Jiaxing (嘉兴市; Postal System Pinyin: Kashing; Wade-Giles: Chia-hsing) is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang Province, China. It is on the Huangpu River and the Grand Canal. Situated at the juncture of the Hangzhou-Shanghai Railway , Jiaxing produces silk (hence textile as well).

• Area: 3915 km²
• Population: 3,320,000 (2001)
• Municipal seat: Xiucheng District
• Geographic coordinates: 30°15'-31°02' North; 120°20'-121°31' East
• Abbreviation: He (禾)

History

• 210 BC: Qin Shi Huang changed the name of Jiaxing from Changshui District (长水县) to Youquan (由拳縣).
• 231: Master Yedao (野稻) of Jiaxing informed Sun Quan of Wu Kingdom that there is a sign of auspice, so Sun changed Youchuan to Hexing District (禾興縣). This why Jiaxing's abbreviation is He. Sun also changed his era name to Jiahe (嘉禾) the following year.
• January 242: Sun He (和) was made the crown prince. To prevent the name taboo , Jiahe was changed to Jiaxing.
• 938 (Later Jin of the Five Dynasties): Xiu Prefecture (秀州) established
• 1117 (Song Dynasty): Lianghe District (亮禾郡)
• 1429 (Ming Dynasty): Xiushui District (秀水縣) was established northwest of Jiaxing.
• Early 1900s (the Republic of China): Xiushui and Jiaxing were combined into Jiahe County
• 1914: Reverted to Jiaxing County (because there's a Jiahe in Hunan Province)
• 1949 - 1958, 1979 (PRC): Upgraded to a city
• 1981: Old Jiaxing County merged into the city
• 1983: Upgraded to prefecture-level city

Subdivisions

Jiaxing City contains 2 districts, 3 county-level cities, and 2 counties. (See Political divisions of China#Levels)

• Xiucheng District
• Xiuzhou District
• Haining City
• Pinghu City
• Tongxiang City
• Jiashan County
• Haiyan County

The above entities include 13 sub-districts, 60 towns, and 2 townships; which in term are subdivided 195 communities, 137 neighbourhoods, and 1091 administrative villages.

Notable people

• Xu Zhimo, writer
• Shiing-shen Chern, mathematician

External link

• Official site (in Simplified Chinese)