Due to copyright issues, the author summarizes the general content here. First of all, the three states along the Yangtze River, namely, Yang, Tong and Tai, are the three central cities naturally formed in history. Secondly, some administrative regions in northern Jiangsu are too large, which is not conducive to coordinated development. Finally, Taizhou has the internal conditions and demands for promotion.
The author believes that the formation, development and positioning of any city are in line with the times. Although the industrial and agricultural output value of "Old Yangzhou" ranked the top three in the province at the end of 1980s, it was still large but not strong. The 1980s was the golden age of endogenous economy along the Yangtze River in Jiangbei, and it was at this time that the industrial base and layout of the "Central Jiangsu" region were formed. Not only Yang, Tong and Tai have their own strong industries, but even Yancheng has also seen brands such as "Senda Leather Shoes" and "Yanwu Radio Recorder" which are famous all over the country.
Land promotion in Taizhou is promoted by both internal and external factors. Mr. Fei Xiaotong once supported the development of small and medium-sized towns and held a positive attitude towards Taizhou's demands. As a Yangzhou native, I don't want Yang Tai to be separated. But objectively speaking, Taizhou's appeal in the 1980s was reasonable, even more qualified than other cities that had already sprung up. From the point of view of that year, the phenomenon of "small horse-drawn carts" did exist. The separation of Yang Tai has played a positive role in promoting the process of urbanization in the middle of Jiangsu, and rapidly boosted the level of urbanization in Taizhou.
After more than 20 years, let's look at the disadvantages of this sword again. It seems that Taizhou has not achieved the expected effect. As a result of the separation of the two places, there is another strong city with good industry in Central Jiangsu. From the perspective of cities in a broad sense, in 2020, the GDP of the Yangtze River and Thailand will rank 35th and 42nd respectively. At first glance, it makes sense. However, in the narrow sense of the city (urban area), Taizhou may rank 70th, while Yangzhou has little fluctuation.
Taizhou repeated the "history" of that year, with small horse-drawn carts, even more prominent than Yangzhou in that year. After the separation, the gap between the urban areas of Yang Tai has widened. Many people only look at the generalized urban data, but ignore the essence of the city. Under the background of extremely low level of urbanization in the early days of liberation, due to the large proportion of rural areas, the data of generalized cities are almost the same as those of narrow cities. By 2020, the emergence of megacities and megacities will make the "pseudo-cities" of generalized cities particularly embarrassing. Cities separated by dozens or even hundreds of kilometers are essentially independent, develop independently and do not enjoy resources. As a result, Taizhou, with its low primacy and weak foundation, did not achieve the expected effect comparable to Yangzhou, nor did it quickly absorb the population in the golden 20 years and grow into a third-line powerhouse at least similar to Yangzhou. What's more, the pattern of Taizhou City is very wonderful. Although it is a plain area, the three districts of Taizhou are not together. Hailing District is like flying a kite, pulling Gaogang and Jiangyan (Taixian). Gaogang district, who is far away from Hailing, works hard, and Jiangyan, who is close to Hailing, doesn't care. In such a pull, Taizhou's time is wasted a little. But can you say that Taizhou did something wrong? It is inevitable to develop Gaogang. Without a port, Taizhou's land promotion hardware conditions are insufficient. But Gaogang, formerly known as Taixing three towns, supported one district after another with small horse-drawn carts, which is still far from the main city. Looking back on the push of Taizhou, it is found that the energy level is insufficient and the location defect has to be pushed hard from the initial unified thought to the push of Taizhou. If Jiangyan is in the south of Hailing, everything will be different. The fact cannot be changed, with the end of shed reform, the later urbanization. Taizhou can't integrate Jiangyan and Gaogang at all. The essence of Taizhou is a collection of medium-sized cities, small cities and strong towns. Although the industrial development is remarkable, in fact, the industry in Taizhou is not much stronger than that in Yangzhou. Generally, it depends on the advantages of the counties and cities under its jurisdiction. For example, the finances of Taixing and Jingjiang are bigger than the sum of the three counties and cities in Yangzhou. This is not Xinghua. If the two are exchanged with two counties and cities in Yangzhou Gaobao, it will be even worse.
Looking back, is the separation of Yang Tai really just a small carriage? At the same time, the same situation appeared in Nantong, Yancheng and Huai 'an. On the one hand, the internal cause of splitting Yangzhou is that Taizhou is strong enough, on the other hand, it also relieves the pressure on the provincial capital. Although it is large but not strong, it is not very nice to put the total amount in the provincial capital cities. Just like Nantong, which has not left Changzhou, although the per capita gap is not small, it has received enough attention in terms of policy and status.
The disadvantages of separation have been outlined above in Taizhou. For Yangzhou itself, it first lost its vast hinterland population. Yangzhou is divided into two counties with the worst foundation, which is quite far from the urban area. Taizhou is classified as Xinghua, the most populous city, and its geographical distance is very close. Counties and cities along the Yangtze River, Taizhou was allocated to Taixing, which once ranked first in Jiangbei in total, and Jingjiang, which ranked first in Jiangbei in per capita. One by one, Yangzhou was severely weakened. I have talked about it before. Before the separation, Yangzhou also specially laid out industries in Taizhou. It seems very timely now.
In terms of transportation, Yangzhou lost the Jiangyin Bridge under construction after the separation. This is also the busiest channel for Jiangsu to communicate with the north and the south. Yang Tai and Thailand are tit for tat in the layout of expressways, which not only makes Jiangdu East a victim. It also allows Taizhou's own Jiangyan district to be blocked by two expressways.
In terms of economic development, both industry and commerce seem to be playing against Taiwan Province. There is a Master Kong in Yangzhou, unified in Taizhou, SAIC Volkswagen production base in Yangzhou, Great Wall Motor in Taizhou, shipbuilding, and construction in both places. Chemical industry, medicine, machine tools, e-sports and logistics are not weak. No matter how it develops, in short, what the other party has is at least as good, at least not less.
In the era of high-speed rail, the game is particularly obvious. Sites, trends, obviously can win, but still have to give way to each other. Even an airport is unique. It is a miracle that Yangzhou Taizhou Airport deliberately avoided each other's elements when taking pictures.
What if the two places are not separated? We can be sure that the development of county-level cities in the two places will not be affected, and may even be better. Yangzhou may touch the second-line threshold, and Taizhou's only sacrifice is Hailing's wild hope. Even for Taizhou (Hailing), it is not rising from the ground, but concentrating more on building the main city, which will not be criticized as a strong county, at least a delicate strong county. Sure, maybe more like it. History develops in a spiral. The urban pattern in those days may not adapt to the present era, and Yang Tai may become a family again one day.