When it comes to Suzhou, everyone often thinks of the beauty and beauty of "heaven on the top and Suzhou and Hangzhou on the bottom". In fact, Suzhou has far more than these, as well as a strong history and culture, garden culture, opera culture. As a national historical and cultural city and a scenic tourism city, Suzhou is one of the important central cities in the Yangtze River Delta, with a very high level of economic development and shining in Jiangnan.
Oriental Water City
Suzhou is located in China's East China, southeast Jiangsu, the middle of the Yangtze River Delta, east of Shanghai, south of Zhejiang, west of Taihu Lake, north of the Yangtze River, but also an important part of the Yangtze River urban agglomeration.
The area of the city is 8488.42 square kilometers, accounting for about 8.27% of the area of Jiangsu Province. Among them, the plain is about 4660 square kilometers, accounting for 54.9%; the water surface is about 3607 square kilometers, accounting for 42.5%; the hills are about 221 square kilometers, accounting for 2.6%.
The territory of the lake is dotted, the rivers are longitudinal, the famous Yangtze River flows through the northern edge, Taihu Lake is located in the west corner, and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal runs through the urban area, which is a typical Jiangnan water town and oriental water city.
In addition, Suzhou is located in the northern subtropical humid monsoon climate zone, with a warm and humid climate, fertile land and abundant products. The eastern plains are covered with large areas of deep, fertile paddy soil. The territory is rich in animal, plant and mineral resources.
Suzhou's geographical location and good climatic conditions provide favorable conditions for the development of industry, agriculture and commerce.
Heritage culture
(1) History of Suzhou
Suzhou, known as Wu in ancient times, referred to as Su, is also known as Gu Su, Pingjiang and so on. The ancient city of Suzhou was founded in the late Spring and Autumn Period in the first year of the Reign of The King of Wu (514 BC), and the historical records say that Wu Dacheng had more than 17 miles on Thursday, and the size of the old city had not changed significantly so far, and the city site had not been changed so far.
In the ninth year of the Sui Kai Emperor (589), it was originally named Suzhou. Since the Qin and Han dynasties, it has been a county, prefecture, prefecture (army, road), and county seat. Beginning in the sixth year of the Qing Kangxi Dynasty (1667), he was also the governor of Jiangsu. After the Xinhai Revolution, the capital was withdrawn and merged with the county, and the ancient city area was occupied by Wu County.
On April 27, 1949, Suzhou was liberated, and Suzhou City was established with the city and suburbs, and it was divided from Wu County. In 1983, the city management and county system was implemented, with jurisdiction over 6 counties (cities) of Wu County, Changshu, Shazhou, Taicang, Kunshan and Wujiang.
At present, Suzhou administers 5 districts of Gusu, Huqiu, Wuzhong, Xiangcheng and Wujiang and Suzhou Industrial Park, and manages 4 county-level cities of Changshu, Zhangjiagang, Kunshan and Taicang. There are 45 streets and 51 towns in the city, of which Suzhou has 34 streets and 20 towns.
Suzhou is the birthplace and one of the central cities of Wu culture, Suzhou's urban development history, the accumulation and condensation of Wu culture of Chongwen re-education, Shangzhi stoicism, gentle and delicate, excellence, thick accumulation, keen and flexible and other characteristics, the formation of Suzhou's unique personality of the culture and urban temperament. The unique humanistic spiritual temperament of Wu culture also makes the ancient city of Suzhou have abundant tension and exuberant vitality, and promote it to keep pace with the times in the trend of history.
(2) Suzhou dialect
Professor Zhang Zhichun, an expert in folklore, said: "Dialects are part of culture, a 'living fossil' of social culture, reflecting the flow of social culture, and should be an intangible cultural heritage. ”
Suzhou dialect is the representative of Wu language, which is known for its soft glutinousness, and the so-called "Wu Nong soft language" is derived from this. Suzhou dialect has a high status in history. The ancients said: "Good at manipulating the right to advance and retreat up and down in the sea, the Su people think that the elegant, then the four sides are elegant, and the layman is also vulgar." ”
In modern China, there are four major vernaculars: Jingbai, Yunbai, Subai and Cantonese. In the Ming Dynasty, Su Bai became the popular language of scholars from Jiangnan. Yue opera, Kunqu opera, and pingtan all use Su Bai as the standard tone, and even the initial Peking Opera has used Su Bai.
