Jiangsu Province 江 苏 省 简 介 - Yangzhou City 扬州市

Encompassing 6,678 square kilometers and with a population 4.47 million, Yangzhou was one of the most important cities on the Grand Canal and is a delightful place to visit, retaining to some degree the feeling of its rich cultural and historical traditions. A vehicular ferry from Zhenjiang crosses the Yangtze River and from the north bank the drive to Yangzhou took half-an-hour. The vehicular ferry from Zhenjiang crossing the Yangtze River and from the north bank the drive to Yangzhou was out of use after the completion of the Runyang Bridge润阳大桥in 2004. Many traditional arts and crafts are still practiced: lacquerware, paper-cuts, lanterns, embroidery, bonsai (miniature tree in ground with a history of more than 1,800 years)---the art of dwarfing and shaping trees and shrubs in shallow pots by pruning, controlled fertilizer, etc. (miniature) gardens and seal carving.

Yangzhou has one of the great cooking styles of China and every foreigner knows—indirectly—about it, for Yangzhou is the home of the fried rice a worldwide favourite Chinese dish (Yangzhou chaofan).

Yangzhou dates back to more than 2,500 years ago in the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 B C). Jiangsu is the birth place of Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, first constructed in 2,400 years ago, the Hangou (ancient name for canal) 邗沟in the vicinity of Yangzhou used to be the predecessor of the Grand Canal. Emperor Suiyang initiated the construction of the Grand Canal (1,747 kilometers from Hangzhou in the south to Beijing in the north; the canal zigzags 690 kilometers in Jiangsu Province) here in 605, which eventually made Yangzhou the hub of land and water transportation. Emperor Suiyang (569-648, reigned 604-618) visited the city three times in grand dragon-boats. He built a palace, retired and was buried here, after being assassinated in 618. It was during the Sui Dynasty (581-618) that Chinese hydraulic engineering achieved its greatest triumph—the joining together of many canals into the Grand Canal, which linked the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins, thereby bringing flood control, irrigation, and improved communications for an area of thousands of square kilometers. The city was also a center of classical learning and religion. Emperors, prime ministers and men of letters through the ages visited Yangzhou and many held official positions, including the Italian great traveler Marco Polo (1245-1324), who was governor of the city for three years. By the Tang Dynasty (618-907) Yangzhou’s trading links with Arab merchants were well established. A foreign community numbering about a thousand lived in the city. The economy was based on the salt monopoly and on grain shipments to the capital. The silting of the Yangtze River and the flooding of the Grand Canal gradually undermined its center role, as grain shipments were increasingly transported by sea via Shanghai, rather then along the Grand Canal. Changes in the salt administration and the arrival of the railways were a blow in Yangzhou’s decline. During the late 18th century an individualistic school of painters sprang up known as the Eight Eccentrics in Yangzhou扬州八怪.

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