Wuxi’s history began as early as 3,000 years ago (end of 11th century BC). In order to give the throne to his brother Jili, Taibo, the eldest son of the Emperor Zhouwu of the northern tribe, came here from Shaanxi together with his younger brother Zhongyong and set up the State of Gouwu (now Meicun Town of Xishan city). By leading the local people to engage in water conservancy, agriculture and sericulture production, Taibo promoted the combination of central and southern Chinese culture and created the Wu Culture. In the 5th year of the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC), Wuxi County was formally established. The name of Wuxi, literarily meaning “no tin,” was given due to the extinguishing resource of tin of the Tin Hill. The City of Wuxi was set up in 1949.It is now a city directly under the jurisdiction of Jiangsu Province. Wuxi has under its jurisdiction Xishan, Jiangyin and Yixing Cities (county-level) and Chongan, Nanchang, Beitang, Suburban, Mashan and New Districts. The total area of the city is 4650 sq. km. and the population 4.33 million as of the end of 1999, of which 1.1 million are in the metropolitan area. As the birthplace of the Wu Culture, Wuxi has a galaxy of ever-growing talented personnel who have made contributions to the development of China’s economy and culture.

The landscape of the city embodies the beauty of the Yangtze, the Grand Canal, the Taihu Lake, fountains, caves and gardens and is characteristic of the unique features of a water village in southern China. Wuxi takes over the most beautiful corner of the Taihu Lake and on the shore of that Lake scatter famous parks such as Turtle-head Peninsula Park, Lee Garden, Plum Garden and Xihui Park. Humanitarian and historical relics well-known at home and abroad are all located in the city. To name only a few, they are: the Donglin College, Native House of Zhang Wentian, Native House of Xu Xiake, Huangshen Fort, Taibo Temple, Taibo Tomb and Memorial House of Xu Beihong. In recent years, the Wuxi National Tourist Resort Zone at Mashan has completed a few large sightseeing and amusement projects, such as the International Angling Center, the Moon-bay Vacation Village and the Linshan Scenic Spot. The Wuxi Taihu Film & Television City has built theme parks such as “City of Europe,” “City of Tang Dynasty,” “City of Three Kingdoms” and “City of Water Margin.” In the past few years, Wuxi is evaluated as one of China’s ten major tourist cities, and early this year it was listed in the first group as “China’s Excellent Tourism Cities” by the National Tourism Administration.