East China

East China is the new economic center of the country. Regions Jiangsu Shanghai Zhejiang Cities Hangzhou (Zhejiang Province), former capital with a famous lake, one of China's top destinations for domestic tourists. Marco Polo wrote of Hangzhou the city is beyond dispute the finest and the noblest in the world. Nanjing (Jiangsu Province), capital under several dynasties, most recently 1912-1949 Ningbo (Zhejiang Province), a major trading port in the tea clipper era, still an important port and industrial city Shanghai, China's largest city and greatest economic center; in some ways, the cultural capital as well Suzhou (Jiangsu Province), old city of canals and gardens, now a major center for high tech. The Chinese have a saying that heaven has paradise but Earth has Hangzhou and Suzhou. Wenzhou (Zhejiang Province) Xikou (Zhejiang Province) Zhouzhuang (Jiangsu Province) Other destinations Understand Talk As anywhere in China, Mandarin is the lingua franca; nearly everyone can speak it. As elsewhere in China, English is not widespread but some people speak it quite well. The region does have its own language, called Wu or Shanghainese. This is a populous region and the number of Wu native speakers is large; at 78 million it is rather more than French or Italian. There are local variants of Wu; the standard is that of Suzhou (an older city and home to many scholars), not that of Shanghai. Get in Perhaps the commonest way to reach the area is to fly to Shanghai. There are two airports. Pudong is a major international airport with connections all over the world; Hong Qiao handles mainly domestic flights. Other cities in the region, such as Hangzhou and Nanjing also have international airports. Air Asia's [1]] flight from Kuala Lumpur to Hangzhou provides a low-cost route to or from Southeast Asia. The area is also well connected via China's road and rail networks, and there is a Suzhou-Japan ferry. Get around See Itineraries Do Eat Drink Stay safe Get out This article is an outline and needs more content. It has a template, but there is not enough information present. Please plunge forward and help it grow!