Yangzhou of the Tang dynasty had once been China's most prosperous commercial city, and it remained prosperous even in the Qing dynasty.
However, unlike in the Tang dynasty, the center of the Grand Canal had by then shifted to Beijing at its northernmost end. The surviving Grand Canal had in fact changed greatly from the Sui and Tang dynasties' Grand Canal, because the Yuan dynasty's canal had cut across bends and taken a straighter route, no longer passing through cities such as Luoyang in Henan. Moreover, the Sui and Tang dynasties' Grand Canal had not passed through Shandong either. This enormous transformation was entirely caused by the Yellow River seizing the Huai River's course.
During the Sui and Tang dynasties, there was a small town called Yangzi about twenty li south of Yangzhou. Because it lay close to the northern bank of the Yangtze River, it was also called Yangzi Ford. When Emperor Yang of Sui excavated the canal, he built Linjiang Palace at Yangzi Ford. From then on, Yangzi Ford gradually flourished, and by the Song dynasty, "Yangzi" was already being used to refer to the Yangtze River.
However, the Yangzi River actually referred to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. When missionaries landed in Yangzhou, the first name they heard was "Yangzi River," so they mistakenly believed it referred to the entire Yangtze River.
The lacquerware Nick had seen in Guangzhou last time had already seemed exquisite to him, but Yangzhou lacquerware was undoubtedly even more refined. Still, that was not the main purpose of Nick's trip to Yangzhou.
Sometimes the court dispatched imperial commissioners. This time, the Hanlin scholar sent from the capital had come to inspect the revision of the Yangzhou prefectural gazetteer, after which he would go to Guangzhou and Fujian to serve as