Travel in Xuzhou
By admin on 2015-01-14

Xuzhou is well known for its heritage and the Han culture. There are total more than 200 Han tombs discovered, with thousands of unearthed priceless funerary objects and terracotta warriors. With a history of 2,600 years, it is also a historical city with the critical strategic importance from military views, and known as a notable battlefield in China's history. There were more than two hundred famous battles once taken place on this land.

In the Xia and Shang Dynasties, Xuzhou was in the land inhabited by the Dongyi peoples who constantly warred with the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. During the Spring and Autumn Period, Xuzhou was a collection of small farming/fishing villages and towns, part of the border region between the Chu, Wu and Qi. It was originally a capital of the Dongyi State of Xu but was exterminated by the State of Wu in 512 BC. In turn, Wu was conquered by the State of Yue a few decades later. Chu gradually expanded its influence around Xuzhou after absorbing the nearby State of Cai in 447 BC and the conquest of the State of Yue in 334 BC. By the Warring States Period, it was firmly in cultural and administrative sphere of Chu. Liu Bang, who was the first Emperor of Han Dynasty, was born in one of Xuzhou's counties, Peixian County. The Xuzhou region was called Huaiyang during the Zhou Dynasty since the Huai River crosses the area. The state of Chu moved to this area after the Qin army captured the old capital, Ying, in modern Jingzhou, Hubei.

At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, Xuzhou became part of the Kingdom of Chu, a principality ruled by relatives of the royal Liu family. Initially, Liu Bang allowed his relatives to rule parts of the country since they were assumed to be the most trustworthy. However, the Kingdom of Chu under third generation ruler Liu Wu rebelled against the central authority during the Rebellion of the Seven Princes and was defeated. His tomb was recently excavated near Xuzhou.

After the Yellow River started to change course in the Song Dynasty , when heavy silting at the Yellow River mouth forced the river to channel its flow to the lower Huai River tributary, the region has since become barren due to persistent flooding, nutrient depletion and salinization of the once fertile soil.

The area was the site of the final critical battle in the Chinese Civil War, the Huaihai Campaign  in 1948 - 1949. The disastrous capitulation of Chiang Kai-shek at Xuzhou led eventually to the fall of Nanking.