Jiangsu is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east
coast of the country. Jiangsu borders Shandong in the north, Anhui to the west,
and Zhejiang and Shanghai to the south. Jiangsu has a coastline of over 1,000
kilometres (620 mi) along the Yellow Sea, and the Yangtze River passes through
the southern part of the province.
Jiangsu is very flat and low-lying,
with plains covering 68 percent of its total area (water covers another 18
percent), and most of the province stands not more than 50 metres (160 ft) above
sea level. Jiangsu is also laced with a well-developed irrigation system, which
earned it (especially the southern half) the moniker of 水乡 (shuǐxiāng "land of
water"); the southern city of Suzhou is so crisscrossed with canals that it has
been dubbed "Venice of the East" or the "Venice of the Orient".
The
Grand Canal of China cuts through Jiangsu from north to south, traversing all
the east-west river systems. Jiangsu also borders the Yellow Sea. The Yangtze
River, the longest river of China, cuts through the province in the south and
reaches the East China Sea. Mount Yuntai near the city of Lianyungang is the
highest point in this province, with an altitude of 625 meters. Large lakes in
Jiangsu include Lake Taihu (the largest), Lake Hongze, Lake Gaoyou, Lake Luoma,
and Lake Yangcheng.
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