|
 Yangzhou,
a famous cultural city
with a long history, is
just across the Yangtze
River from Zhenjiang and
on the bank of the
Beijing-Hangzhou Grand
Canal. Yangzhou was
called Hancheng when it
was first built under
the order of King of the
Wu State Fu Chai in 486
B.C. For years Yangzhou
was one of the most
prosperous towns in
China, and the
construction of the
Grand Canal made it a
pivot of communications
and transportation from
the Sui and Tang periods
to the late Qing
Dynasty. After the Grand
Canal was initially
completed in the Sui
Dynasty (581-618),
Emperor Yang Di made
three inspection tours
to Yangzhou. During his
last tour in 612,
peasant uprisings swept
the country and he was
killed by his
subordinates here.
Yangzhou was also an
important port for
foreign trade and
exchanges with the
outside world in ancient
China. The prominent
Tang Dynasty monk Jian
Zhen (688-763) made six
attempts to sail from
here to Japan for
cultural exchange. It is
also here that a
celebrated Arab Moslem,
Bahaa’ Eddin, stayed for
ten years preaching
Islamism. The
world-renowned traveler
Marco Polo once served
as an official in
Yangzhou. |
