Suyu District 宿豫区

Setting and landscape

Most of the district is plain formed by the Yellow, Huai, Yi and Shu rivers, while the north carries an outlying part of the hills of southern Shandong. The land slopes gently from northwest to southeast, at an average height of about 38 metres. Shuyang (沭阳) and Siyang (泗阳) counties lie to the east, the Yanghe New Area (洋河新区) to the south and Suining County (睢宁县) of Xuzhou to the west.

History

The area belonged to the ancient state of Zhongwu (钟吾), and the Qin placed it in Xiaxiang County (下相县). In 405, under the Eastern Jin, a Suyu commandery and a Suyu County were created. In 762 the county was renamed Suqian so that it would not share a character with the personal name of the Tang emperor Daizong, Li Yu (李豫); Suqian County lasted until it became a county-level city in 1987. When Suqian was raised to a prefecture-level city in 1996, the old county-level city was split into Sucheng District and a new Suyu County, which became Suyu District in 2004.

What to see

Lailong Temple (来龙古寺) stands beside Bailu Lake (白鹭湖) and is a rebuilding of the Ming-period Lailong'an (来龙庵). It is tied to the local story of the monk Randeng (燃灯), a native of Xiwangzhuang (西王庄) in the same town, whose body stayed seated and dried after his death at over sixty and was venerated as the "dry-wood patriarch" (干木老祖) until it was burned early in the Cultural Revolution.

Food and local traditions

Dingzui daylilies (丁嘴金针菜) are mostly of a long, thick variety called "big black mouth" (大乌嘴); they gained national geographical-indication status in 2015, and their traditional processing is on Suqian's first list of intangible heritage. At Luji (陆集), about 8 kilometres southeast of Suqian, mung beans are ground, settled and cooked into thin, pale yellow, translucent round sheets called Luji fenpi (陆集粉皮), used in braised, stir-fried, stewed and cold dishes.

The Dingzui donkey dance (丁嘴跑驴), on Jiangsu's intangible-heritage list, is performed in Daxing, Dingzui and Yanghua. In its basic form one performer wears a donkey frame and plays a young wife riding to her parents' home while another, often a clown figure, drives the donkey, to gongs and drums in the local "seven-beat" (七字锣) pattern.

Highlights

• Lailong Temple 来龙古寺: Rebuilt Ming-period temple by Bailu Lake, linked to the legend of the monk Randeng.
• Dingzui daylilies 丁嘴金针菜: Daylily of the big black mouth variety with national geographical-indication status since 2015.
• Luji mung-bean sheets 陆集粉皮: Thin translucent sheets made from mung beans in Luji.
• Dingzui donkey dance 丁嘴跑驴: Comic folk dance on the Jiangsu intangible-heritage list.