Northern Jiangsu in the eyes of southern Jiangsu people, the core of the Huaihai urban agglomeration

-Fengwujunyu-

North-South Hub

Huaihai Core

In China, there is such a magical place that northerners can see She is from the south, but southerners see her as the north. The location is neither south nor north, nor east nor west, and the climate is neither dry nor wet.

She is surrounded by mountains, connected to the city, embraced by two rivers, and reflected by four lakes.

She enjoys the logistics convenience of the free shipping area and the heating in winter.

Her dialect is not the Wunong soft language in the southern part of the province, but closer to the Shandong and Henan accents in the north.

The SA soup and ground-pot chicken here are the common tongues of people in northern Anhui, southern Shandong and northern Jiangsu.

The railway station advertisements here are full of "hard core": steel structures, hydraulic parts, excavators...she is——Xuzhou

Located in the northernmost tip of Jiangsu Province Xuzhou is located at the junction of the four provinces of Shandong, Anhui, Henan and Jiangsu. "It borders the sea to the east, the Central Plains to the west, the Yangtze and Huaihe rivers to the south, and Qilu to the north."

The Great Plain, which accounts for more than 90% of the total area, is the main theme of Xuzhou. Dadong Mountain, with an altitude of only 361 meters, is the highest peak in Xuzhou. Many rivers originating from the mountainous areas of southern Shandong flow to the Xuzhou Plain, forming a rich water system in Xuzhou.

The Yellow River Era

Before the Yellow River captured the Huaihe River, water transportation in the Xuzhou area mainly relied on the use of natural water systems.

During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, Hangou and Honggou were opened successively to connect the water systems around Xuzhou with each other. By the time of Emperor Gaozong of the Tang Dynasty, the Jiangnan canal ships traveled from Yangzhou via the Huaihe River, entered the Bianshui River in Xuzhou, and then transferred to the Luoshui River, directly reaching Luoyang. Xuzhou connects north and south and runs through east and west, becoming a water transport hub from the Jianghuai River to Luoyang in the Central Plains.

According to the "Historical Records: River Canal Book", the first recorded Yellow River flood in Xuzhou occurred in the third year of Emperor Yuanguang of the Han Dynasty (132 BC). Since the Western Han Dynasty, the Yellow River has burst and flooded 1,500 times, changed its course 26 times, and Xuzhou has been hit by disasters 132 times. The moodiness of the Yellow River has forged the spirit of Xuzhou people who are not afraid of difficulties. They are not afraid of defeat and difficulties, and can gnaw hard bones.

From the great breach of the Yellow River in 1194 to its diversion to Shandong in 1855, the Yellow River carried a large amount of sediment and invaded Yishui, Shushui and Surabaya many times: Yishui accumulated on the west side of Maling Mountain, forming Luoma Lake ; The Shu River changed its course and flowed eastward into the sea; the Si River paused its progress between Jining and Xuzhou, forming Nansi Lake. In the Tang Dynasty, the scene of "Si water flow, Bian water flow, flowing to Guazhou ancient ferry" no longer exists. Water transportation relying on natural water systems gradually fell into decline, and artificial canals emerged.

The Canal Age

In the Yuan Dynasty, the Jeju River and the Huitong River were excavated successively, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which ran through the north and south of China, was opened. Xuzhou once again became a hub for water transportation. Materials were transported from the prosperous south of the Yangtze River to Beijing through the Grand Canal. According to statistics, there were as many as 12,000 grain ships heading north through Xuzhou every year, transporting as much as 4 million shi of grain. At this time, Xuzhou controlled the economic lifeline of the empire.

After the Ming Dynasty moved its capital to Beijing, sea and land transportation was abolished. The north-south transportation almost relies on the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and Xuzhou’s geographical advantages are even more prominent. From Xuzhou through the Grand Canal, you can reach the five provinces of Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, Anhui, and Hebei. This is where the reputation of "the thoroughfare of five provinces" comes from.

The Grand Canal has driven the economic prosperity of Xuzhou, and many market towns along the river have developed into material distribution centers, among which Yaowan Town is the star. The ancient town is surrounded by water on three sides and is known as "Little Shanghai in Northern Jiangsu" and "Golden Triangle of Golden Waterways". During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the town had a population of 80,000. Businessmen from 18 provinces once established chambers of commerce here, and missionaries and businessmen from more than 10 countries did business here.

In the fifth year of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty (1855), the Yellow River migrated north, the embankments of the Grand Canal were washed away, and sea and land transportation were replacing water transportation. In the 26th year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty (1900), the canal section from Taierzhuang to Huaiyin almost lost its navigation capacity, water transportation stopped, the Grand Canal was no longer the main north-south transportation line, and Xuzhou lost its advantage as a water transportation hub.

Railway Age

Xuzhou once again stood on the stage of the times, again because of transportation, but this time it was no longer a canal, but a railway.

