Night view of the Grand Canal Museum of China in Yangzhou on June 8, 2021. Image source: Xinhua News Agency
Recently, due to the impact of a wave of the epidemic, the people of Yangzhou have stayed at home to fight the epidemic, and the ancient city has suddenly become very quiet, and the road in the downtown area is empty on weekdays.
At the same time, this city has become the focus of attention of netizens due to the epidemic. Some netizens exclaimed: Now I know that the low-key Yangzhou was originally a very cattle city in history!
Yangzhou is located in the core area of the integration of the Yangtze River Delta, however, for a long time, compared with the cities of "Su Xichang", Yangzhou's sense of existence is obviously low.
Why is Yangzhou, a thousand-year-old city, silent in the competition for regional economic development?
Yangzhou was once an international metropolis with a global reputation
Yangzhou, this place name is not unusual.
This is one of the oldest place names in China that has not been changed to this day.
In the earliest pre-Qin classic "Shang Shu" in the "Yugong" chapter, divided into "Tianxia" for Kyushu, "Yangzhou" is one of the nine states, covering the land of Huaihai today, so there is "Huaihai Weiyangyang", yangzhou alias "Weiyang" is derived from this.
In 486 BC, Wu Wang Fucha fought for hegemony in the Central Plains in the north, and dug a canal connecting the Yangtze River and the Huai River on the north bank of the Yangtze River, "Hangou", also known as "Chasm", that is, the earliest completed section of the famous Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
In order to ensure the safety of this important waterway, Fuchai built Hancheng at the confluence of the Yangtze River and Hangou, which is the earliest prototype of Yangzhou City.
In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Tao, the king of Wu, excavated the "Salt River" on the right side of the Hangou Ditch, which was originally perpendicular to Jianghuai, which is the prototype of today's Tongyang Canal, thus laying the foundation for Yangzhou's history of "the profits of salt merchants who transported salt and grain without authorization" for the next two thousand years, and the foundation for long-term prosperity.
Since then, the Sui Dynasty Emperor excavated the Grand Canal that runs through the north and south, and since then, Yangzhou (Jiangdu County) has become a key transportation hub on the Grand Canal to carry the north and south and the world, ushering in the beginning of another heyday of this historical ancient city.
Although the Sui Dynasty Emperor's exploits failed and the world was in chaos, he himself died in Yangzhou, becoming the only important emperor buried here, but the prosperity of Yangzhou was increased by the great development of Jiangnan and the improvement of the navigation capacity of the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.
So far, Yangzhou has become an international metropolis comparable to the capital cities of Chang'an and Luoyang, enjoying the reputation of "Yang Yi Yi Two" and "the world's grand Yang is the first".
Unlike Chang'an and Luoyang, Yangzhou's prosperity has a strong commercial, humanistic and urban atmosphere, and because transportation is the basis of its prosperity, it has become an international metropolis with a global reputation.
"Spring Breeze Ten Miles Yangzhou Road" and "Fireworks in March under Yangzhou", the city enjoys the beautiful wind and currents. Jian Zhen Dongdu and Cui Zhiyuan came to China, making Yangzhou a hub for cultural exchanges in East Asia.
Why was the economy of Yangzhou famous in ancient times?
Yangzhou's prosperity benefits from its status as a water transport hub with a lake.
At that time, the dependence of China's political center, which was hundreds of miles away, on the wealth of the Yangtze River Delta region made the Yangtze River-Canal shipping system an irreplaceable position.
For a long time, Yangzhou has been the "throat" of the entire Yangtze River-Canal water transport system, and it is also the link point between the ancient south and the north, the political center and the economic and cultural center, and the only city that exerts the "economic advantages of water transport" to the extreme.
It is precisely by relying on this unique advantage that for two thousand years, Yangzhou has developed and continued the prosperity of commerce, transportation and service industries, entertainment industry, and cultural publishing industry, the first two directly rely on the Caoyun economy, and the latter two are the inevitable results of the development of the Caoyun economy.
However, this excessive dependence on the "economic advantages of caoyun" also invisibly made ancient Yangzhou a "top-heavy" pure consumption city.
The prosperity of Yangzhou depends on the smooth flow of canals, on the dependence of the political center on water transport, on the dependence of the Yangtze River Delta wealth and endowment area on water transport, and on the scarcity of commercial centers in the economy and society of small farmers who "emphasize agriculture and suppress business".
However, once the canal is not smooth, or the inevitability of water transport disappears, Yangzhou's unique advantages are gone.
In the five years of Xianfeng in the Qing Dynasty, the Yellow River was diverted, coupled with the continuous war, the canal shipping continued to decline, and shipping replaced it.
Subsequently, the Shanghai-Nanjing and Jinpu-Pu railways, which run through the north and south, were successively delivered for operation. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, which is slow, has high operation and maintenance costs, and is plagued by many silts that cannot be navigated, is dwarfed.
Although Yangzhou City is still gentle and delicate, the city was once prosperous and prosperous, but with the "benefits of grain, fishing and salt" is no longer, it is "blown away by rain and wind".
Yangzhou has a unique "slow life" rhyme
In the 20th century, especially after the founding of New China, as one of the central cities of the new geographical concept of "Suzhou-Zhong", Yangzhou, a new industrial and commercial city, has risen again.
