Tongzhou District (), formerly known as Tongzhou City (1993–2009) or Nantong County (1912–1993), is one of three urban districts of

Nantong Nantong is a prefecture-level city in southeastern Jiangsu province, China. Located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth. Nantong is a vital river port bordering Yancheng to the north; Taizhou to the west; Suzhou, Wux ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

province A province is an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire, Roman Empire's territorial possessions ou ...

, China. It was a

county-level city A county-level city () is a County-level divisions of China, county-level administrative division of the China, People's Republic of China. County-level cities have judiciary, judicial but no legislature, legislative rights over their own local or ...

under the administration of Nantong until July 2009, when it became a district of Nantong. As of 2010, Tongzhou had a population of 1,246,400.

History

The district takes its name from its former position as the capital of Tongzhou, a

prefecture A prefecture (from the Latin word, "''praefectura"'') is an administrative jurisdiction traditionally governed by an appointed prefect. This can be a regional or local government subdivision in various countries, or a subdivision in certain inter ...

imperial China The history of China spans several millennia across a wide geographical area. Each region now considered part of the Chinese world has experienced periods of unity, fracture, prosperity, and strife. Chinese civilization first emerged in the Y ...

. Under the

southern Song The Song dynasty ( ) was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, ending ...

dynasty A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others. H ...

, the city controlled not just its adjacent lands but also Xisha and Dongsha, the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

shoal In oceanography, geomorphology, and Earth science, geoscience, a shoal is a natural submerged ridge, bank (geography), bank, or bar that consists of, or is covered by, sand or other unconsolidated material, and rises from the bed of a body ...

s that eventually developed into

Chongming Island Chongming (), Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanized as Chungming, is an alluvial island at the mouth of the Yangtze, Yangtze River in East China covering as of 2010. Together with the islands Changxing Island (Shanghai), Changxing an ...

."Chongming County" in the ''Encyclopedia of Shanghai'', pp. 50 ff.
Shanghai Scientific & Technical Publishers (Shanghai), 2010. Hosted by the Municipality of Shanghai. Shigang Town is located beside the

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ) is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows including Dam Qu River the longest source of the Yangtze, i ...

where residents made a living mainly by salt making and fishing in ancient times. In 860, Yuhuangdian () was built and, six year later, the palace of

Emperor The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...

Taizong of the Tang was rebuilt as the Guangyuan Temple. From the

Song A song is a musical composition performed by the human voice. The voice often carries the melody (a series of distinct and fixed pitches) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs have a structure, such as the common ABA form, and are usu ...

to the

Qing The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

dynasties, many temples were built in Shigang.

Administrative divisions

At present, Tongzhou District has 19 towns. ;19 towns

Climate

Local specialities

* Xiting Crackers () * BBoss Beer () * Mahogany Carvings () * Zhengchang Bacon () * Xinzhong

Fermented bean curd Fermented tofu (also called fermented bean curd, white bean-curd cheese, tofu cheese, soy cheese, preserved tofu or sufu) is a Chinese condiment consisting of a form of processed, preserved tofu used in East Asian cuisine; typical ingredients ...

()

Transport

* Nantong West railway station

References

External links

"Illustrated Album of Yangzhou Prefecture"
from 1573 to 1620, has illustrations of Tongzhou County-level divisions of Jiangsu Geography of Nantong {{Jiangsu-geo-stub