Compared with other cities that declined due to the decline of canals, Xuzhou is undoubtedly lucky. Xuzhou has been riding this steel "monster" since the early days of the birth of China's railways. The Jinpu Railway opened to traffic in 1911 and the Longhai Railway opened to traffic in 1935. The Longhai Line and Jinpu Line, two east-west and north-south railways, intersect in Xuzhou. Just like the Yellow River and the canal intersected, Xuzhou ushered in a new life.

Railways invested, designed, and operated by foreigners began to enter China in the late Qing Dynasty.

The Tianjin-Puzhou Railway was built jointly by Britain and Germany in sections, and the Longhai Railway was built by Belgium and the Netherlands. The miscellaneous "owners" lead to different railway parameters, which greatly affects the traffic capacity. When the Jinpu Railway was opened, the passenger train speed was only 22 kilometers per hour, and the passenger train speed of the Longhai Railway was only 23.7 kilometers per hour.

Even the railway, which seems so "slow" to modern people, has brought unprecedented changes to Xuzhou. The railway replaced most of the land and water transportation, improved the transportation speed and carrying capacity, and promoted urbanization and industrialization. The city extended in strips along the railway trunk lines to the north, south, and east and west, and Xuzhou City began to grow for nearly a century.

A hundred years later, Xuzhou once again caught up with the starting lineup of China’s high-speed rail era. Xuzhou East Railway Station is 692 kilometers away from Beijing South Railway Station and 626 kilometers away from Shanghai Hongqiao Station. Xuzhou is connected to China's political and economic center at the middle C position. The east-west Zhengxu Passenger Line and Xulian Passenger Line were completed and opened to traffic in 2014. Xuzhou has become a crossroads of my country's "four vertical and four horizontal" high-speed railways and one of the hubs of China's high-speed rail network.

"Xuzhou is the key point between the north and the south, and the safety of the counties and cities east of Beijing.

Its land is surrounded by mountains on three sides, and its west is hundreds of miles of plain rivers.

Going west to the Liang and Song Dynasties, the Chu people blocked the enemy's path.

It would be like building a water barrier from the house. ”

——Su Shi

Once in. Su Shi, who served in Xuzhou, pointed out the characteristics of Xuzhou: It is the gateway to the South and the key to the North. It strangles the throats of Jiangsu, Lu, Henan and Anhui. It has been a battleground for military strategists since ancient times.

During the reign of Emperor Yao, Peng Zu established the Great Peng Kingdom here, which was the earliest city to appear in Jiangsu. As one of the nine states in China, although the geographical concept has changed, the name Xuzhou has continued. On December 28, 256 BC, a baby boy named Liu Bang was born in Feng County, Xuzhou, which opened the most glorious period of Xuzhou's Han Dynasty in Chinese history.

In the era of melee, Xuzhou, the "thorough thoroughfare of five provinces", appears to be particularly important. If the northern government controls Xuzhou and is constantly watching Huainan and Jiangnan, the south will not feel at ease; if the southern government controls Xuzhou and can reach the northern provinces with the convenience of transportation by boat and car, the north will not feel at ease either. After the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, due to such an important geographical location, Liu Bang classified the 36 counties around Xuzhou as the Chu Kingdom and assigned them to his trusted younger brother Liu Jiao. During the 407 years of the Han Dynasty, Xuzhou had always been the heart of the empire.

"Look at Xuzhou for the culture of the Han Dynasty" is not just a slogan floating in the air, but something that can actually be seen. Thick burials were popular in the Han Dynasty, which led to the phenomenon of "nine out of ten Han tombs are empty". As for other Han Dynasty tombs with great influence in China, such as Mawangdui Han Tomb, Mancheng Han Tomb, Nanyue King Han Tomb, Haihunhou Han Tomb, etc., although there are rich cultural relics unearthed, they are all single.

Xuzhou not only has large-scale and numerous Han tombs, including 16 tombs of King Chu (Queen) and more than 1,000 small and medium-sized Han tombs, but also unearthed a large number of Han Dynasty portrait stones, terracotta warriors and horses, pottery, bronzes and Jade. They are now displayed in the Xuzhou Museum, showing the underground life of the emperors, generals and ministers of the Han Dynasty, and becoming Xuzhou of the Han Dynasty that we can see.

Because it strangles the north and south, Xuzhou often has wars. According to statistics, there have been more than 400 large and small battles in Xuzhou's history. Xiang Yu led 30,000 men to defeat Liu Bang's Han army of 500,000 men who attacked Pengcheng and regained Pengcheng. This classic battle with less victory over more - the Battle of Pengcheng - was recorded in the history of war. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Lu Bu, Cao Cao, Liu Bei and others competed for Xuzhou. "Liu Bei gave in to Xuzhou three times" and "Three Incidents of Tuntu Mountain Pass Agreement" have become classic stories of the Three Kingdoms.

In early 1938, the Japanese army urgently needed to open the Jinpu Railway in order to connect the battlefields of North China and Central China. The Chinese army launched a "Battle of Xuzhou" to resist invasion. Among them, the "Taierzhuang Victory" was the most famous, in which more than 10,000 enemy troops were surrounded and annihilated.

