Suchow

Suchow: see Xuzhou, China.

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Yibin

 or I-pin conventional Suchow

City (pop., 2003 est.: 312,462), southern Sichuan province, south-central China. It is located at the junction of the Min and Yangtze (Chang) rivers. A county administration was set up there in the 2nd century BC. It first received the name Yibin in AD 742. The Chinese hold expanded there during the Song dynasty (960–1279). By the Qing dynasty (1644–1911) it was Xuzhou (Hsü-chou) superior prefecture, known to Europeans as Suifu. In 1912 it reverted to Yibin. In 1913 steamship communication with Chongqing was opened, and Yibin grew into a major collection and distribution centre. It has long been known for its salt deposits, which now supply a large chemical plant.

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Suchow 

(also Hsü-chou), a city in China, in the province of Kiangsu; situated on the Grand Canal, near Lake T’ai. Population, 633,000 (1957). Suchow is a river port and has a railroad station on the Nanking-Shanghai line. An important center of the silk industry and various handicraft industries, it also has enterprises of the chemical, paper, cotton, and food-processing industries. Educational institutions include aviation and pedagogical institutes.

Suchow was built by Wang Ho Liu (514–489 B.C.) as the capital of the principality of Wu. Initially called T’aich’eng, it acquired its present name under the Sui dynasty (A.D. 581–618). In later times it was called P’ingchiang and Wuhsien. During the Sung dynasty (960–1279) it became a provincial center, and under the Manchus (1644–1911), the chief city of Kiangsu Province. During the medieval period it was an important center of trade and of cotton and silk production.

Suchow has many old parks with man-made hills and lakes and with pavilions, galleries, and bridges and several country estates with landscaped gardens. Architectural monuments include a fortress wall (1360; restored 15th-18th centuries), the 13-tiered Juikuangt’a pagoda (third century; rebuilt 904), the seven-tiered Huch’iut’a pagoda (seventh century; rebuilt tenth century), and the seven-tiered twin pagodas of Shuangt’a (984).

REFERENCE

Loboda, I. “Gorod sadov, shelka i vyshivok.” Aziia i Afrika segodnia, 1962, no. 9.

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Suchow 

(also Hsüchou), a city in East China, in Kiangsu Province. Population, approximately 700,000 (1970). Suchow is an important railroad junction at the intersection of the Tientsin-P’uk’ou and Lunghai railroads. The city’s metallurgical plants use iron ore from the Likuotse deposit and coal from the Chiawang mines. Other industries include food processing and the manufacture of cotton textiles and mining equipment. Handicrafts are also produced in Suchow.