Mark Meek's Ideas: Hangzhou And The Yangtze Delta

The Yangtze Delta, where the Yangtze River meets the East China Sea, was one of the great early centers of civilization. We have already visited Shanghai in this area. What I would like to do today is to visit some more cities of China's Yangtze Delta, beginning with Hangzhou.

In the Middle East and Near East, there were three river valleys that were centers of early civilizations. These were the valleys of the Nile, the Tigris-Euphrates and the Indus Rivers. In the Far East, there were also three river valleys that became centers of early civilization. These are the Hwang Ho (Yellow) River, the Yangtze River and the Pearl River.

The difference between the two regions is that the civilizations of the three river valleys in the Far East all became part of the same country. That country is China and it has been with us from ancient times until today.

The difference between China and the ancient river valleys further west is that, in China, the cities are much more likely to be the same cities today as they were in ancient times. There are exceptions in the Middle East, such as Jerusalem and Damascus, but most of the major cities, such as Cairo and Baghdad, were not there in ancient times but were built by Moslems in medieval times.

This means that in China we are much less likely to see ruins of ancient cities some distance away from the modern cities as we are in the Middle East. In Iran, there is the modern city of Tehran and the ruins of ancient cities such as Persepolis. In China it is much more likely that the cities of ancient times are the same cities that we see today, even if the focal point of the city may have shifted.

This fits with what we saw in the posting on this blog, "Understanding The World In Terms Of The South And West And The North And East". China is in the "North And East", where cities and country tend to last from ancient times until today. The Middle East, in contrast, is the "South And West", where cities and countries tend to change with ideas.

Hangzhou is a major Chinese city, in the general area of Shanghai. In some older atlases, the name may be given as "Hanchow". It is a very old and important city, and was once the capital of the country. It was the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty until Kublai Khan started the Yuan Dynasty and made Beijing the capital, as we saw in the posting on this blog, "Why We Should Understand The Mongols".

Hangzhou grew up where the Grand Canal meets the Yangtze River. The Grand Canal was a massive project, in what the west would consider as the early Middle Ages, to provide a navigable link between the Yellow (Hwang Ho) River in the north and the Yangtze River in the south. The main purpose of the canal was to being grain northward. It is by far the longest canal in the world. Beijing is located at the northern terminus of the Grand Canal, while Hangzhou is at the southern end.

The famed traveler Ibn Batuta visited Hangzhou, and it is likely that Marco Polo did as well. It was once known as the Islamic center of China.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangzhou#/media/File:Hangzhou_1412.jpg

Projects like this canal as well as, of course the Great Wall, gave China the tradition of building infrastructure for which it is renown today. Notice how the new train, the Beijing-Shanghai High Speed Railway, between Shanghai, which is located in the general area of Hangzhou, and Beijing is in the same tradition as the Grand Canal.

Abroad, Chinese developers have completed a high-speed rail link to carry cargo to Addis Ababa from the port of Djibouti. When Eritrea became independent, it left the rest of Ethiopia landlocked. There is a massive port complex being constructed in Pakistan as part of China's "New Silk Road". Construction is underway for the Chinese development of an entirely new downtown for Cairo. There is even discussion of a rival to the Panama Canal, across Nicaragua, although this seems to be running into a lot of local opposition. It all goes back to the infrastructure tradition that began with the Grand Canal, with Hangzhou at it's southern terminus.

Let's start with the traditional Chinese architecture around West Lake near Hangzhou.

There are multiple scenes following. To see the scenes, after the first one, you must first click the up arrow,^, before you can move on to the next scene by clicking the right or forward arrow, >. After clicking the up arrow you can then hide the previews of successive scenes, if you wish.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.255064,120.1364288,3a,75y,194h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1s-K_Jzul7jy2I%2FV6kRxdzTV-I%2FAAAAAAAAR7w%2FZgQew6wd-84sPDuLYMtznWiRByvjJYB_gCLIB!2e4!3e11!6s%2F%2Flh6.googleusercontent.com%2F-K_Jzul7jy2I%2FV6kRxdzTV-I%2FAAAAAAAAR7w%2FZgQew6wd-84sPDuLYMtznWiRByvjJYB_gCLIB%2Fw203-h101-n-k-no%2F!7i8704!8i4352

Moving into the city of Hangzhou the following scenes begin near Citizen Square.

https://www.google.com/maps/@30.2455426,120.2107897,3a,75y,126h,90t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipOxSw4hLH73B8ujh0S5PRgPetD9vxf6XpgS1rXB!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipOxSw4hLH73B8ujh0S5PRgPetD9vxf6XpgS1rXB%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-0-ya242.06326-ro0-fo100!7i8704!8i4352

Here are some scenes around the central business district of Hangzhou.

Mark Meek's Ideas

Thursday, February 3, 2022

Hangzhou And The Yangtze Delta

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