Taizhou in mandarin means “peaceful prefecture”. This city is situated on the north bank of yangtze river, bordering nantong to the east, yancheng to the north, and yangzhou to the west. taizhou has a population over five million and its land mass is 5,793 square kilometer.

Taizhou city is one of jiangsu thirteen prefecture-level cities which administers two old municipal districts and 4 county-level cities, jingjiang, jiangyan, taixing, and xinghua.
dubbed “china’s medical city”, taizhou has become a national hub in attracting more and more major international and domestic corporations to lcoate their subsidiaries and facilities in the r&d and production of pharmaceutical, biomedical, biochemical and bio-tech related fields. it happens to host the international medical exhibition commencing 13th Dec.

Flight is decorated for coming christmas festive season. getting to taizhou in jiangsu was a bit of a trouble considering that there isn’t a direct international route. there are direct train services from nanjing that cost about 13rmb and journey takes approximately 2 hrs. however the train station is located far from city that requires at least another bus ride costing about 26rmb and 30min to reach the city. train operates about 6 trips per day. taxi services are available as well and it shouldn’t cost much.

i chose to endure the direct 3 hrs cab service from shanghai to taizhou for about 1500rmb including toll charges after a direct 5hr flight in to shanghai pudong airport.

the manmade lake besides the hotel, wind was strong and daytime temperature was 4deg cel. from the horizon you can find there isn’t many tall buildings.

there isn’t really much to see except that this is a pretty clean city, and the birth place of the current president of china, hu jintao 胡锦涛 among the other once famous peking opera artician mei lanfang 梅兰芳.
most local students study in nearby nanjing and yangzhou. both neighbouring provinces are within 2hr by car.

coal powered generating plant. at its peak could burn up to 10,000mt of coal daily!!! we need to look for cleaner and greener energy before it’s too late!

on returning, it was the same route and weather looks gloomy along the way…….the trees lining up both sides along the road had shed its leaves during winter season adding the gloomy scenery of a foggy, hazy and greyish journey. adding to magnitude is the winter chills

crossing the yangtze river by the jiangyin highway bridge, which was opened in 1999.

every city has a story to tell, and i guess taizhou tells it in its very own unique way.