History

Only 8 km from Changzhou City are the remains of an ancient walled town, founded over 3000 years ago at the beginning of the Western Zhou dynasty. The earliest record of a settlement on the site of modern Changzhou is of a commandery (a district under the control of a commander) founded in 221 BC. Changzhou got its present name, which means "ordinary prefecture", in 589 AD. After the Grand Canal was constructed in 609 AD, Changzhou became a canal port and transshipment point for locally-grown grain, and has maintained these roles ever since. The rural counties surrounding Changzhou are noted for the production of rice, fish, tea, silk, bamboo and fruit.

During the Taiping Rebellion of the 1850's, one of 5 palaces housing the leaders of the so-called "Kingdom of Celestial Peace" was contructed in Changzhou. Today the ruins of the "King's Palace" can be found near the People's No.1 Hospital.

In the 1920's, Changzhou started to attract cotton mills. The cotton industry got a boost in the late 1930's when businesses began relocating outside of Shanghai due to the Japanese occupation. Unlike many Chinese cities, Changzhou continued to prosper even during the upheavals of the cultural revolution of 1966-76. Today it is an important industrial center for textiles, food processing, engineering (diesel engines, generators, transformers and other machinery), and high technology.

In 1982, Changzhou was made a "Model Town" for China's one-child policy. In that year, officials in Changzhou reported that nearly 100% of married couples had pledged to have only one child.