Taixing 泰兴市

Setting and landscape

The whole city sits on the Yangtze Delta's alluvial plain, which tilts gently from north-east to south-west, from about 7.2 metres at its highest to 1.8 metres at its lowest. Water covers 18.4 percent of the area, and 37.74 kilometres of the Yangtze run along the city. Most of the 14 main rivers that cross it were dug by people and rise and fall with the tide.

History

Taixing became a county in 937 under the Southern Tang, carved out of the southern part of Hailing (海陵) with its seat at Jichuan (济川镇). The city government glosses the name as wishing the country peace and every trade prosperity. In 1130 Yue Fei (岳飞) defeated Jin troops at Nanba Bridge (南坝桥), a site since lost to the river. The county became a county-level city in 1992.

Huangqiao (黄桥镇) was a market town called Yongfeng (永丰) before taking its present name in the early Ming. Relics tied to Yue Fei's general Niu Gao (牛皋), stationed here in 1130, include a horse-washing pool and a weapons cave. In October 1940 the New Fourth Army defeated the troops of Han Deqin (韩德勤) here in the Battle of Huangqiao (黄桥战役).

Food and local traditions

Huangqiao shaobing (黄桥烧饼) is a baked flatbread of flour, oil and sesame with a crisp golden crust, developed from the local zhang shaobing (涨烧饼); sweet ones are traditionally round and savoury ones oval. During the 1940 battle the town's 60 ovens baked day and night to send flatbreads to the front. Fillings now run to more than 20 kinds, from scallion oil and pork floss to ham, osmanthus and red bean paste.

Taixing is known as a home of ginkgo: the State Council's Development Research Center gave it the title "China's home of ginkgo" in 1996, and 4.512 million ginkgo trees have been planted across the city. The Taixing flower drum (泰兴花鼓), a folk dance also called "night fire lamps" (夜火灯) because dancers can carry red lamps, entered the national intangible-heritage list in 2021; it is most often danced by six performers, half men and half women.

Highlights

• Huangqiao 黄桥镇: Old market town with Niu Gao relics and site of the 1940 Battle of Huangqiao.
• Huangqiao shaobing 黄桥烧饼: Sesame flatbread, round when sweet and oval when savoury.
• Taixing ginkgo 泰兴银杏: Named China's home of ginkgo in 1996; 4.512 million trees planted.
• Taixing flower drum 泰兴花鼓: Folk dance on the national intangible-heritage list since 2021.