The origin of the name Zhangjiaxiang

During the Tang and Song Dynasties, there was a valley between Xiangshan and Zhenshan. The water flowed through the valley all year round and the stream gurgled. In case of heavy rain, flash floods will rush directly into the sand of Dongjiang Bay where the canal is located, forming a channel. This canal later became the famous "Zhangjiagang" both at home and abroad.

According to the "Reconstruction of the Genealogy of the Zhang Family (Xiaoyoutang)" collected by Zhang Xingsheng in Group 6 of Nansha Zhenshan Village, in the first year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty (1573), Zhang Nanshan lived at the northern foot of Xiangshan Mountain from the Jingjiang Ancestral Hall. , this is the ancestor of the Xiangshan branch of the Zhang family. Nanshangong used money to buy coupons here and developed the polder, and the village Zhangjiadai was formed next to the canal.

Since the developed polder fields were often flooded by flash floods, in the 24th year of Wanli (1596), the Zhang family gathered together and their descendants worked together to widen the canal into a river. The new river is 3 feet wide at the surface, 1 feet wide at the bottom, and more than 300 meters long. This avoids the suffering of waterlogging, but it does not have a name. In the 41st year of Wanli (1613), Zhang prepared three wooden boats of his own to trade grain and rice, and traveled between Yangzhou and Gaoyou. After several years, he made a lot of profits. In order to allow the wooden boats to dock in front of their house, they raised funds and workers to widen the river and build an inverted pond at the end of the river next to the house to facilitate the wooden boats to turn around. At this time, the river is 7 feet wide at the surface and 3 feet wide at the bottom. Heavy-loaded wooden boats can move in and out freely. It has become a big river, but it still has no name.

In the second year of Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty (1663), the Jiangyin County Government planned to build a road between Chengjiangmen and Wushan. When surveying and measuring the river, it was found that the river had no name, so it asked Dong Wuyi, the mayor of Daqiao Town, to proposed a name. Wu Yizhi knew that the river was opened by Zhang's ancestors, and later by Zhang's grandson Tuokuan, so he named it "Zhangjiagang" and reported it to Jiangyin County Government for recognition and filing. In the winter of the third year of Kangxi's reign (1664), the Jiangyin County Government officially approved the naming of this river as Zhangjiagang.

In 1958, the People's Government organized 60,000 migrant workers and a thousand People's Liberation Army officers and soldiers to dredge Zhangjiagang. The total length of the river was 38.11 kilometers. In 1968, it was dredged again, and Zhangjiagang became a Class 6 inland waterway. In 1982, Zhangjiagang Port was officially opened to the outside world. In 1986, Shazhou County was removed and Zhangjiagang City was established.