<p><b>Anping District</b> is a <a href="/pages/w/247394815285922">district</a> of <a href="/pages/w/109726929054448">Tainan City</a>. In March 2012, it was named one of the <i>Top 10 Small Tourist Towns</i> by the Tourism Bureau of Taiwan.</p><h2>Name Origin</h2><p>The older placename derives from the ethnonym of a nearby <a href="/pages/w/111026948926674">Taiwanese aboriginal</a> tribe, and was written by the Dutch and Portuguese variously as <i>Taiouwang</i>, <i>Tayowan</i>, etc. In his translations of Dutch records, missionary <a href="/pages/w/110107009041566">William Campbell</a> used the variant <i>Tayouan</i> and wrote that <i>Taoan</i> and <i>Taiwan</i> also occur. As Dutch spelling varied greatly at the time (see <a href="/pages/w/237582736266419">History of Dutch orthography</a>), other variants may be seen. The name was also transliterated into Chinese characters variously as,,,, and 梯窝灣.</p><p>After the Dutch were ousted ca. 1661 by <a href="/pages/w/111944378822924">Koxinga</a>, Han immigrants renamed the area as "Anping", after the <a href="/pages/w/111165975602439">Anping Bridge</a> in <a href="/pages/w/107415752621602">Quanzhou</a>, <a href="/pages/w/115811821766818">Fujian</a>. Soon after <a href="/pages/w/120244568022339">Qing rule of Taiwan</a> was established in 1683, the name "Taiwan" (臺灣) was officially used to refer to the whole island with the establishment of <a href="/pages/w/175045342605435">Taiwan Prefecture</a>.</p><h2>History</h2><p>The history of Anping dates back to the 17th century, when the <a href="/pages/w/105554826144870">Dutch East India Company</a> occupied a "high sandy down" called <i>Tayouan</i> and built <a href="/pages/w/143325299011631">Fort Zeelandia</a>. The Dutch moved their headquarters to Tayouan after leaving the <a href="/pages/w/112847295407515">Pescadores</a> in 1624. Due to silting, the islet has joined with mainland Taiwan.</p>