The name Taoyuan literally means peach garden in Chinese and comes from the many peach trees that once grew across the land. Immigrants from Fujian Province and Guangdong province planted these peach trees during the Qing era, leading people to name the area Toahong before it became known as Taoyuan.
Taoyuan County officially became a special municipality of Taoyuan City on the 25th of December 2014. This change made it the latest new founding special municipality in Taiwan after the Executive Yuan approved upgrading Taoyuan from a county to a special municipality in June 2009.
Minnan people are one of the largest ethnic groups living in northern Taoyuan districts including Taoyuan city centre, Bade, Daxi, Dayuan, Guishan and Luzhu. More than 785,000 Hakka people live in southern Taoyuan rural areas such as Zhongli, Pingzhen, Yangmei, Longtan, Guanyin and Xinwu districts.
High-tech companies including Quanta, MiTAC, Inotera, Nanya Technology, HTC, CPT and AU Optronics have built or expanded factories in Taoyuan. Over 200 of Taiwan's top 500 manufacturing companies operate factories here where Taoyuan has led Taiwan in industrial output for nine straight years.
China Airlines moved into its new headquarters at Taipei Taoyuan International Airport on the 26th of March 2010. EVA Air maintains its headquarters in Luzhu District while the Asia Silicon Valley Development Agency was inaugurated on the 25th of December 2016 to foster innovation.