Introduction

The term ‘Subei’ has referred to different geographical areas in different historical periods. Right after the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC), ‘Subei’ referred to an administrative area under the ‘Subei People's Administrative Office’ which was established in Taizhou City on 21 April 1949. The Subei Office administered five cities – Taizhou, Yangzhou, Yancheng, Huaiyin and Nantong – as administrative divisions. In January 1950, the Subei Administrative Office decided to combine the Yangzhou and Taizhou administrative divisions,and named them the Taizhou Administrative Area. The Subei Administrative Office was then relocated from Taizhou to Yangzhou. In April of the same year, it was renamed the Jiangsu Province Subei Administrative Office. In November 1952, the Subei administrative area, the Sunan administrative area, and the city of Nanjing joined to form Jiangsu Province. In early 1984, based on research in the small towns of Jiangsu, Fei Xiaotong suggested replacing the traditional two-way division into Sunan and Subei with a three-way division of Jiangsu Province into three areas: Sunan, Suzhong and Subei. Sunnan includes the three cities of Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, and the eastern and southern parts of Nantong city; Suzhong includes part of Yangzhou City along the Yangtze River, Zhenjiang, Nanjing, and the western and northern parts of Nantong City; and Subei includes Xuzhou, Lianyungang, Yancheng, Huaiyin, and part of Yangzhou City.