — for creative urban renewal and civil defense.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Keelung.

Synonyms

• (abbreviation) KEE
• Chi-lung, Chilung, Jilong
• Kelang

Descendants

• Translingual: Cryptococcus keelungensis, Cystobasidium keelungensis, Solicoccozyma keelungensis, Yarrowia keelungensis

Translations

a city in Taiwan

• Arabic: كِيلُونْغ m (kilunḡ), جِيلُونْغ m (jilunḡ), تْشِيلُونْغ m (tšilunḡ)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 基隆 (gei¹ lung⁴)

  Hokkien: 基隆 (Ke-lâng)

  Mandarin: 基隆 (zh) (Jīlóng)

• Japanese: 基隆 (キールン, Kīrun)
• Korean: 지룽(基隆) (ko) (Jirung)
• Russian: Цзилу́н m (Czilún)
• Vietnamese: Cơ Long (基隆)

Further reading

• Keelung, Chilung, Jilong at the Google Books Ngram Viewer.
• “Keelung”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “Keelung” in TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2024.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ki.luŋ/

Proper noun

Keelung ?

1. Keelung (a city in Taiwan)