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Yiwu, located in the central part of Zhejiang Province, covers a land area of 1,105 sq km in total, with about 0.7 million local permanent residents and over 1 million migrant workers and merchants. Yiwu boasts a long history, which was formed as Wushang County in the 25th year of the reign of Emperor Yingzhen in the Qing Dynasty (222 BC), renamed as Yiwu County in 624 AD and established as Yiwu City in 1988. The City is renowned as a land of culture, and a number of celebrities were born in Yiwu, among whom are Luo Bingwang, one of the four famous litterateurs in the early Tang Dynasty, Zong Ze, a well-famed general of the Song Dynasty in the fight against the Jin invaders, Zhu Danxi, one of the four distinguished medical doctors of the Jin and the Yuan Dynasties, Chen Wangdao, contemporary educator, Feng Xuefeng, literature and art theorist, and Wu Han, historian in modern times. Yiwu City consists of seven Sub-districts: Choucheng, Choujiang, Beiyuan, Jiangdong, Houzhai, Niansanli and Chengxi, and six Towns: Dachen, Suxi, Shangxi, Yiting, Fotang and Chi’an.
Since the reform and opening-up drive in China, Yiwu Municipal Government has earnestly implemented the policy of putting the construction of spiritual civilization into actual effect and the policy of a coordinated development of both cultural undertaking and cultural industry. Consequently, the City has made remarkable achievements in the construction of cultural undertaking. By June 2004, there had been an area of 72,500 sq m laid out for public cultural facilities in the downtown area (not inclusive of various public cultural squares), and 17,800 sq m for towns. The urban area is known for ‘three guans’: library, cultural center and museum; ‘three yuans’: calligraphy academy, painting academy and theatre; and ‘one tuan, one ban and one gongshi’: Wu Opera troupe, cultural market management office, and motion picture company. And in the towns, there are thirteen cultural stations, five cultural centers (of which three are known as cultural pearls on the provincial level and two as cultural pearls on Jinhua municipal level), ten libraries with over 100,000 volumes of books each, five state-owned cinemas, and thirty-six movie projection teams. The municipal library covers an area of 3,500 sq m, Yiwu Theater 3,764 sq m, Yiwu Wu Troupe 2,638 sq m, and Yiwu Cinema 5,000 sq ms. Besides, Xiuhu Stadium, with 1,400 seats, covers an area of 2,900 sq m and Meihu Stadium has 35,000 seats and a 6,000-seat gymnasium. The cultural networks and facilities have been noticeably consolidated and improved, and the cultural and sports undertakings further promoted. Yiwu City has been awarded such honors as “Model National Cultural County”, “Model Sports County in China”, “Home of Chinese Martial Arts”, “Home of Chinese Contemporary Folk Paintings” and “Home of Chinese Folk Arts”.
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