Jiaxing


Jiaxing, alternately romanized as Kashing, is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province, China. Lying on the Grand Canal of China, Jiaxing borders Hangzhou to the southwest, Huzhou to the west, Shanghai to the northeast, and the province of Jiangsu to the north. At the 2010 census, its population was 4,501,657 and its built-up area made of 2 urban districts was home to 1,201,882 inhabitants.

Administration

The prefecture-level city of Jiaxing administers 7 county-level divisions, including 2 districts, 3 county-level cities and 2 counties.
These are further divided into 75 township-level divisions, including 60 towns, 2 townships and 13 subdistricts.

History

Known as a place

Economy

Industry is the main economic driver to the city's economy, contributing 47% to its GDP in 2015. Jiaxing is also well known as the 'hometown of silk', hence it is a famous producer of textiles and woolens. It is one of the world's largest exporters of leather goods. There are mechanical, chemical and electronic industries there.
Jiaxing is an important energy base in East China. Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, the first self-designed nuclear power station in China, and Fangjiashan Nuclear Power Plant are located in Haiyan County.

Jiaxing Export Processing Zone

Established in 2003, Jiaxing Export Processing Zone is a state-level export processing zone approved by State Council. It has a built-up area of 2.98 km2. Its development goal is to become the export processing base for IT, IC, mechanical and electrical, electronics and other high-tech industries.

Tourism

The city is served by two railway stations: Jiaxing railway station, on the Shanghai–Kunming railway, and Jiaxing South railway station on the high speed Shanghai–Hangzhou Passenger Railway. The city is served by two long-distance bus stations: Jiaxing North Bus Station and the new Jiaxing Transportation Center. Jiaxing is on the G92 Hangzhou Bay Ring Expressway, G60 Shanghai–Kunming Expressway and China National Highway 320.
Jiaxing Air Base is being converted to a public-use airport.

Language

Jiaxing dialect is a Northern Wu dialect in the Sujiahu dialect grouping. As such, it is a sister dialect of both Shanghainese and Suzhou dialect, and easily intelligible with both. It is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin or other varieties of Chinese such as Cantonese, Hokkien or Hakka.

Religion

Local people believe in Buddhism, Taoism, Catholicism and Protestantism. Jiaxing Catholic Church and Jiaxing Vincent Abbey are well-known Roman Catholic Churches in Jiaxing.

Notable people