Geography
Taizhou, situated in the coastal central section of Zhejiang, 28°N. Latitude and 122°E. Longitude, has a subtropical monsoon climate. With a land area of 9,411 sq. km. and shallow sea area of 80,000 sq. km., it controls a population of 5.5261 million. Made up of three districts including Jiaojiang, Huangyan and Luqiao in downtown area, it has under control two county-level cities, that is, Linhai and Wenling, and 4 counties such as Yuhuan, Tiantai, Xianju and Sanmen.
Having a coastline of 745 km., accounting for 28% of that of Zhejiang, Taizhou has 6 cities, counties and districts on the East China Sea.
History
Taizhou enjoys a long history. 5,000 years ago, the ancestors began to settle there. It was called Huipu Town during the reign of Qin Dynasty (221─207 B.C.) and Huipu County since 85 B.C. in the Western Han Dynasty. In 257 A.D., Wu Kingdom of the Three Kingdoms Period set up Linhai Shire there. In 621 A.D.during theTang Dynasty it was named as Haizhou, and renamed Taizhou in the following year. Following the founding of PRC, Taizhou had been a prefecture in
administrative division. On August 22, 1994, Taizhou Municipality was set up in place of Taizhou Prefecture. In 1999, the State Council determined Taizhou as an economic sub-center in the Shanghai Economic Zone. On August 15, 2003, Taizhou formally became one of the 16 satellite cities of Shanghai. Its goal for the 2nd instant development is: to build Taizhou into a modernized seashore city with developed science, industry and trade in 2020.
Cultural Heritage
Taizhou’s social culture started from the Eastern Jin Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, Zheng Qian, a famous scholastic official, was devoted to development of local education and culture. Entering the Southern Song Dynasty, Taizhou became a cultural and educational center. Taizhou boasts of many talents and historical figures. 96 persons from Taizhou including Xiang Si, Dai Fugu and Qi Zhaonan have once been biographied in Chinese historic books. Since 1949, 21
Taizhou-born persons have successively become academicians of CAS and CAE.
In “Siku Quanshu”, the Complete library in the Four Branches of Literature in Qing Dynasty, were collected 141 books written by 107 Taizhou scholars, such as, “Cuzhi Scripture”, the first entomologic book of the world by Jia Sidao of Song Dynasty, “Quanfang Beizu”, the globally earliest botany dictionary by Chen Jingxin of Song Dynasty, “Book of Fungus“, the first domestic fungus monograph of the world by Chen Renyu of Song Dynasty, “Wuyue Youcao”, the first economic geography book by Wang Shixing of Ming Dynasty, and “Veterinary Herbs”. Taizhou is the birthplace of southern China operas. “Taizhou Luantan”, a southern China opera genre and one of 318 local operas in China, took shape during Qing Dynasty. Taizhou also boasts of colorful folk arts, such as Dragon-contest, dragon lantern dance and boat racing. “Needle-pierced boneless lantern” from Xianju County, which firstly appeared during the Tang Dynasty, is praised as “the Best Lantern of China”.
