Page 8 - Palm City Spotlight - February '23

Page 8, Palm City Spotlight

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Wuxi, China And Life On the seat of a complex
commercial organization
The Grand Canal made up of extremely
wealthy merchants and
Previously submitted by middlemen.
the late Don Kiselewski, When the Grand Canal fell
MCC, D.S., Palm Beach into decay after 1850, Wuxi
Gardens Travel Leaders retained its importance as a
Although not exactly a rice market, exporting grain
household name or familiar to Shanghai for reshipment.
spot on the globe, Wuxi The grain trade increased
is nonetheless one of the even more when the rail
important cities in China. line was completed between
However, it is one of those Nanking to the northwest
places that you must want and Shanghai to the east,
to visit, because it is rare to with Wuxi becoming the
find it on any of the regular tours that visit sites in China. central collection point for
The city, pronounced “woo-she,” lies on the Grand Canal grain in the line. Having
– which stretches more than 1,000 miles from Beijing to ridden on the passenger
Hangzhou – near the northeast corner of Lake Taihu. service on this section Sunset on Lake Taihu near the shores of Wuxi
Wuxi is one of the oldest cities in the Yangtze River of China’s railway, I can
Delta area. It was originally known as a source of tin, attest to its cleanliness as
however, by the time the county was founded under the well as lack of concern for
former Han dynasty (206 B.C. to A.D. 8), the deposits punctuality.
were exhausted and so it Wuxi is also one of the
was named Wuxi, meaning centers of the traditional
“without tin.” (hand-operated) textile
Since early times, the industries, being engaged
area around the city has in both cotton textiles and
been extremely fertile, silk reeling. The cotton yarn
and after the completion produced is woven not only
of the Grand Canal in in the city itself but also in
A.D. 609, Wuxi became Zhangzhou and Suzhou (or
the transshipping center Soochow). Silk reeled in
of grain destined for the Wuxi is most often woven
capital, Beijing. It thus into cloth in Suzhou and
became one of the greatest Shanghai. The production
grain markets in China, of silk was developed
handling vast quantities A man fries seafood in a food by a group of Shanghai
of rice annually, and was market in the center of Wuxi. merchants, all of whom
were former residents of
the Wuxi area. Since 1970,
Wuxi has been the center Traditional houses near the Grand Canal in the center of Wuxi
of silk reeling in China.
Because of the close line of the two cities, Wuxi was and produce still another crop for the area: fish. Fish
known colloquially before WWII as “Little Shanghai.” farming of carp, catfish and other freshwater fish in these
Modern fabrics and manufacturing processes have waters provides a major portion of the necessary food.
changed the character of the manufactured goods that Fish and rice are the two main staples of the Chinese diet.
emanate from the city. Today, food processing, machine No story about Wuxi would be complete without
tools, engineered products and the like are the backbone further details of the Grand Canal, from which it gained
of Wuxi’s industry. However, silk is still the jewel of its geographic prominence. The canal was started in fourth
the city, and no trip to the city is complete without century B.C., and was extensively rebuilt in A.D. 607. It
experiencing its silk industry, from the worm to the
thread. The maze of smaller lakes and canals fill the area Wuxi, China And Life On The Grand Canal on page 9

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