Jinfeng Town, located on the beach of the Yangtze River, belongs to the county-level city Zhangjianggang of Suzhou, Jiangsu Province. The town is in the northwest of Suzhou, or the northeast of Zhangjiagang City. It is about 100 to 150 kilometres away from Shanghai Hongqiao Airport, and 13 kilometres away from Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone. The year of 2003 saw the formation of the new Jinfeng town by merging the former Jinfeng town with Sanxing Town, Hexing Town and the former Donglai Town’s Dingfeng Village, Hefeng Village and Jiaotong Village. By 2020, Jinfeng with an area of 114.32 square kilometres has 2 offices, 23 village committees, 11 residents’ committees and a population of about 180,000 people.
Jinfeng is not only a typical “land of fish and rice” in the southern area of the Yangtze River but also an industrial hub of strategic importance along the Yangtze River. It hosts Jiangsu Shagang Group—the largest private enterprise in China, which has been listed as a Fortune 500 enterprise for 12 years on end. In 2020, Shagang Group ranked the 351st in the list. Jinfeng has successively won honorary titles such as “National Health Town,” “Township with a Beautiful Environment in China,” “National Green Town,” and “National Civilized Town.”
In 2020, the town’s gross output value of enterprises above designed sizes accounted for 166.1 billion yuan, achieving a 6.4% year-on-year increase. The output value of emerging industries reached 66.3 billion yuan, whose year-on-year increase was 11.1%. The investments in fixed assets amounted to 9.4 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 20.5%. The actual foreign capital utilization realized an 136.8% year-on-year increase and totaled 154 million US dollars. The revenue in the town government’s general public budget was 3.722 billion yuan. Its total import and export volume reached 5.047 billion US dollars. In 2019, Jinfeng thus ranked the 8th in China’s Top 100 Towns and Townships with Strong Comprehensive Competitiveness, and the 22nd in China’s Top Thousand Most Competitive Towns in Terms of Comprehensive Strength.
The area of today’s Jinfeng used to lie underwater. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, dozens of sandbanks in varied sizes emerged, including Shouxing Sandbank, Qingping Sandbank, Dongxing Sandbank, Guansi Sandbank, Hengdun Sandbank, Panlan Sandbank and so on. The magic natural forces gradually merged these small sandbanks into three larger ones, namely Nansha Sandbank, Zhongsha Sandbank, and Beisha Sandbank. Between them wound two rivers—North Duanshan River and South Duanshan River.
From the mid-Qing Dynasty to 1912 or so, the industrious and courageous local people built two sea dams across the two rivers. The dams stopped the water flow and enabled them to reclaim land from the rivers. On this newly formed land, Jinfeng people started to work hard to realize their dreams.
Zhao Yi, a poet in the Qing Dynasty, recorded these efforts poetically as “At the centre of the sea a sandbar rose; on the vast land men were busy building dams and ploughing their fields.” In the 1920s, Yang Zaitian, who served as the head of the Department of Smuggling Suppression in charge of the area along the Yangtze River, built a manor and a town here. Yang took the character “Jin” (“锦,” meaning “splendid prospects”) from his literary name “Jinlong” (“锦龙”) to combine with the character “Feng” (“丰”) from the phrase “Feng Ren” (“丰稔,” meaning “a big crop and good harvest”), and named the town “Jinfeng.”
Jinfeng has fertile land suitable for the cultivation of either grain or cotton. Blessed with a network of densely intersecting watercourses and abundant fish and crabs, the place is a well-known town of fish and rice in the northern part of the area south of the Yangtze River. The traditional crops here include cotton, soybeans, wheats, oil-seed rapes, peanuts, and sweet potatoes, etc.
During the Qingming Festival, the spring view is pleasant at the town. All the reeds turn green while the surface of rivers and lakes are dotted with fishing sails. It is the very season for people to enjoy the three aquatic delicacies of the Yangtze River— pufferfish, sauries, and hilsa herring. Qing Duan, a poet of the Qing Dynasty, vividly depicted the delightful fishing scene in his poem: “Snow-white currents surged in the Yangtze; hilsa fish with fine scales clustered like silver blades.” The three fish and other aquatic products are gifts from nature and delicacies for people.
With a global vision, Jinfeng people have made far-sighted plans for the development of local industries. The ancient town accommodates the largest manufacturer of lead oxide in Asia, the largest production and deep processing base of glass in China, and Jiangsu Shagang Group which is the largest domestic production base for stainless steel sheets and electric steel.
In 2003, the provincial government of Jiangsu approved the establishment of Jiangsu Yangtze River International Metallurgical Industrial Park in Jinfeng, the first provincial-level specialized industrial park. The year of 2011 saw the founding of Jiulong Iron and Steel Logistics Park in Zhangjiagang whose planned total investment accounted for 30 billion yuan. Thanks to its excellent services and investment climate, the Park has attracted quite a few Fortune 500 companies at home and abroad to invest in or conduct operations, which has increased the investment to over 200 billion yuan.
