General Introduction

Jiangsu Province, one of the most densely populated provinces in China, lies in an area of more than 100,000 square kilometers along the middle of the eastern coast in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Some 88 per cent of its 59.38 million people live in the highly cultivated countryside and 12 per cent in the cities. Known as a "land of fish and rice", Jiangsu gets its name from the first character' of its two cities, Jiangning (now Nanjing) and Suzhou.