Motor scooters crowd a street in Tainan, Taiwan, 2015. Tainan, literally "Taiwan South", is a special municipality located in southern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait in the west and south. Tainan is the oldest city in Taiwan and also commonly known as the "Capital City" for its over 200 years of history as the capital of Taiwan under Koxinga and later Qing dynasty rule. Tainan's complex history of comebacks, redefinitions and renewals inspired its popular nickname "the Phoenix City".