Most of the upper class in the upper class, especially in the Jiangnan region, took pride in Suzhou dialect. Even people in different regions used Suzhou dialect for communication, and in contrast to the official "Mandarin" Jingbai, the status of Suzhou dialect in the society at that time was equivalent to the folk "Mandarin".
In the Ming and Qing dynasties, some popular novels, such as "three words and two beats" as the representative of the work, included a lot of Su Bai, Han Bangqing's "Biography of flowers on the sea" is the use of su bai in the dialogue of the characters.
Suzhou is the center of the ancient Wu kingdom, the language is also very ancient, Suzhou dialect still retains some very old words. For example, suzhou people often hang on the degree of adverb "poor", indicating a very, most, very such meaning.
Of course, suzhou dialect is also slowly changing. In addition to the relatively pure old Suzhou dialect in the forms of music and art such as Suzhou Pingtan, the tongue-twisting sound in Suzhou dialect has disappeared. From the 1970s onwards, the middle-pointed tuanyin of the younger generation began to die.
Entering the life of the younger generation, we can easily hear: romance is said to be current, cutting vegetables is said to be eating vegetables, as if it is said to be good, guanqian is said to be hepatitis, practice is said to be realized, industry is said to be vegetable leaves, propaganda is said to be obvious, seven aspects are said to be eating kudzu, and so on.
(3) Suzhou Bomb Evaluation
Suzhou Pingtan was developed from telling history and novels, and was the product of the combination of Wu language in the process of the development of storytelling to various places, and was a combination of commentary and bullet words, popular in southern Jiangsu, Shanghai and northern Zhejiang.
The characteristics of the commentary are only to speak and not to sing, and the speaker is mostly one person, and the atmosphere is added by using the waking wood as a prop to add to the performance. Most of the lyric performers are one to three, playing and singing, and the instruments are mostly three strings, lutes and moon organs. Suzhou Pingtan uses Suzhou dialect rap, the language is vivid, the singing voice is elegant, the tact is delicate, and it is easy to understand.
After the Qianlong Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, Suzhou Pingtan showed a prosperous situation, and a number of famous artists emerged, such as Wang Zhoushi, who played and sang in front of the imperial court, and Ma Rufei, the founder of Ma Tune.
For a long time, the lyrics and singing voices have been continuously created and developed, and more than 10 popular tunes have been formed so far, which constitute the characteristics of Suzhou opera.
(4) Suzhou Gardens
Jiangnan Garden A World, Suzhou Garden A Jiangnan.
Wenshan warm water has bred a rich Wudi culture, and suzhou garden is one of the dazzling pearls, it "does not go out of the city and get the pleasure of the landscape, living in the downtown and has the spirit of the spring", has a unique aesthetic value and cultural heritage.
As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, King Wu established the Wang Family Garden in the Villa. The southward migration of the Jin Dynasty brought an elegant scholar-doctor culture to Wudi. The emperors of the Northern Song Dynasty loved gardens, which made Suzhou's "Flower Stone Class" first famous. In the Southern Song Dynasty, a large number of officials and eunuchs gathered in Jiangnan, which once again set off a gardening style. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, Suzhou's economy was developed, and the literati gathered, with more than 500 gardens, making Suzhou gardens reach their peak.
Most of the surviving gardens were built in the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the owners of their gardens were mostly demeaning and retired officials or celebrities who advocated elegance and had no heart. Most of them have a persistent pursuit in their careers, and after experiencing the dangers of their careers, they gradually extinguished their great ambitions to make meritorious achievements and germinated a heart of retreat, so they chose to build gardens in Suzhou, a small town in the south of the Jiangnan Province. Therefore, "retreat" has become the basic cultural connotation of Suzhou gardens, and a garden retreat culture has been formed invisibly.
