Changzhou

Changzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling, and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Zhenjiang to the northwest, Wuxi to the east, and the province of Zhejiang to the south. Changzhou is located in the highly developed Yangtze Delta region of China extending from Shanghai going northwest. The population of the Changzhou Municipality was 5,278,121 at the 2020 census. The city is the birthplace of Zhou Youguang who created the pinyin romanization system. The ruins of Yancheng (淹城) have been unearthed in Changzhou's Wujin District, a walled settlement founded near the beginning of the Zhou dynasty around 1000 BC. Changzhou proper is first attested as a commandery (jun) established near the beginning of the Qin in 221 BC. Changzhou got its present nameChinese for "ordinary district"in 589 under the Sui. Following the completion of the Grand Canal in 609, Changzhou prospered as a stop along its course. During the interregnum between the Sui and Tang, the city of Piling (毗陵) was the capital of Shen Faxing's short-lived Liang Kingdom (AD 619 to 620). Changzhou served as a prefectural seat (fu) of Ming Nanzhili and the Qing provinces of Jiangnan and Jiangsu. In the 1850s and 1860s, the Taiping Rebellion held the area. One of five palaces housing the leaders of Taiping was constructed in Changzhou. Today the ruins of the "King's Palace" can be found near the People's No. 1 Hospital. In the 1920s, Changzhou started to attract cotton mills. The cotton industry got a boost in the late 1930s when businesses began relocating outside of Shanghai due to its Japanese occupation. On January 1, 1953, Changzhou was set as a provincially administrated municipality. In 1958, Zhenjiang Prefecture was renamed as Changzhou Prefecture, and the administration office was moved from Zhenjiang to Changzhou. Changzhou was incorporated by Changzhou Prefecture.