Jiaxian is a rural district in Kaohsiung City, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

. Located far from the coast, the township is regarded as a gateway to Taiwan's Central Mountain Range.

Situated at the intersection of Highway 20 (the Southern Cross-Island Highway

Southern Cross-Island Highway

The Southern Cross-Island Highway , also known as Taiwan Highway No. 20, links Tainan City, in Taiwan's Southwest, with Taitung, in Taiwan's East...

) and Highway 21, Jiaxian's downtown serves as a market center for local farmers and tourists. The most famous local crop is taro

Taro

Taro is a common name for the corms and tubers of several plants in the family Araceae . Of these, Colocasia esculenta is the most widely cultivated, and is the subject of this article. More specifically, this article describes the 'dasheen' form of taro; another variety is called eddoe.Taro is...

. Shops sell taro-flavored ice cream

Ice cream

Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...

, taro cookies, and other taro products. The township is also known for its bamboo shoot

Bamboo shoot

Bamboo shoots or bamboo sprouts are the edible shoots of many bamboo species including Bambusa vulgaris and Phyllostachys edulis. They are used in numerous Asian dishes and broths...

s and plum

Plum

A plum or gage is a stone fruit tree in the genus Prunus, subgenus Prunus. The subgenus is distinguished from other subgenera in the shoots having a terminal bud and solitary side buds , the flowers in groups of one to five together on short stems, and the fruit having a groove running down one...

s.

Jiaxian Bridge was torn down by rushing waters during Typhoon Morakot in August 2009. It was rebuilt with a budget of NT$

New Taiwan dollar

The New Taiwan dollar , or simply Taiwan dollar, is the official currency of the Taiwan Area of the Republic of China since 1949, when it replaced the Old Taiwan dollar...

560 million and re-opened in June 2010. The new bridge is 300 meters long, 21 meters wide, and is installed with a lighting system.

Geography

• Area
  Area
  Area is a quantity that expresses the extent of a two-dimensional surface or shape in the plane. Area can be understood as the amount of material with a given thickness that would be necessary to fashion a model of the shape, or the amount of paint necessary to cover the surface with a single coat...
  
  : 124.03 km²
• Population
  Population
  A population is all the organisms that both belong to the same group or species and live in the same geographical area. The area that is used to define a sexual population is such that inter-breeding is possible between any pair within the area and more probable than cross-breeding with individuals...
  
  : 8,434 people (end of 2004)

Much of the township is between 200 and 500 meters above sea level.

Villages

• Baolong Village (寶隆村)
• Datian Village (大田村)
• Dong'an Village (東安村)
• Guanshan Village (關山村)
• He'an Village (和安村)
• Xi'an Village (西安村)
• Xiaolin Village
  Xiaolin, Taiwan
  Xiaolin is a village in Taiwan in the rural township of Jiaxian, Kaohsiung County . It is in a largely agricultural area and was destroyed by a mudslide during Typhoon Morakot in 2009.-Typhoon Morakot:...
  
   (小林村)

In Taiwan, "village" (村) is a level of administrative division that under a rural township. The main town of Jiaxian is divided into three villages: Dong'an, Xi'an, and He'an.

Sights

• Jiaxian Fossil Museum
• Mount Zion , a Christian hamlet.