Haiyan is an ancient city with a 1,000-year history. The county was named Haiyan (“Hai” in Chinese means the sea and “yan” means salt) for its wide seaside regions and salt pans. With a 6,000-year civilization and a 2,200-year county history, Haiyan has been honored as “A County with a 1,000-year History” by the expert group of the United Nations. There are many historical and cultural heritages in Haiyan such as 1,700-year Jinsu Temple-one of the three earliest ancient temples in the Jiangnan region, 1,000-Buddha Pavilion-the first pavilion with a history of 600 years in Zhejiang, the fish scale-like seawalls built in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasty (1636-1912), Haiyan Opera-the most important opera in the southern region of China, Rolling Lantern of Haiyan-one of the first national intangible cultural heritages and Qiyuan Garden-one of the top 10 gardens of China. Haiyan boasts a large number of outstanding people. Gan Bao, a writer and historian of Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420), composed Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals which was called “the originator of China’s mystery novels”. Gu Kuang, a great poet of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), inherited Du Fu’s realistic tradition and was the forerunner of New Yuefu Poetry Movement (a poetry innovation movement launched by the poets Bai Juyi, Yuan Zhen, Zhang Ji, Li Shen of the Tang Dynasty). Zhang Yuanji, a giant publisher, was in charge of Commercial Press-the oldest and most influential cultural institution in modern China’s history. Cartoonist Zhang Leping created the image Sanmao, which is widely famous overseas. Bu Xinsheng is a reform pioneer who started the reform of China’s town-based enterprises. Yu Hua composed such famous literary works as To Live and Brothers.
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