In the Battle of Huaihai, Xuzhou became the focus of contention between the two sides in the civil war. According to Bai Chongxi's guiding ideology of "To defend the river, you must defend the Huaihe River", Du Yuming planned to defend Xuzhou. The People's Liberation Army annihilated most of the Huangpu clique's elites and occupied the Jianghuai area. Xuzhou once again stands at the forefront of China's destiny.

Frequent wars created the strong character of Xuzhou people who are good at practicing martial arts and bravery, and the Xuzhou martial arts culture was born. The people of Xuzhou love to practice martial arts, and boxers from all over the country gather to teach boxing, which makes Xuzhou have many kinds of boxing and various martial arts schools.

The debate about "Southern Jiangsu and Northern Jiangsu" has never ceased. Although there is no Jiangsu city further north than Xuzhou, sometimes Xuzhou is not even included in this discussion. Xuzhou is so far north that many people in southern Jiangsu seem to be as far away as Shandong and Hebei.

Xuzhou is responsible for the hard-core industries, and only those places in southern Jiangsu can safely engage in other industries and the tertiary industry. For Jiangsu as a whole, only with Xuzhou carrying the burden forward can the years in Jiangnan be peaceful.

The meme "Capital of Huaihai Province" seems like a joke, but it also tells the current situation of Xuzhou. In Jiangsu Province, Xuzhou’s total GDP ranks sixth with more than 710 billion, which is only 37% of the first-ranked Suzhou. Its per capita GDP has even dropped to ninth in Jiangsu. But from the perspective of Huaihai Economic Zone, Xuzhou’s economy ranks first among cities. In 2018, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Huaihe Ecological Economic Zone Development Plan", which clearly defined Xuzhou as a regional central city. In the 2020 Xuzhou Municipal Government Work Report, the Huaihai Economic Zone was mentioned 10 times.

Xuzhou’s mineral resources are second to none in Jiangsu. Coal is transported across the country relying on Xuzhou's convenient railway facilities, which promotes Xuzhou's social development and turns Xuzhou into a heavy industrial city in northern Jiangsu.

Xuzhou is the "Capital of China's Construction Machinery" in the country. Its construction machinery economic aggregate accounts for 80% of Jiangsu's industry and 20% of the total sales revenue of the national industry.

Xuzhou’s education and medical care are very developed. The number of colleges and universities and the number of students on campus are second only to Nanjing in Jiangsu. Residents from other surrounding provinces do not necessarily want to go to the provincial capital to see a doctor, but come to Xuzhou.

Xuzhou has the largest food city in East China, Huaihai Food City

Xuzhou has the largest railway freight yard in East China, Tongshan Freight Yard

Xuzhou has China's largest food city The largest soymilk company, VV Group

Xuzhou is home to China's largest engineering machinery company, XCMG Group

Xuzhou is home to China's earliest mining school, China University of Mining and Technology

< p> Xuzhou has China's first underwater Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum, Xuzhou Underwater Terracotta Warriors and Horses Museum...

In recent years, the economic development of the old industrial city of Xuzhou has faced many "domestic and foreign troubles". On the one hand, it is the depletion of resources; It is the competition between brother cities that is becoming more and more fierce.

Among the country’s third batch of 25 resource-exhausted cities, Jiawang District in Xuzhou became the first national-level resource-exhausted area in Jiangsu Province. The GDP of Jining and Linyi is close to that of Xuzhou; Shangqiu is striving to build a "regional central city at the junction of Henan, Shandong, Jiangsu and Anhui"; Fuyang, Huainan, and Bengbu are working together to develop.

Xuzhou is like a Doraemon "any door", with a unique geographical location that leads to the world. The East-West Longhai Line and the South-Beijing-Shanghai Line cross each other in Xuzhou, which is the second largest railway hub in the country. Five expressways run through the city, making it one of the first 13 important highway hub cities in the country. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal runs through it. It has 133 port terminals.

Xuzhou is like a stage, with China as the background. In the 6,000-year history of civilization and the 2,600-year history of city building, various forces have taken turns to appear. This is the hometown of Peng Zu, the hometown of Liu Bang, and the hometown of Xiang Yu. It is called the "Hometown of the Emperors."

This is Xuzhou, which is an energy town, a heavy industry base, a city in northern Jiangsu, and the C-position of the Huaihai Economic Zone.

- END -

Text丨ZZZ

Picture editor | Tao Zi

Map editor | Wu Pan

Any reproduction without account authorization is prohibited

Reference materials

Ren Yadong "Research on Optimization of Urban Spatial Structure of Xuzhou City Driven by Industrial Transformation"

Dai Peichao "Xuzhou in Historical Periods" "Research on Water Environment Changes and Urban Rise and Decline"

Meng Zhaoyi "Research on Xuzhou's Historical Geographic Characteristics and Regional Cultural Characteristics"