By 2020, there had been over 4000 enterprises engaged in a wide variety of fields in the park, including Fortune 500 companies such as Shagang Group and Posco (Zhangjiagang) Stainless Steel Co Ltd. The construction of Zhangjiagang Industrial Centre jointly sponsored by the Institute of Jiangsu Metallurgical Technology Research and State Key Institute of Jiangsu Metallurgy and Preparation of Advanced Special Steel has achieved significant progress. Changshun Creation Valley has now grown into a provincial business incubator. Jinfeng Sci-Tech Innovation Park has been approved as a national incubator for sci-tech enterprises. Jiulong Iron and Steel Logistics Park has been rated as “China’s Excellent Logistics Park”.
Education has long been valued in Jinfeng and its surrounding areas. During the reign of Emperor Daoguang (1821—1850), local people started to set up private schools, which were followed by the establishment of academies, literary societies, and mass education centres. In the late Qing Dynasty, the imperial examination system was abolished and schools were founded. In the 32nd year of Emperor Guangxu’s reign (1906), primary schools were set up in Qingpingsha Village and Dongxingsha Village simultaneously, which marked the beginning of new-style school education in the town. Chen Guiqing, Chen Guanwu and a few other educators, who were natives of Shazhou but lived in Shanghai, founded Danan Middle School at Hexing in 1940. The school’s name spread so far and wide that students from Jiangyin, Changshu, and Nantong flocked to it. The school was renamed as Shazhou Middle School in 1952 and later became a key rural middle school and a key high school in Suzhou.
In the old days, activities involving folk art were held to entertain local people only when traditional festivals were observed or when there were temple fairs. Since 1949, the mass cultural activities have flourished and thus people’s cultural life is becoming increasingly active and diverse.
Since 2012, the town government has allocated a 5-million-yuan special fund annually for the development of mass culture. The funds spent on various social undertakings and the development of civilization amount to 500 million yuan every year. A total of 220 million yuan has been spent on the establishment of new cultural and sports centres, leisure squares and parks. Shashang Culture Exhibition Hall and the Memorial Hall of the Shazhou County Democratic Government of Resistance against Japanese Aggression were set up and opened as well. Libraries and community book clubs are founded in all the villages and towns in Jinfeng. Villages (communities) all have their own teams to engage in cultural activities and sports events. Mass cultural activities such as “Beautiful New Shazhou City,” “Shazhou Art Festival” and “One Village ? One Show” are held on an annual basis.
Since the founding of Research Association of Shashang Culture in January 2013, four rounds of Shashang Culture Art Festivals have been successfully held. In 2020, the Shashang Culture Impression Museum was set up, which has published 18 volumes about Shashang culture, including History of Shashang and Shashang’s Baojuan (“Baojuan” means “precious scrolls,” a genre of prosimetric texts on religious subjects and written in vernacular Chinese) as well as the “Shashang Culture Series.”
Jinfeng’s sports and health undertakings have achieved significant progress. A table tennis school for children was founded in 1994. Yin Benxin, the world champion Sun Jin’s first coach, was invited to the school and served as chief coach. The school has trained many talented young table tennis players. As a result, it has been awarded such honorary titles as a provincial “Traditional Sports Projects School” and “Advanced Group for the Development of Table Tennis.” In 2004, the school hosted the National Luneng Cup Women’s Table Tennis Super League and the National Men’s Basketball Club Youth League. Within the township, there are towns characteristic of sports such as chess and table tennis. Covering an area of 1.52 hectares, the Jinfeng Cultural and Sports Center is a multi-functional complex offering activities related to culture, sports, fitness, and entertainment.
The people of Jinfeng have a keen sense of innovation and a pioneering spirit. The town’s social security system has been highly affirmed by the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the provincial Department of Civil Affairs. The system is known as the “Jinfeng Model,” and has been extensively promoted. Farmers’ Park used to be the first of its kind in the country. Hence, it is known as the “Top Farmers’ Paradise.”
Jinfeng takes great pride in its production of the first flat glass by a commune-and brigade-owned enterprise in the country to being the host of China’s largest private steel enterprise. They are proof of Jinfeng people’s diligence and wisdom. Now Jinfeng welcomes new opportunities provided by the implementation of major national strategies such as “the Belt and Road” initiative, the Yangtze River Economic Belt project, and the integrated development of Yangtze River Delta.
New opportunities mean new challenges and new normal. Jinfeng people will continue to focus on the construction and growth of the “five zones,” namely the cluster of high-end manufacturing, the model zone of centralized residence for farmers, the ecological demonstration zone, the lead-in zone for new rural development, and Jiulong Iron and Steel Logistics Zone. They are actively adapting themselves to the new normal resulting from economic and social development. Based on its own actual circumstances, the town will endeavour to serve the development of Shagang Group, to promote industrial transformation and upgrading, to realize stable economic growth, and to better its infrastructure. By adopting a brand-new perspective, new mindset and new tactics, Jinfeng is determined to further promote its already vigorous economic and social development.
