Huai'an City lies in the north of Jiangsu Province. It occupies 10,600 square kilometers and has a population of 5.1768 million. It is noted as the hometown of Mr. Zhou En-lai, the first and venerable premier of the People's Republic of China. It is easily accessible by Xin-Chang Railway, Nanjing-Lianyungang Expressway and Beijing-Shanghai Expressway. Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, is situated 180 kilometers in the south. There is also huge and intricate network of nine rivers and possesses rich human and geographic resources.
Huai'an is a city of historic and cultural significance. Early settlement patterns from 6000 years ago have been excavated near Huai'an and are documented in the annuals of ancient Chinese history as the “Qing Liangang Culture”. The ancestral mausoleum of Zhu Yuanzhang, the first Emperor of Ming Dynasty, lies to the south of the city. Huai'an is also the hometown of many notable figures in Chinese history, including Han Dynasty General Han Xin, renowned Song Dynasty heroine Liang Hongyu, the noted Ming Dynasty writer of “Journey to the West,” Wu Cheng'en, and Qing Dynasty national hero Guan Tianpei and many others.
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