Fengyuan District (Chinese: 豐原區) is a district located in north-central Taichung, Taiwan on the south bank of the Dajia River. Fengyuan district is the third most populated district among former Taichung County, ranking after Dali and Taiping district. Fengyuan was recognized as Huludun in early times, meaning "gourd" in Chinese, for a gourd-shape pile of mud that was found in Fengyuan by the aborigines. The rice produced in Fengyuan is famous for its high quality and the bakery industry prospered in later decades. Because of its location of the intersection of Taiwan Railways AdministrationWestern Trunk line and Dongshi branch line, Fengyuan quickly expanded after World War II. It soon became one of the regions with great economic and cultural development in central Taiwan. After the merger of Taichung City and Taichung County in 2010, population and economic growth slowed slightly. so recently, fengyuan faces the challenge of being marginalized .
History
Before the arrival of the Han Chinese, the area of that is now Fengyuan was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines. Their name for the area, meaning "thriving pine forest", was transcribed into Chinese characters as 泰耶爾墩. Before the mid-18th century, the area was a territory of the Pazeh people, which they called Haluton. This name was adapted into Hokkien as Haloton (Chinese: 葫蘆墩; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Hô͘-lô͘-tun; lit. 'gourd mound').
Han immigration to the area began during late Qing rule. Liu Mingchuan gave the area a nickname of "little Suzhou" due to its prosperity and scenic beauty.
After World War II in 1945, the area was renamed to Fengyuan and was organized as an urban township of Taichung County. In 1950, it was made the capital of the county from the former capital Yuanlin after the separation of Changhua County and Nantou County from Taichung County. On 1 March 1976, Fengyuan was upgraded to a county-administered city due to its population. On 25 December 2010, Taichung County was merged with Taichung City and Fengyuan was upgraded to a district of the city with Xitun District as the capital of the city.