Especially since the reform and opening up, Yangzhou has once again been rejuvenated.
Dongfeng Fishing Village, Shaobo Town, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu Province, a social drama on the side of the canal. Photo by Beijing News reporter Li Fei
Since 2004, with the opening of the Ningqi Railway, the opening of the Runyang Yangtze River Bridge, the opening of Yangtai Airport, and the delivery and operation of the Huaiyang Town High-speed Railway, Yangzhou, which once lost its transportation convenience, has prospered again.
The tourism, food, humanistic traditions and unique meaning of "slow life" in this famous city have made the once silent "Huaizuo Mingdu, Zhuxi Jia" revitalized.
In 2020, Yangzhou was awarded the title of "World Capital of Gastronomy" by UNESCO, and Huaiyang cuisine, Yangzhou gardens, and "Twenty-Four Bridges and Bright Moon" once again polished Yangzhou's "business card" around the world.
Why Yangzhou has become a "latecomer" in the Yangtze River Delta
However, in recent years, in the rapid development of the Yangtze River Delta cities and fierce regional economic competition, Yangzhou has obviously lagged behind and been silent.
In 2020, Yangzhou's GDP exceeded the mark of 600 billion yuan for the first time, ranking 35th in the country and 7th in the province (second to Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi, Nantong, Changzhou and Xuzhou).
Judging from Yangzhou's current level of economic development, it is still a relatively developed city in the country, and it is also an economically strong city in northern Jiangsu. However, regardless of vertical or horizontal, in the Yangtze River Delta region, Yangzhou can only be located in the list of second-rate cities.
Compared with the highly developed cities of southern Jiangsu, Yangzhou is only slightly stronger than the weakest City of Zhenjiang, and its total GDP is far behind the four "trillion-dollar cities" of Suzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi and Nantong, and even lags behind Xuzhou.
In recent years, although Yangzhou's GDP and per capita GDP have steadily increased, there is obviously a big gap with the reputation of "the rich land under the world" and "Yang Yi Yi Yi Two" in the history of Yangzhou City.
According to the words of the Yangzhou people themselves, today's Yangzhou City is "the head of the army" - in the "Suzhong" (Yangzhou people do not like to call the word "Northern Jiangsu", like to call themselves "Central Jiangsu City"), but to get the more developed Southern Jiangsu "Su Xichang" ratio, dwarfed. In recent years, Yangzhou has also been inferior to Nantong, which is also along the river in northern Jiangsu.
The embarrassing situation of Yangzhou's economic development may be related to the city's positioning and industrial structure.
First, Yangzhou's urban development positioning is wobbly. Many years ago, Yangzhou shouted out the slogan of "connecting with southern Jiangsu", but it lacked specific and clear ideas and strategies; "benchmarking Su Xichang", but could not come up with competitive benchmarking projects.
Yangzhou, Nanjing, and Zhenjiang, the two cities of southern Jiangsu, are connected by mountains and rivers and have deep roots, but their determination and strength to connect with them are not great. Yangzhou and Zhenjiang have a common Yangtze River channel, the Runyang Bridge, but there is a "secret effort" knot between them and the latter, which has not been fully docked.
In contrast, Nantong, another city along the river in northern Jiangsu, the city docking positioning "relying on the Yangtze River Delta, docking the greater Shanghai", clear and resolute, the development performance in recent years has left Yangzhou far behind.
Secondly, there are shortcomings in Yangzhou's industrial structure. In 2020, the proportion of the primary industry, secondary industry and tertiary industry in Yangzhou was 5.08%, 46.07% and 48.05% respectively, which is the largest proportion of the tertiary industry in the districts and cities in Jiangsu Province, and this proportion has been increasing in recent years.
Although Yangzhou put forward the concept and slogan of "Industrial Science and Technology Innovation City", emphasizing "cultivating a modern characteristic industrial system supported by 323+1 advanced manufacturing industry, creating a competitive industrial strong city and an industrial science and technology innovation city", and taking out the results of "the total number of high-tech enterprises in the city in 2020 exceeded 1600, and the output value accounted for 48.1% of the industrial output value", the gap between the strong and strong in the province is large, and the fist advantage project is not prominent.
August 4, 2021, Yangzhou City. Image source: Xinhua News Agency
In addition, Yangzhou's total social R&D investment in GDP accounts for only about 2.5%, and there is no advantage in the province.
Over-reliance on the service industry and tertiary production is a characteristic of Yangzhou, and to some extent it is also an "old problem". The tertiary industry relies heavily on the "big environment", has more variables, and has a relatively weak ability to "resist blows". The new crown epidemic and countermeasures have caused Yangzhou, which is accustomed to eating "famous city meals", to be greatly impacted.
Recently, a new wave of the new crown epidemic has affected many countries and regions around the world, and Yangzhou, which "eats humanistic meals" and relies on tourism, transportation, and people's flow logistics to maintain its economic and people's livelihood and social vitality, has once again suffered a severe test.
Yangzhou, a thousand-year-old famous city, has now become a "latecomer" in the Yangtze River Delta. The city's economic development is about to take off, and there may still be a long way to go.
| Pottery short room
Editor | Zhang Xiaoyuan
Proofreading | Chen Diyan
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