Yixing

Yixing 宜兴市
County-level city
Yixing Location within Jiangsu
Coordinates: 31°21′36″N 119°48′54″E / 31.360°N 119.815°E / 31.360; 119.815Coordinates: 31°21′36″N 119°48′54″E / 31.360°N 119.815°E / 31.360; 119.815
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Jiangsu
Prefecture-level city	Wuxi
Municipal seat	Yicheng Subdistrict (宜城街道)
Area
• Total	2,038.7 km2 (787.1 sq mi)
Population (2011)
• Total	1,243,700
• Density	610/km2 (1,600/sq mi)
Time zone	China Standard (UTC+8)
Postal code	214200
Area code(s)	0510
Website	www.yixing.gov.cn

The city is famous for its teapots

Yixing (simplified Chinese: 宜兴; traditional Chinese: 宜興; pinyin: Yíxīng) is a county-level city with a population of 1.24 million administrated under the prefecture-level city of Wuxi in southern Jiangsu province, People's Republic of China, and is part of the Yangtze River Delta. With active modern industry as the economical fundamentals, it is more famous for traditional Yixing clay and the pottery made from that—especially the "zisha"-style teapots. It is also famous in China for thousands of scholars and scientists born here, among whom there are 12 academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and 13 academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering.

History

Yixing county was established in 221 B.C.(Qin Dynasty) with the name of Yangxian(阳羡). Between 303 A.D. and 310 A.D., the local aristocrat Zhou Qi who was the eldest son of General Zhou Chu, suppressed rebellions three times. And then Yangxian was renamed Yixing( 义兴,meaning loyalty and prosperity ) to honor Zhou Qi. In 976 A.D.,Yixing(义兴) was renamed Yixing(宜兴) as a consequence of avoiding the use of the King's name (Zhao Kuangyi, Emperor Taizong of Song).

On October 21, 2014, Yixing established a formal sister city relationship with Sanford, North Carolina in the United States under the representation of Yixing Mayor Zhang.

Tourism

Yixing is famous for its bamboo forest, water-eroded caves and beautiful natural landscapes. There are 5 national AAAA-level scenic areas in Yixing:
Shanjuan Cave
Bamboo Forest
National Longbeishan Forest Park
Tuanjiu Lake
Sacred Region of Taozu
There are some ancient relics like Guoshan Stele (Three Kingdoms period)*Camel Mound (or Luotuo Dun, Neolithic period).

Location and transport

Yixing is at the west side of Lake Tai and is almost at the centre of the triangle consisting of Shanghai, Nanjing and Hangzhou. Expressway lines connect Yixing with all main cities in Yangtze River Delta. The distances between Yixing and international airports in this area are:

Shanghai

Hongqiao International Airport 190 km (118 mi), 2-hour-drive

Pudong International Airport 242 km (150 mi), 2.5-hour-drive

Nanjing

Lukou International Airport 108 km (67 mi), 1.5-hour-drive

There are shuttle buses between Yixing and this airport.

Hangzhou

Xiaoshan International Airport 180 km (112 mi), 2-hour-drive

Wuxi

Sunan Shuofang International Airport 95 km (59 mi), 1-hour-drive.

There are two main expressway lines crossing Yixing: Yixing-Shanghai Expressway and Nanjing-Hangzhou Expressway. Since July 1, 2013, the High-speed railway (350 km/h) Nanjing–Hangzhou Intercity Railway, which connects Yixing to Nanjing and Hangzhou, has been put into use, shortening the time of journey to 30 minutes.

Administrative divisions

Yixing is divided into four subdistricts and 14 towns:^[1]

Subdistricts (街道)

• Yicheng Subdistrict (宜城街道)
• Qiting Subdistrict (屺亭街道)
• Xinzhuang Subdistrict (新庄街道)
• Xinjie Subdistrict (新街街道)

Towns (镇)

Economy

Yixing is among the top 10 county-level cities in China. There are one national Yixing Industrial Park for Environmental Science & Technology and two province-level industrial parks in Yixing.

Education

With 100 percent completion of compulsory education, Yixing has a developed educational system consisting of 79 kindergartens, 77 elementary schools, 39 middle schools, 11 high schools, 3 colleges and 2 special schools. The enrollment ratio in higher education reached 93 percent in the year 2010.

Notable people

Academicians of Chinese Academy of Sciences and academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering

References

External links

• Yixing Municipal Government website (In Simplified Chinese characters)