Atlas of China
Huai'an 淮安Huái’ān
Where the Grand Canal crossed the Huai, and Huaiyang cooking took shape
About Huai'an
Huai'an grew up where the Grand Canal crossed the Huai River, long the line between northern and southern China, and the China Water Transport Museum recalls the grain fleets that passed through. The city is the hometown of the Han general Han Xin, of Wu Cheng'en, author of Journey to the West, whose house can be visited, and of Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People's Republic. With Yangzhou it gives its name to Huaiyang cuisine, known for fine knife work.
What to eat in Huai'an
- Ruandou eel strips (软兜长鱼)
Listed sites in Huai'an
24 sites in Huai'an are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Zhou Enlai's Hometown: Former Residence and Memorial Hall 周恩来故里 5A scenic area · National heritage site
Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People's Republic of China, was born in 1898 in this pair of Qing courtyard houses on Fuma Lane and lived here until 1910; restored in 1978 and opened in 1979, its 32 rooms show his birth room, family rooms, an old well and displays on his childhood. - Ancient Huai River Culture and Ecology Scenic Area 古淮河文化生态景区 4A scenic area · on the map
A riverside park of about 1.6 km² along the Gu Huai He, the old channel of the Yellow River, which flowed through Huai'an until 1855, on the north side of Qingjiangpu; Ninglian Road divides it into two parts. - Baima Lake Eco-Tourism Area 白马湖生态旅游景区 4A scenic area · on the map
Baima Lake is a shallow lake on the border of Huai'an and Yangzhou that also serves as a through-lake for the eastern route of the South–North Water Diversion. - China Water Transport (Caoyun) Museum 中国漕运博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
China's first museum devoted to caoyun, the imperial system that shipped tax grain along the Grand Canal to the capital, opened in May 2011 on Caoyun Square in Huai'an's old town. - Diyishan (First Mountain) and its Inscriptions 第一山 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
A wooded hill above the Huai River in the north of Xuyi town, named after the Song calligrapher Mi Fu, who climbed it in 1097 on his way to a post in Lianshui and wrote a poem calling it the "First Mountain"; a later copy of his three characters stands by the entrance. - Dragon Palace Ocean World (Journey to the West Culture Park) 龙宫海洋世界 4A scenic area · on the map
A theme-park complex in Huai'an's economic development zone built around Journey to the West, the Ming novel credited to Huai'an's Wu Cheng'en. - Former Residence of Wu Cheng'en 吴承恩故居 4A scenic area
Wu Cheng'en, the Ming writer credited with the novel Journey to the West, lived in this courtyard house in the Hexia quarter of Huai'an; it was restored in 1982 and is a city-level protected site. - Hongze Lake Levee (Gaojiayan) and Ancient Dike Scenic Area 洪泽湖大堤 4A scenic area · National heritage site
The great dike along the east shore of Hongze Lake was begun as a 30-li embankment in AD 200 and extended under the Ming and Qing to hold back the lake, protect the plains to the east and feed water to the Grand Canal; between 1580 and 1751 its lake face was clad with a wall of dressed stone about 60 km long and 7–8 m high. - Huai'an Museum 淮安市博物馆 4A scenic area · on the map
Huai'an's museum of local history, rated a national first-grade museum in 2024, holds about 31,000 objects. - Huai'an Prefectural Yamen 淮安府署 4A scenic area · National heritage site
The seat of Huai'an Prefecture from 1370 until prefectures were abolished in 1913, on the old town's central axis north of the Governor-General of Grain Transport's office and the Zhenhuai Tower. - Huanghuatang New Fourth Army Headquarters Site 黄花塘新四军军部旧址 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
Huanghuatang village in southern Xuyi County was the seat of the New Fourth Army's headquarters from early 1943 to early 1945, during the later years of the war against Japan. - Inner Canal (Liyunhe) Cultural Corridor 里运河文化长廊 4A scenic area · on the map
The Liyunhe, the section of the Grand Canal between the Yangtze and the Huai, runs 32 km through Huai'an, and this scenic corridor centres on a 15.6 km stretch through Qingjiangpu. - Jinhu Lotus Marsh (Hehuadang) 荷花荡 4A scenic area · on the map
A wetland of about 22 km², most of it water, on the shore of Gaoyou Lake in south-eastern Jinhu County, planted with lotus fields that bloom in summer. - Jinhu Water Forest 金湖水上森林 4A scenic area · on the map
A plantation of metasequoia (dawn redwood) standing in water in Tugou town, Jinhu County, planted in the 1980s as northern Jiangsu's largest man-made forest farm and opened as a privately run scenic area in 2017. - Jinshiyuan (King's Luck) Distillery, Gaogou 今世缘旅游景区 4A scenic area · on the map
The baijiu maker Jiangsu King's Luck (Jinshiyuan), successor to the old Gaogou distillery, runs a factory tour at its base in Gaogou town that is listed as a national industrial-tourism demonstration site. - Ming Ancestors Mausoleum 明祖陵 4A scenic area · National heritage site
The first imperial tomb of the Ming dynasty, built from 1386 to about 1413 by the Hongwu Emperor and his son the Yongle Emperor beside Hongze Lake for the founder's grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great-grandfather; only the grandfather is actually buried here. - Qing Yan Garden 清晏园 4A scenic area
A garden in central Qingjiangpu that grew from a lodge set up in 1678 by the river-works chief Jin Fu on the site of a Ming revenue office, and from 1729 belonged to the office of the Director-General of the Southern Rivers, who ran the river and canal works of the region. - Tieshan Temple National Forest Park 铁山寺国家森林公园 4A scenic area · on the map
A forested area of low hills, up to about 200 m, in the far south of Xuyi County on the Anhui border, around the 9 km² Tianquan Lake reservoir. - Wudao Lake Scenic Area, Lianshui 五岛湖 4A scenic area · on the map
A lake park in the middle of Lianshui town, laid out in 1930 around a lake with five small islands, grouped with the neighbouring Nengren Temple and the Lianshui County Museum into one scenic area. - Former Site of the CPC Central China Sub-bureau 中共中央华中分局旧址 National heritage site · on the map
From October 1945 to September 1946 the Central China Sub-bureau of the Communist Party's Central Committee and the Central China Military Region had their headquarters here, in the former Jiangsu Provincial Huai'an Middle School, directing party, government and military work in 73 counties and cities under Deng Zihui and Tan Zhenlin, with Zhang Dingcheng and Su Yu in military command. - Former Site of the Jiangsu–Anhui Border Region Government 苏皖边区政府旧址 National heritage site · on the map
The Jiangsu–Anhui Border Region Government, set up by the Communist Party on 1 November 1945 to join its four liberated areas in central and northern Jiangsu and Anhui, had its seat in this compound in Qingjiang, now Huai'an, until it withdrew in September 1946. - Qingliangang Neolithic Site 青莲岗遗址 National heritage site · on the map
The site that gave its name to the Qingliangang culture, a Neolithic culture of the Huai River region, lies in Qinglian village north-east of Huai'an District and was first investigated in the early 1950s; new excavations in 2016–19 opened nearly a hectare. - Wentong Pagoda 文通塔 National heritage site
An octagonal seven-storey brick pagoda, 23 m tall with yellow walls and dark eaves, in Shaohu Park in the north-west corner of Huai'an's old city beside the canal. - Yue Pagoda (Yueta), Tangji 月塔 National heritage site · on the map
A Song-dynasty brick pagoda in Yueta village, Tangji town, in eastern Lianshui County.
On the map
Open Huai'an on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Huai'an on the map