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China Travel Guide » Places in China » Jiangsu Province
Places in China: Jiangsu Province
Jiangsu Province, especially the Yangtze River, has been a dividing line for centuries. It divided North and South China previously. Now, the river divides the north and south sections of the province.
Jiangsu is a province on the seacoast and nearly surrounds the city of Shanghai which is not even a part of the province. The network of rivers, canals and lakes helps to fertilize the farms of the province. Jiangsu has been called the country of fish and rice as well as having the nickname "land of rivers and lakes". The province's great amount of products and crops ranks second only to Guangdong in provinces with the highest GDP in China. The greatest amount of crops and products comes from South Jiangsu, south of the river.
Production in the province includes largely rice, cotton, fish, wheat and silk. The capital city of Nanjing is not the leading industrial city. Wuxi and Suzhou are more industrialized, especially since a Singapore investment brings a lot of income through their Suzhou Industrial Park.
The people of Jiangsu are largely Han Chinese although there are minority groups of Hui and Manchu. The population of the province is large. The 103,000 square kilometres are home to seventy million people. This makes the population density the fourth highest in the nation with 724 persons per square kilometre.
China's Grand Canal is a part of the attraction for Jinagsu Province. Tours by dragon boat on the Canal help tourists to see good glimpses of Oriental culture. Bicycle tours through rural areas enable visitors to view the customs and habits of rural China.
The North China Plain is an important historical centre of China, and it runs through Jiangsu Province. Bordering provinces with more historical attractions are Anhui, Zhejiang, and Shandong as well as the city of Shanghai.
Much of the history of Chinese dynasties involves Jiangsu. Especially Nanjing has been important in China's progress toward its modern status. Nanjing served as the capital of Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang party in 1927. The coming of the Communist Party brought an end to that situation.
Being in a temperate climate zone, Jiangsu has all four seasons. The preferred seasons to visit the province are in the spring and the autumn. Summers tend to be hot, and winters can be quite cold. The beautiful boulevard type of streets with lots of trees help to make the summers more tolerable.
The city of Wuxi has a world record-breaking Buddha made of bronze, quite a tourist attraction. Suzhou has ancient ornamental gardens which bring visitors. Many other cities have attractions to lure people to Jiangsu. However, there are eyesores and crumbling buildings in the industrialized areas of the province. Natural beauty is not lacking in this province with the beautiful mountains, rivers and canals. Forty-one of the places of historic interest are under government protection.
It is not necessary to go to Shanghai or Beijing to see the real China. "Su", one of the nicknames of Jiangsu Province, beckons scholars interested in both ancient and modern China to come and take a look.
Major cities in Jiangsu:
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