From the location of the garden and the setting of the lintel, the retreat of the owner can also be detected. Most of the locations of Suzhou gardens are selected in inconspicuous places, the scenery in the courtyard is beautiful, but the doorway is very simple, showing the owner's pursuit of nature, does not like luxury, indifferent to fame and fortune, and forms a unique cultural atmosphere of garden retreat.
Suzhou gardens are also a combination of various arts. Although it occupies a small area, it has superb gardening technology and artistic accomplishment. The division of the garden scenic spot is clear, and the twists and turns are just right, so that the garden constitutes a varied landscape in a limited space, which increases the sense of space and richness of the garden.
Suzhou gardens have rich cultural connotations and aesthetic values, and we can also vaguely feel the owner's state of mind when we linger in the small bridges and flowing waters in the garden, the powder wall dewa, or the winding paths and peak circuits.
(5) Su embroidery
As one of the four famous embroideries, Suzhou embroidery has a history of more than 2,000 years. In the past, a large number of embroidery products enjoyed by the royal family were almost all from the hands of Su embroidery artists. According to the Western Han Dynasty Liu Xiang's "Saying Garden", as early as the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu Guo had already used Su embroidery for clothing. During the Ming Dynasty, Su embroidery formed a grand situation of "family silkworm raising, household embroidery" in the Suzhou area. Su embroidery in the Qing Dynasty was famous for its "fine elegance", and Suzhou at that time was known as the "embroidery city". In the middle and late Qing Dynasty, Su embroidery appeared exquisite "double-sided embroidery".
Su embroidery has a unique style of beautiful patterns, ingenious conception, meticulous embroidery, lively stitching, elegant colors, and strong local characteristics. Su embroidery is most famous for Zhenhu embroidery. Zhenhu is the main birthplace of Su embroidery, and 80% of the products in Su embroidery come from Zhenhu. Zhenhu built the Chinese Embroidery Art Museum. In 2000, Zhenhu was awarded the "Hometown of Chinese Folk (Embroidery) Art" by the Ministry of Culture.
Today's Su embroidery art has created a new world of great achievements. Su embroidery artists excavate traditional skills, summarize, improve and develop, so that Su embroidery art has both excellent traditional cultural connotations and the style of the times in the new period. Su embroidery art has become one of the most attractive crafts in the Chinese arts and crafts garden.
(6) Suzhou cuisine
When it comes to Suzhou, we have to mention suzhou's cuisine with strong local characteristics: Suzhou cuisine, Suzhou boat dishes, Suzhou cake dumplings, Suzhou noodles, a wide variety of varieties, quite praised.
Suzhou cuisine
Traditional Chinese cuisine has four major cuisines of Sichuan, Lu, Cantonese and Weiyang, and later formed the eight major cuisines of Beijing, Sichuan, Lu, Yue, Su, Fujian, Hui and Xiang, and formed the different characteristics of east sour, west spicy, southern sweet and northern salty. Suzhou cuisine is an important part of Jiangsu cuisine and belongs to the category of southern sweets. Suzhou cuisine has four major features:
First of all, pay attention to seasonal freshness. Suzhou customs include spring to taste fresh, summer to eat light, autumn flavor, winter food nourishment. Secondly, the selection of materials is exquisite, requiring raw, live, fresh and tender, and the use of real estate specialties. Third, the cooking skills are superb. Suzhou cuisine tradition is known for stewing, simmering, simmering, simmering, simmering, and at the same time using both fried, fried, boiled, stir-fried, sautéed, fried, roasted, steamed, boiled, boiled, boiled, smoked and other cooking methods, integrated, supplemented by shaving, stacking, wearing, tying, rowing, rolling and other cooking methods, pay attention to knife work, techniques, pay attention to fire, timeliness. Fourth, each dish pays attention to color, aroma, taste and shape. According to different dishes and soups, different vivid colors are presented.
Suzhou boat dishes, boat orders
Suzhou boat dishes and boat points originated very early, and there were already boat banquets in the Spring and Autumn Wu Kingdom. Wu Di called the water town Zeguo, often necessary boats, no matter the official ship, civilian ship rear ship more cooking utensils, boat dishes are the cruise ship for tourists to prepare meals developed.
