- published: 29 May 2012
- views: 33871
Suzhou (Chinese: 苏州; Mandarin: [súʈʂóʊ]; Suzhou Wu: [səu tsøʏ]), formerly romanized as Soochow, is a major city located in southeastern Jiangsu Province of East China, about 100 km (62 mi) northwest of Shanghai. It is a major economic centre and focal point of trade and commerce, and the second largest city in the province after its capital Nanjing. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the shores of Lake Tai and belongs to the Yangtze River Delta region. Administratively, Suzhou is a prefecture-level city with a population of 4.33 million in its city proper, and a total resident population (as of 2013) of 10.58 million in its administrative area. Its urban population grew at an unprecedented rate of 6.5% between 2000 and 2014, which is the highest among cities with more than 5 million people.
Founded in 514 BC, Suzhou has over 2,500 years of history, with an abundant display of relics and sites of historical interest. At around 100 AD, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, it became one of the ten largest cities in the world mostly due to emigration from Northern China. Since the 10th-century Song Dynasty, it has been an important commercial center of China. During the Ming and Qing Dynasty, Suzhou was a national economic, cultural and commercial center, as well as the largest non-capital city in the world, until the 1860 Taiping Rebellion. When Li Hongzhang and Charles George Gordon recaptured the city three years later, Shanghai had already taken its predominant place in the nation. Since major economic reforms began in 1978, Suzhou has become one of the fastest growing major cities in the world, with GDP growth rates of about 14% in the past 35 years. With high life expectancy and per capita incomes, Suzhou's Human Development Index ratings is roughly comparable to a moderately developed country, making it one of the most highly developed and prosperous cities in China.
Lee Kuan Yew, GCMG, CH, SPMJ (born Harry Lee Kuan Yew, 16 September 1923 – 23 March 2015), informally known by his initials LKY, was the first Prime Minister of Singapore, governing for more than three decades from 1959 to 1990, including through Singapore's independence from Malaysia in 1965. After Lee chose to step down as Prime Minister in 1990, Lee's successor, Goh Chok Tong, appointed him as Senior Minister, a post he held until 2004, when his elder son, Lee Hsien Loong, became the nation's third prime minister. The elder Lee then assumed the advisory post of Minister Mentor until he left the Cabinet in 2011. In total, Lee held successive ministerial positions for 56 years. He continued to serve his Tanjong Pagar constituency for nearly 60 years as an elected Member of Parliament until his death in 2015.
Lee is recognised as the founding father of independent Singapore, with the country being described as transitioning from the "third world to the first world in a single generation" under his leadership.
In two months I'm through the doorway,
Put my guitar on the floor,
And you will sit and tell me,
That you can't take anymore,
And you will sit and wonder,
What I can only speculate,
That time is going to be telling us what we don't want it to say.
So just be with me now,
With your hair wrapped around my fingers,
Where your words turn into whispers,
Where you fall asleep and dream, dream,
That you could be with me now,
As I keep track on my fingers,
Of the cities and the strangers,
Of the pieces of my dreams.
It's been so long since I've seen you,
Almost forgot your face,
And time it brings me full close to,
But it does the opposite for me.
So I've got my hallways and my hotels
And a ticket with my name
It's been too long since I've seen you
And there's so much to say.
But just be with me now,
With your hair wrapped around my fingers,
Where your words turn into whispers,
Where you fall asleep and dream, dream, dream
That you can be with me now.
As I keep track on my fingers
All the cities and the strangers