Ⅰ Geographic Position and Natural Environment

Position
Su is short for Jiangsu, a province located along the eastern coast of China between east longitude 116°18′and 121°57′, north latitude 30°45′and 35°20′. With Yellow Sea to its east, Jiangsu adjoins Anhui and Shandong provinces in the west and north respectively, with Zhejiang province and the city of Shanghai as its neighbors in the southeast.

Area
Jiangsu province covers an area of 102.6 thousand square km, about 1.06 percent of the total area of the country. The plain area of Jiangsu is 70.6 thousand square km, and water surface area is 17.3 thousand square km. The province has a coastline of 954 km and its cultivated area is 47.4101 million ha.

Topography
Located in the beautiful and prosperous Yangtze Delta, Jiangsu has a large area of plain as its typical topography mainly consisting Sunan (South Jiangsu) Plain, Jianghuai (the Yangtze River and Huai River) Plain, Huanghuai (the Yellow River and Huai River) Plain and Eastern Seashore Plain, and dotted with Tai Lake and Hongze Lake which are among the top five freshwater lakes in China. Jiangsu thus enjoys the superiority of its natural condition and lays a solid economic foundation.

Rivers and Lakes
Jiangsu has numerous lakes and a dense network of waterways, with the Yangtze River traversing over 400 km from the east to the west, the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal down 718 km from the north to the south, Qinhuai River in the southwest, the Subei (North Jiangsu) General Irrigation Canal, Xinmu River and the Tongyang (Nantong and Yangzhou) Canal, etc in the north. Altogether Jiangsu has over 290 lakes of all kinds and two of the top five freshwater lakes in the country, Tai Lake and Hongze Lake, inlaid in Jiangnan (south of Yangtze River) water towns and North Jiangsu respectively like two bright mirrors.

Ⅱ Resources 
Water Resources
Jiangsu has rich water resources and the average annual precipitation is 150-400 mm. The province lies along the upper reaches of the five lakes, namely, the Yangtze River, Huai River, Yi River, Mu River and the Si Canal. The Yangtze River traverses the southern part of the province, thus river is the most reliable water resource in Jiangsu. Jiangsu is cut crisscross with rivers, lakes and canals which altogether form a dense network of waterways. There are large–and-medium-sized lakes such as Tai Lake, Hongze Lake, Gaobao Lake, Luoma Lake, Weishan Lake, etc and branches such as the Grand Canal, Huaimu River, Chuanchang River, Yan River, the Tongyu Canal, the General Irrigation Canal, and the Tongyang Canal, etc.. 

Deep Beneath the wide plain areas distribute the incompact accumulations of the Fourth Age, which holds in store an abundant underground water source. The Xuhuai shallow layer water which is estimated about 2.957 billion stere/year would be worth exploiting for the provincial agriculture irrigation, and the estimated 585 million stere/year of coastal deep underwater would be significant for developing assarts and tidal flats and for lives of people and domestic animals.

Mineral Resources
Jiangsu enjoys the advantage of its rich and typical mineral resources such as non-ferrous metal, clay, building material and rare metal, special non-metal material and etc., resulting from its unique geological position that it is actually located across two geologic structural units, the North China platform and the Yangtze Metaplatform. Up till now, 133 types of mineral resources have been discovered and 65 of whose reserves have been proved up. Thirty-four types of single mineral reserve such as building material, clay, etc are among the top ten in China. There are 8 kinds of mineral reserves such as niobium-tantalum, calcareously, lime marl, attapulgite clay, carbon dioxide gas and etc in the lists of top ten around the country.    

Coal, oil and natural gas are the main energy resources, while sulphur, phosphor, sodium salt, crystal, cyanite, sapphire, diamond, kaolin, limestone, quartzose sand, marble and pottery clay are among the non-metal resources and iron, copper, lead, zinc, silver, gold, strontium and manganese among the metal resources.

Biological Resources
The wild animal resource is quite rare in Jiangsu; however, it is abundant in the plant resource which contains about 850 categories and among which more than 600 types of wild plants are still available and worth exploiting.

Jiangsu is very rich in the aquatic resource. The coastal fishing ground in the eastern part covers an area of 100 thousand square km, including the famous four big fisheries such as Lvsi Fishery and Haizhou Bay Fishery that are teemed with marine lives such as yellow-fin tuna, hairtail, pomfret,  shrimps, crabs, seashell and alga. The inland water surface is about 26 million units of area, among which 12 million units are breeding area. With more than 140 kinds of freshwater fishes, Jiangsu is the major producing area for river crabs and young eels. The so-called “Three Delicacies of Yangtze River”—hilsa fish, saury and swellfish and the “Three Whites of Tai Lake”—jack fish, whitebait and white shrimp are all precious aquatic products.

Agricultural Resources
Jiangsu is well known as “a land flowing with milk and honey” which is endowed by an advantaged condition for agricultural production and has various kinds of crops, forests and livestock. Grains, cotton and oil-bearing crops are grown almost everywhere around the province. There are more than 260 types of fruit trees, tea plants, mulberry trees and flowers, over 80 categories and more than 1000 kinds of vegetables for planting. Jiangsu is also famous for its silkworm rearing and a kind of green tea called BILOCHUN. Pheasants and mallards are major kinds of the Aves in Jiangsu, but precious fowls such as red-crowned cranes, white cranes and swans can be seen along the coast.

Tourism   
Jiangsu has been a tourist paradise ever since ancient times. Nanjing, Suzhou, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Changshu, Xuzhou and Huai’an are famous historical and cultural cities. Sixteen cities in the province have been entitled Fine Tourist Cities in the country, including Nanjing, the capital of six dynasties, and Suzhou, the Paradise on the Earth. There are 3 major tourist centers in Jiangsu, namely the Yangtze River Area, the Tai Lake Area and the Xuhuai (Xuzhou and Huai’an) Area. There are now 20 well-known scenic spots, 23 forest parks, 6 tourism and holiday resorts and 461 historical sites under state and provincial protection. Nine classical gardens in Suzhou are designated by UNESCO as world cultural heritage. In 2004, income from domestic tourists visiting Jiangsu amounted to 128.98 billion yuan, up 32.3 percent; while income from overseas tourists reached USD 1.76 billion, up 55.8 percent.

Ⅲ Climate
Situated in a transition belt from a subtropical to temperate zone, the province has a typical monsoon climate. It approximately takes the Huai River Irrigation Line as the demarcation, to the south of which is the subtropical monsoon climate and to the north the warm moist monsoon climate. Generally, it is mild with moderate rainfall and clear distinction of the four seasons.