Taizhou, Zhejiang

Taizhou is a prefecture-level city in eastern Zhejiang , People's Republic of China. It borders Ningbo to the north, Shaoxing to the northeast, Jinhua to the west, Lishui to the southwest, Wenzhou to the south, and looks out to the East China Sea to the east.

Administration

The prefecture-level city of Taizhou currently administers 3 , 2 and 4 .
*Jiaojiang District
*Huangyan District
*Linhai City
*Luqiao District
*Sanmen County
*Tiantai County
*Wenling City
*Xianju County
*Yuhuan County

Transportation

Taizhou was once a relatively inaccessible area. This has changed due to large infrastructure restructuring in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Presently, Taizhou is served by the Yongtaiwen Expressway, linking the city with Ningbo in the north and Wenzhou in the south. Huangyan Luqiao Airport in the city's Huangyan District serves daily flights to Beijing and Shanghai Hongqiao, and regular flights to other Chinese cities.

Language and Culture

Like the majority of areas in Zhejiang, most people from Taizhou speak a dialect of Wu Chinese, known as . It is not mutually intelligible with Mandarin Chinese, and only partially intelligible with Shanghainese. There is also a small portion of Min Nan and Wenzhou dialect speakers in the southern regions. None of these three languages are mutually intelligible amongst each other, but the linguistic diversity of some regions has resulted in a segment of the population becoming fluent in speaking up to four languages, when Mandarin is included.

The city's people are reputed to be industrious and business-minded, although not to the same degree as neighboring Wenzhou. Many people from the area have migrated abroad after economic reforms began in China in 1978. The city's seafood is of note.