Binhai County 滨海县

Setting and landscape

The abandoned Yellow River bed (废黄河) and the Zhongshan River (中山河) form the northern edge, across from Xiangshui (响水), while the Sheyang River (射阳河) and the Northern Jiangsu Main Irrigation Canal (苏北灌溉总渠) separate it from Sheyang County (射阳县) to the south; the canal also crosses the county from west to east. The old Yellow River course inside Binhai runs 83.43 kilometres through eight towns, zones and subdistricts, from Guannan village (关南村) to its mouth in the Binhai port economic zone, between broad raised dikes.

History

People lived in the west of the county by the end of the Western Han. By 1214 the Tianci salt works (天赐场) had been built across both banks of the Yellow River, about 15 kilometres each way, and Chinese Wikipedia describes it as the largest salt works in the Huai and Haizhou region. The county was renamed Binhai from Chaonan (潮南县) in 1942, merged with Fudong (阜东县) in 1949 and divided into Binhai and Xiangshui counties in 1966.

What to see and buy

The Binhai media centre points visitors to the Yuelianwan (月亮湾) resort on the coast, the Song Gong Dike (宋公堤) by the Yellow Sea, the former residence of the martyr Gu Zhenghong (顾正红) and Dongkan Old Street (东坎老街), whose eastern end keeps old lanes. The Yancheng culture and tourism bureau lists Binhai shouwu (滨海何首乌), a Chinese herbal medicine grown in the soil where the old Yellow River enters the sea, and the Binhai media centre calls the county China's only home of white shouwu (白首乌).

Highlights

• Old Yellow River course 黄河故道: Runs 83.43 kilometres through Binhai to its mouth in the Binhai port economic zone.
• Dongkan Old Street 东坎老街: Street whose eastern end keeps old lanes.
• Binhai shouwu 滨海何首乌: Chinese herbal medicine grown where the old Yellow River enters the sea, listed by Yancheng's culture and tourism bureau.