After the 1980s, with the development of Suzhou's tourism industry, a variety of cruise ships were opened, and tourists at home and abroad asked to taste Suzhou ship dishes, boat dishes, Songhe Tower and other famous restaurants such as red and white case chefs, invited to the ship, cook authentic boat dishes, boat points. Since its development, boat cuisine has become a major feature of Suzhou.
Suzhou cake dumplings
Wu Di Su is a staple food of rice, rice noodles have a long history of food, and cake dumplings have become an important part of the Su-style series of foods. Suzhou cake dumplings pay attention to color, aroma, taste and shape. Color, the use of natural plant pigments, such as green dough in ancient times with grass juice, after the use of grain wort, now with green vegetable juice, green often used mint, green onions, green plums, green melon, etc.; incense, the use of plant natural fragrance, such as sesame, walnut meat, osmanthus flower, date paste, winter vegetables and so on. Taste, sweet and salty are prepared, mainly sweet. Heavy sugar and light sugar are in the sweet taste, and salty in the salty taste. Shape, there are circles, long circles, flat circles, peach shapes, squares, rectangles, diamonds, spheres, yuanbao shapes, as well as animals, melons and fruits.
Soviet-style pastry
Suzhou has a variety of exquisite noodles, and has long formed a Suzhou-style noodle with local characteristics. Suzhou Noodle Restaurant pays special attention to noodle soup, noodle toppings and under-the-line techniques. Su-style noodle soup, whether white soup or red soup, pays attention to clear, fragrant, thick and fresh. In the old days, there was no MSG, and it was all made by using meat bones, eel bones and other soups, and "hanging soup" was regarded as a secret trick by noodle restaurants.
In the traditional noodles of Suzhou, there is "Fengzhen Big Noodle", the noodles are thin and white, and after being fished up with the "Guanyin Bucket" (grabbing the fence), it is placed in a bowl in the shape of "crucian carp back", the lines are evenly dropped, and the appearance is beautiful. The birthday feast uses "pot noodles", similar to home-cooked vegetables "paste noodles", noodles and shou noodles are simmered in a small pot, and when eating, even the pot is on the table, and the birthday people take small bowls to share, and the atmosphere is warm.
Modern economic development in Suzhou
In 2020, the number of permanent residents in Suzhou was 12748262, and the annual GDP reached 2,017.05 billion yuan, an increase of 3.4% over the previous year at comparable prices. Among them, the added value of the primary industry was 19.64 billion yuan, down 2.0% from the previous year; the added value of the secondary industry was 938.56 billion yuan, an increase of 3.4% over the previous year; and the added value of the tertiary industry was 1,058.85 billion yuan, an increase of 3.5% over the previous year.
According to the data released by the Suzhou Municipal Government Work Report, as of the end of December 2020, the total number of market entities in Suzhou has increased to 2.443 million households, with a total industrial output value of 3.48 trillion yuan, an increase of 4%; the output value of the four leading industries has reached 871.8 billion yuan, an increase of 11.5%, of which the output value of the biomedical industry has reached 118.7 billion yuan; the industrial investment is 152.8 billion yuan, an increase of 27.4%.
In the outline of the "14th Five-Year Plan", Suzhou proposed to take the lead in building a socialist modern and strong city that fully demonstrated the new picture of "strong, rich and high". In terms of adhering to the industry, Suzhou proposed to build ten hundred billion-level industrial clusters, including new energy, involving solar high-end battery modules, inverters and key equipment for energy storage. In terms of green and low carbon, Suzhou proposed to promote carbon reduction with multiple strategies and strive to fulfill the national carbon peak in 2030 and the international commitment of carbon neutrality in 2060 five years earlier. Suzhou develops green and low-carbon, plants new advantages in green development, and enhances new momentum for green development, so as to build a "beautiful Suzhou" and compose a Suzhou model of "beautiful China".
Suzhou's economy is not a single flower, but full of spring colors, which means that in the next 10 years, Suzhou's economy still has a strong core of sustainable development, and the future economic development potential is huge.
The city of Suzhou, full of the romance of Jiangnan smoke and rain, the rich and low-key historical background, the quiet and serene small bridge flowing water, and the huge potential for future economic development, is a well-deserved "paradise on earth"!