The small county level city of Changshu lays approximately 1.5hours from Shanghai. By no means an important tourist destination, the city still retains a beautiful atmosphere.
With a long and interesting history the city was declared an independent town in 540CE. It has had a fairly peaceful history with the only major conflict being Japanese pirate raids in the 15th and 16th C.
Traditionally it relied on its agricultural trade and the name Changshu roughly translates to chang “always” shu “harvest” referring to its fertile farm land.
With the rapid modernisation of China, Changshu no longer relies on its agriculture for the main source of income but now is home to many factories especially in the textile industry and is known for its garment production.
With approximately 1.1 million inhabitants it is considered small in comparison to other Chinese cities but still has good infrastructure. Apart from lacking a train station, the city has most things needed to be comfortable and still has a small town feel.
Even though it is a small town that is relatively unheard of in China it does have an interesting list of important people as former inhabitants. Most notably the nuclear physicist Wang Gangchang who has been refered to as the “father of China’s Hydrogen bomb”. (for more information on this fascinating person please visit http://kaleidoscope.cultural-china.com/en/185Kaleidoscope6364.html)
Sadly with China’s long march towards the future it is likely that Changshu and other towns like it will slowly loose its identity by the focus on international trade and the growing desire for everything new. But for now it still has a delicate balance of the two, new cars and apartments, new shopping centres and department stores as well as the old town markets and some traditional farms.
With a long and interesting history the city was declared an independent town in 540CE. It has had a fairly peaceful history with the only major conflict being Japanese pirate raids in the 15th and 16th C.
Traditionally it relied on its agricultural trade and the name Changshu roughly translates to chang “always” shu “harvest” referring to its fertile farm land.
With the rapid modernisation of China, Changshu no longer relies on its agriculture for the main source of income but now is home to many factories especially in the textile industry and is known for its garment production.
With approximately 1.1 million inhabitants it is considered small in comparison to other Chinese cities but still has good infrastructure. Apart from lacking a train station, the city has most things needed to be comfortable and still has a small town feel.
Even though it is a small town that is relatively unheard of in China it does have an interesting list of important people as former inhabitants. Most notably the nuclear physicist Wang Gangchang who has been refered to as the “father of China’s Hydrogen bomb”. (for more information on this fascinating person please visit http://kaleidoscope.cultural-china.com/en/185Kaleidoscope6364.html)
Sadly with China’s long march towards the future it is likely that Changshu and other towns like it will slowly loose its identity by the focus on international trade and the growing desire for everything new. But for now it still has a delicate balance of the two, new cars and apartments, new shopping centres and department stores as well as the old town markets and some traditional farms.
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