Soochow

An official, one of the many provincial deputies charged with the carrying of tribute to the Court at Hsi-an, returning thence to his post at Soochow, sent to a friend at Peking a detailed description of the life of the Court in exile, from which the following extracts are taken.

For our purpose new economic centers are defined as those vigorously developed in Communist China prior to the economic crisis in 1960-62, but not necessarily completely new industrial centers. They consist of 26 cities included in categories A-II and B-II in Table 4-8 and B2, B3, B4, B5, and B8 in Table 4-3 (excluding Soochow and Kuei-yang, which are predominantly nonindustrial).

By the middle of June there had been additional disturbances at Chinkiang, Tan-yang, Wu-hsi and Soochow along the Grand Canal, and at Wu-hsueh, Kiukiang and Sha-shih on the Yangtze.

Several thousand people from rice producing areas throughout the country came to visit the high yielding units in Soochow Prefecture every day.[…] In Wuchiang County which has a rural population of 600,000, the 23 communes are divided into five groups.

In Soochow of Kiangsu Province, people burned incense at daybreak. During the day, stores were closed and people ate and drank, as if they were celebrating the New Year.

He could always just leave on the next train to Nanking, or the little steamboat to Soochow.