Yangzhou
Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, China. Historically, Yangzhou was one of the wealthiest cities in China, known at various periods for its great merchant families, poets, artists, and scholars. Its name refers to its former position as the capital of the ancient Yangzhou prefecture in imperial China. Yangzhou was one of the first cities to benefit from one of the earliest world bank loans in China, used to construct Yangzhou thermal power station in 1994.
Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou to the east, and Zhenjiang across the river to the south. Its population was 4,414,681 at the 2010 census and its urban area is home to 2,146,980 inhabitants, including three urban districts, currently in the agglomeration.
Guangling , the first settlement in the Yangzhou area, was founded in the Spring and Autumn period. After the defeat of Yue by King Fuchai of Wu, a garrison city was built 12 m above the water level on the north bank of the Yangtze c. 485 BC. This city in the shape of a three by three li square was named Hancheng. The newly built Han canal formed a moat around the south and east sides of the city. The purpose of Hancheng was to protect Suzhou from naval invasion from Qi. During the Han dynasty, Guangling was the seat of Guangling Commandery. It constituted a part of the Xu Province, rather than the Yang Province, which was covered the entire southeastern part of China then. In 590, the city was made the capital of a newly established Yang Prefecture, and began to be referred to with its current name.