Taizhou, Jiangsu

Early history

Historically known as Hailing (often interpreted as"hill by the sea"), ^[4]Taizhou was established as a county no later than the 2nd century BCE.^[5] Its administrative center was located on an ancient sandspit along the north bank of the Yangtze River, at an elevation of about 6–7 meters, while Xinghua to the north lay in the Lixiahe lowlands. Over the following centuries, sedimentation at the Yangtze estuary caused the coastline to shift southeastward. As a result, the southern regions of Taizhou and Taixing gradually emerged as land, and Jingjiang, originally a sandbar, had accreted to the north bank of the Yangtze by the turn of the 17th century.^[6]

The shifting coastline created extensive coastal salt fields in and around Taizhou, and the city at times served as a regional hub of salt administration, with the Hailing Salt Directorate established there in the Tang dynasty.^[7] In the imperial salt system, the Taizhou Branch Office of the Lianghuai Salt Distribution Commission was subordinate to the commission's headquarters in Yangzhou. Several present‑day county‑level jurisdictions to the east and north, such as Dongtai, Hai'an, and Rugao, trace their origins to historical salt‑field settlements that eventually developed into county seats.

From the Eastern Han onward, Taizhou was mostly subordinate to Guangling (later Yangzhou).^[5] Under the Southern Tang, a prefecture‑level Taizhou was first established; it was briefly elevated to the status of a lu (circuit) under the Yuan dynasty before returning to Yangzhou's jurisdiction.^[8]

In the mid-Ming dynasty, Wang Gen originally worked as a salt laborer under the Taizhou Branch Office.^[9] Later, as a leading disciple of Wang Yangming, he was invited to preside over Anding Academy in Taizhou in 1526. His lectures there attracted a group of local followers who became his first core disciples, and their activities subsequently gave rise to the "Taizhou School,"^[10] a radical branch of the School of Mind noted for its populist character and sometimes described as its "left wing."^[11][12]

Late Qing and Republican era

After the Taiping forces captured Yangzhou, the Lianghuai Salt Distribution Commission was temporarily relocated to Taizhou. In the 1860s, a General Bureau of Merchant Recruitment was established in Taizhou to recruit merchants for salt licenses, who would then pay taxes and transport salt.^[13] However, as the salt pans in the Huainan region were gradually abolished and replaced by reclaimed farmland, Taizhou's economic structure underwent significant adjustment.

By the early 20th century, local merchant groups had expanded their influence, and chambers of commerce were established successively in Taizhou, Hai'an, and Jiangyan, making Taizhou one of the few county‑level jurisdictions in China to host three formal chambers of commerce within a single county.^[14] These chambers even organized their own armed security corps.^[15] In the 1911 Revolution, one such small armed force helped overthrow Qing rule in the locality.^[16]

During the Second Sino‑Japanese War, Li Changjiang, overall commander of guerrilla forces in the Jiangsu–Anhui border region, made Taizhou his headquarters. After submitting to the collaborationist Wang Jingwei regime, his forces were reorganized as the First Group Army.^[17] To the north, they clashed with troops loyal to the Nationalist government in Jiangsu under Han Deqin, while to the south they engaged the Central Jiangsu detachments of the New Fourth Army, which were active in neighboring Taixing.

On 21 January 1949, the People's Liberation Army entered Taizhou. On 23 April of the same year, the East China Military Region Navy was formally established at Baima Temple in Taizhou. Official narratives often regard this event as one of the founding moments of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), and Taizhou has accordingly been styled "the birthplace of the People's Navy."^[18]

People's Republic

After the founding of the People's Republic, the Administrative Office of Northern Jiangsu (Subei) was for a time located in Taizhou before being moved to Yangzhou. Subsequently, a county‑level Taizhou City was established for the urban area, while the surrounding rural area continued as Taixian (Tai County); the two units were merged in 1959 and separated again in 1962, both remaining under the jurisdiction of Yangzhou Prefecture. On the eve of Yangzhou's elevation to a prefecture‑level city in 1983, the economic scale of the two county‑level units was roughly comparable.

Thereafter, Taizhou functioned as a county‑level city under the newly established prefecture‑level Yangzhou. During this period, the local economy grew rapidly, and the city became a growing center of manufacturing, with Chunlan Group, then a dominant local enterprise, contributing close to half of Taizhou's industrial output by 1994.^[19]

Some scholars have argued that during this period there was a discrepancy between the administrative status of Taizhou and its level of economic development relative to Yangzhou.^[20][21][22] In 1996, the former county‑level Taizhou City was merged with Taixian, Taixing, Xinghua, and Jingjiang to form the present‑day prefecture‑level Taizhou.^[21]

Climate

As with the rest of central and southern Jiangsu, Taizhou has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), influenced by the East Asian Monsoon, with cold, damp, but comparatively dry, winters, and hot, humid summers with copious rain. The normal monthly mean temperature ranges from 2.4 °C (36.3 °F) in January to 27.5 °C (81.5 °F) in July, while the annual mean is 15.36 °C (59.6 °F).^[23] Nearly half of the mean annual rainfall of 1,037 mm (40.8 in) is distributed June to August.^[23]

Twin towns – Sister cities

Taizhou is twinned with: