Jiangsu

Jiangsu is an eastern coastal province of China. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning (now Nanjing), and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is Su, the second character of its name. Jiangsu is home to many of the world's leading exporters of electronic equipment, chemicals and textiles.  

Since ancient times, south Jiangsu has been famed for its prosperity and opulence, and simply inserting south Jiangsu place names (Suzhou, Yangzhou, etc.) into poetry gave an effect of dreaminess, as was indeed done by many famous poets. In particular, the fame of Suzhou (as well as Hangzhou in neighbouring Zhejiang) has led to the popular saying:  above there is heaven; below there is Suzhou and Hangzhou, a saying that continues to be a source of pride for the people of these two still prosperous cities. Similarly, the prosperity of Yangzhou has led poets to dream of: with a hundred thousand strings of coins wrapped around the waist, riding a crane down to Yangzhou.

Jiangsu is one of the most attractive tourism destinations in Asia and located on a 500-mile (900 km) stretch of the Yellow Sea on China east coast. You can 'taste' all of the best that China has to offer in the province, from Ming Dynasty walls and tombs to the delicate and fresh Huaiyang cuisine. Jiangsu is home to the mighty Yangtze River; China’s ancient engineering Wonder of the World in the Grand Canal; the World Heritage Listed Chinese classical gardens of Suzhou; the famous Confucius Temple and Mausoleum of Sun Yat-sen in Nanjing; and it’s the best place to see the unique living water villages of the Yangtze River delta. The many hidden treasures of Jiangsu include the Terracotta warriors of Xuzhou; the former residence of Nobel prize-winning American author, Pearl Buck; and endangered species of birds and animals.