Huzhou is an ancient city in the south of the Yangtze River with a history of more than 2,000 years. In the 15th year of the reign of King Kaolie of Chu (248 BC), Huang Xie, the Lord of Chunshen, was relocated here and built a city named Gucheng County, which was named after the abundant Zizania latifolia in the area. In the second year of the Renshou period of the Sui Dynasty (602 AD), Huzhou was established as a prefecture, with its name derived from its proximity to Taihu Lake. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, Zhejiang First Special Zone, Jiaxing Special Zone, and Jiaxing Prefecture were successively established, with the capital city located in Huzhou for a long time. In October 1983, the Jiaxing prefectural government was canceled to set up Huzhou and Jiaxing as two prefecture-level cities. Huzhou has jurisdiction over three counties: Deqing, Changxing, and Anji, as well as the urban and suburban districts. In 1988, the urban and suburban districts were canceled and replaced by the city district, Nanxun, and Linghu districts in 1993. In 2003, the city district, Nanxun, and Linghu districts were replaced by Wuxing and Nanxun districts.
Huzhou is one of the birthplaces of Chinese silk culture, tea culture, and Huzhou writing brush culture. The silk fabrics unearthed from the Qianshanyang site in the suburbs of the city are the oldest silk fabrics discovered in the world to date. The “Jili” silk from Nanxun Town won the Gold Award in the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco. Guzhu Mountain in Changxing County once had the first tribute tea academy in Chinese history, which was the main venue for the tea activities of the “Tea Sage” Lu Yu. The Huzhou writing brush, which is listed as one of the “four treasures of the study,” is produced in Shanlian Town, Huzhou, and the people regard General Meng Tian of the Qin Dynasty as the “ancestor of the ink brush.”
Huzhou has nurtured many talented people and is a hub of cultures. In history, it has nurtured a group of celebrities such as Meng Jiao, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, Zhao Mengfu, a painter of the Yuan Dynasty, Ling Mengchu, a novelist in the Ming Dynasty, and Wu Changshuo, a master of modern calligraphy and painting. It has also attracted many famous figures such as Wang Xizhi, Yan Zhenqing, Lu Yu, and Su Shi. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, there have been a total of 18 academicians (members of the academic departments) from Huzhou. Qian Sanqiang, Zhao Jiuzhang, and Tu Shou’e, the contributors to China’s atomic and space programs, are all from Huzhou. Apart from that, Wang Qimin, the “Iron Man of the New Era,”, Wang Wei, a “guardian of the sea and sky”, and Shen Kecheng, a “people’s defender” are all the pride of contemporary Huzhou people.