Yangzhou

Overview

About

Yangzhou lies in central Jiangsu on the north bank of the Yangtze, with the Grand Canal running past the city. Known in the past as Guangling and Jiangdu, it is one of the first National Famous Historical and Cultural Cities. See also Cities of China.

Yangzhou’s history is bound up with the canal. At the end of the Spring and Autumn period King Fuchai of Wu built the town of Han here and dug the Han Canal to link the Yangtze and the Huai, the earliest section of the Grand Canal. After opening the Grand Canal, Emperor Yang of Sui came to Jiangdu several times and died here. Under the Tang, Yangzhou was one of the richest trading cities in China, as the saying “first Yangzhou, second Chengdu” records; the monk Jianzhen set out from Yangzhou on his voyages to Japan. Under the Qing it was the centre of the salt trade of the Huai region, its salt merchants were immensely rich and built many gardens, and the Qianlong Emperor visited on every one of his southern tours.

Slender West Lake, north-west of the city, is Yangzhou’s best-known sight, a long narrow lake lined with pavilions, including the Five-Pavilion Bridge and the Twenty-Four Bridge. Daming Temple on the Shugang ridge is where Jianzhen was abbot, and it has a memorial hall to him. In the city, Ge Garden is famous for rockeries of different stones that make up the four seasons, and He Garden for its two-storey covered walkway several hundred metres long. The old lanes survive around Dongguan Street.

Poets wrote often of Yangzhou: Du Mu of “the bright moon on the Twenty-Four Bridge”, and Li Bai of his friend going “down to Yangzhou in the flowers and mist of the third month”. A group of Qing painters active here is known as the “Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou”. Huaiyang cooking and the Yangzhou morning tea are famous too.

Travel tips

Getting there: Yangzhou East high-speed station is about an hour from Nanjing; Yangzhou Taizhou Airport is south-east of the city.

Sightseeing: Slender West Lake and Daming Temple are together in the north-west; Ge Garden, He Garden and Dongguan Street are in the old city within walking distance. A morning tea breakfast is the local custom.

Photo credits: Five-Pavilion Bridge and White Pagoda, Slender West Lake: Tiger@西北 (CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons)