Taicang is a

county-level city A county-level municipality (), county-level city or county city, formerly known as prefecture-controlled city (1949–1970: ; 1970–1983: ), is a county-level administrative division of the People's Republic of China. County-level ...

under the jurisdiction of Suzhou,

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

province, China. The city located in the south of the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

estuary opposite Nantong, being bordered by

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

proper to the south, while the river also delineates much of its northeastern boundary along

Chongming Island Chongming, formerly known as Chungming, is an alluvial island at the mouth of the Yangtze River in eastern China covering as of 2010. Together with the islands Changxing and Hengsha, it forms Chongming District, the northernmost area of the ...

Administration

Taicang administers 7 towns:

History

Toponym

Taicang as a place name is mentioned in a memorial to the throne of geographer

Jia Dan Jia Dan (, 730 – 805), courtesy name Dunshi () and formally Duke Yuanjing of Wei (), was a Chinese cartographer, military general, and politician from Cangzhou, Hebei during the Tang dynasty. Background Jia Dan was born in 730, during the reign ...

during the Song dynasty, "Where lies to the east of Kunshan nowadays", he supposedly wrote, "is called Taicang, also known as Gangshen".

Overview

Taicang is a natural port. Under the Yuan, the city reached its peak between 1271 and 1368. Under the Ming, Taicang's Liuhe Harbor was the departure point for

Zheng He Zheng He (; 1371–1433 or 1435) was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, fleet admiral, and court eunuch during China's early Ming dynasty. He was originally born as Ma He in a Muslim family and later adopted the surname Zheng conferr ...

's treasure fleets. It was also during this period that the shoals in the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

estuary which later became

were placed under the supervision of Taicang Prefecture."Chongming County" in the ''Encyclopedia of Shanghai'', pp. 50 ff.
Shanghai Scientific & Technical Publishers (Shanghai), 2010. Hosted by the Municipality of Shanghai. It was the venue for the 2014 IAAF World Race Walking Cup.

Geography

The Taicang port is in the east of the city, and south of the Yangtze exit into the East China Sea. The center of the Taicang port is on 31°37′00" North, 121°14′00" East. The port line stretches 24.3 miles (38.8 km), of which 15.6 miles can park 50 thousand ton vessels. Taicang is in a humid subtropical climate zone with distinctive seasons. The average year round temperature is 15.5 Celsius. Precipitation is around 1078.1 mm.

Climate

Economy

Taicang is known for having operations from companies established by Germans since 1985, when the first German businessperson went to Taicang. Accordingly, the city obtained the nickname "Little Swabia" with it having German-inspired businesses. The area does not have a significant German population as the German expatriates prefer Shanghai since it contains the

German School of Shanghai The German School Shanghai (DSSH) (german: Deutsche Schule Shanghai) is a private school in Shanghai, with locations in Hongqiao (DSSH) and Yangpu (DSSY). It was established in 1995 for expatriate German pupils. With approximately 1,250 pupils t ...

. The city has the German Centre for Industry and Trade Taicang ().

ABA Chemicals ABA Chemicals is a Chinese chemical manufacturing company headquartered in Taicang. The company was founded in 2006 as Suzhou ABA Chemicals, and is traded on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange as 300261. The company provides contract development and m ...

, a chemicals manufacturing company, is headquartered in Taicang. By 2021 the city had a labor shortage with workers demanding higher wages.

Notable people

* Chien-Shiung Wu, the most famous female physicist in history by acclamation, who built the atomic bomb in the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

and disproved the conservation of parity

External links

Taicang guide on www.Jiangsu.net

References

{{authority control Cities in Jiangsu Administrative divisions of Suzhou County-level divisions of Jiangsu