Taitung Prefecture

{{Short description|Historical administrative division in Taiwan}}

Taitung Prefecture ({{zh|t=臺東直隸州|poj=Tâi-tang Ti̍t-lē-chiu}}) was a division of Taiwan Province, which was created after 1887 during Qing rule.{{cite book |last1=Davidson |first1=James W. |authorlink=James W. Davidson |title=The Island of Formosa, Past and Present : history, people, resources, and commercial prospects : tea, camphor, sugar, gold, coal, sulphur, economical plants, and other productions |year=1903 |publisher=Macmillan & co. |url=https://archive.org/details/islandofformosap00davi |location=London and New York |ol=6931635M |page=[https://archive.org/details/islandofformosap00davi/page/244 244] }} The prefecture's seat of government, originally at Tsui-be (水尾; modern-day Ruisui, Hualien), was moved to Pi-lam (卑南; modern-day Taitung City) in 1888.{{cite book |title=Sketches from Formosa |year=1915 |last=Campbell |first=William |authorlink=William Campbell (missionary) |publisher=Marshall Brothers |location=London |url=https://archive.org/stream/sketchesfromtaiw00camprich#page/278/mode/2up |ol=7051071M |page=278 |quote=The eastern prefecture of TAI-TANG, made up of the two sub-prefectures of Pi-lam and Hoe-lian-kang, with head-quarters at the middle-eastern centre called Tsui-be.}} Plan to establish the sub-prefectures of Pi-lam ({{lang|zh|卑南}}) and Hoe-lian-kang ({{lang|zh|花蓮港}}) was aborted.

In 1895, with the Treaty of Shimonoseki and the successful Japanese invasion of Taiwan, the prefecture was reorganized as Taitō Chō in 1897 under Japanese rule.