- Qidong, Jiangsu
Qidong (linktext|启|东) is a county-level city in
Jiangsu Province ofPeople's Republic of China . It is located on the north side of theYangtze River oppositeShanghai . It occupies a total of 1,157 square kilometers in land area, with a population of 1.16 million.The city has a center named Huilong Township. It also has a well-known fish port named Lv Si town -- meaning Mr. Lv Dong Bing, a legendary figure, had visited the place for four times. The other towns include Yin Yang, Bei Xin, Hai Fu, Nan Yang and others.
History
In November 1989, the name "Qidong County" is abolished by following current policies. It has adopted the name "Qidong City" ever since.
Population and Culture
The county was formed from sands in the
Yellow Sea in Qing Dao Guang or Qian Long. People migrated to the newly founded land from both South Ning Bo, Or North. And therefore there are two dialects.Language
People living in lvsi town speak a different dialect -- known as lvsi dialect (lvsìhuà linktext|吕|四|话) or Tongdong dialect (tōngdōnghuà linktext|通|东|话) -- from most other residents, who generally speak Qidong Dialect (qǐdōnghuà linktext|启|东|话). The two dialects are considerably different and thus they are not
mutually intelligible . Because most economic, educational and governmental activities are held in the city capital Huilong, where Qidong Dialect is prevalent, many residents of Qisi have learned to understand and even speak the majority dialect.Qidong Dialect is a dialect of
Wu Chinese . Some people consider it similar toShanghainese , also a dialect ofWu Chinese , mostly spoken in the city ofShanghai . It is almost the same as the dialect spoken inChongming , which is a town under administration of Shanghai.Both of the two dialects belong to the Northern
Wu dialect . However, because of cultural differences among two places, there still exist non-intelligible usage mostly in vocabulary.Education
Qidong High School located at Huilong Town enjoys a high reputation which basically is owed to its so-called "Special Class" where most students can be awarded in national mathematics, physics and chemistry competitions and almost half of the students can be admitted to Tshinghua University, Peking University and other famous universities.
City Development
Entertainment
At the end of 2006,
KFC andMcDonalds made their debut in Qidong respectively. This is seen as unusual because those two international companies rarely set up branches in county-level cities in China.Qidong hosts an annual Seafood festival and trade fair in late May.
Constructions
A newly constructed 200-300 mile Ning Qi highway connects Nanjing to Qidong.
There is a on-going plan to build a bridge across the
Yangtze River to link with Qidong-ChongMing-Shanghai, which might be finished around 2010.Fact|date=August 2007References
* [http://www.qidong.gov.cn/qidongww/ShowInfo.aspx?infoid=8feed2ca-460a-4ad6-b560-d2fe27d4a532&categoryNum=0201 City government official site]
External links
* [http://www.qidong.gov.cn City government official site]
* [http://www.jiangsu.net/city/city.php?name=qidong Qidong City English guide] (Jiangsu.NET)
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