How to pronounce Cijin Island

Today’s the summer solstice—and in summer in Kaohsiung, one of the very best places to go is Cijin Island (旗津島), for its tropical beachy vibe.Formerly a peninsula, it was severed from the mainland in the 1960s to make a second entry point to Kaohsiung Harbor. Nowadays, it’s connected to the rest of the city by an undersea tunnel and a couple of ferry routes.Reaching Cijin Island by scooter ferry takes only 5–10 minutes.If you’re wondering about a visit, the answer is always yes. But deciding how to pronounce Cijin isn’t so easy…There are two complicating factors when it comes to pronouncing Cijin:Chinese is a tonal languageTaiwan has different ways of romanizing Chinese wordsLet’s ignore the tones for a moment—ignoring tones is something I’m unintentionally good at—and focus on the spelling.Although Taiwan has officially used the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system since 2009, the names of people and places often use historical forms.The place name Cijin uses the Tongyong Pinyin system,…