Travel headline:

Even though cities and town in the area Jiangsu Province has existed since ancient times, it was first officially formed in the seventeenth century, which helped to facilitate communication between the southern and northern parts. Traditionally, South Jiangsu has been referred to as the more prosperous areas, as it has cities like Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou. All the other parts of the province are dominated by what is known in China as the Jianghuai Culture, which is the culture in the area between the Yangtze River and Huaihe River, though not all of them lie within the district defined by the term.

Historically, North Jiangsu refers to the cities to the north of the Yangtze River, but for the cities is Nanjing and Zhenjiang, neither of the two terms refers to them, because even though they are to the south of the river, culturally they are still part of the Jianghuai Region. Since around 1998, there is a new classification used frequently by the government and defined by economic means. It groups all the cities to the south of the Yangtse River as South Jiangsu, the cities of Yangzhou, Nantong and Taizhou as Middle Jiangsu, and all the rest as North Jiangsu.

Though the terms of classification are indeed complex, by cultural means only the very northern cities of Xuzhou and Lianyugang are culturally north Chinese. All the rest areas of the province display features of southern culture, though the three South Jiangsu cities are more purely southern while the culture in other cities is more a transitional mixture dominated by the southern.

Two main subdivisions of the Chinese language, Mandarin (not to be mistaken for Putonghua, which is the national standard speech based on the Beijing dialect, and is also commonly called Mandarin) and Wu, are spoken in different parts of Jiangsu. Dialects of Mandarin are preferred over the traditional North Jiangsu, Nanjing and Zhenjiang dialects, while the Wu Dialect is used in South Jiangsu.

Mandarin and Wu are in fact completely different languages. In addition, Standard Chinese, otherwise known as Putonghua or Mandarin, is also spoken by most people in Jiangsu.

Jiangsu has a rich cultural heritage, including different forms of opera. The most famous type of Chinese opera from Jiangsu is Kunqu, which originated in Kunshan, an area quite close to Shanghai. A form of storytelling that is often accompanied by music,

Pingtan, is also popular. It can be subdivided into types by origin: Suzhou Pingtan and Yangzhou Pingtan and Nanjing Pingtan.

Jiangsu cuisine is one of the eight great traditions of the cuisine of China, and the province is known throughout China as a Land of Fish and Rice. The natural resources of the region are one reason why such wonderful delicacies came come out of Jiangsu.

Suzhou is an ancient city that is famous an array of things, including its silk, embroidery, jasmine and green teas, and classical architecture and gardens.

Nearby Yixing is famous for its teaware, and is in fact the place where the renowned Yixing teapots come from, Yangzhou is famous for its lacquerware and jadeware.

Since ancient times, south Jiangsu has been famed for its prosperity and opulence, and simply inserting south Jiangsu city names into poetry gave an effect of dreaminess. A great example of this is an old Chinese saying: Above there is heaven; below there is Suzhou and Hangzhou. If you meet a Chinese person from one of these cities, they will be sure to remind you of this phrase!