Suzhou

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.

Jiangsu

Jiangsu ( listen ), earlier romanized as Kiangsu, is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the second smallest, but the fifth most populous and the most densely populated of the 22 provinces of China. Jiangsu is the Number 2 province in GDP. Jiangsu borders Shandong in the north, Anhui to the west, and Zhejiang and Shanghai to the south. Jiangsu has a coastline of over 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) along the Yellow Sea, and the Yangtze River passes through the southern part of the province.

Its name comes from Jiang, short for the city of Jiangning (江寧, now Nanjing), and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" (sū), the second character of its name.

Since the Sui and Tang dynasties, Jiangsu has become one of the nation's economic and commercial centers, partly due to the construction of Grand Canal. Yangzhou, Nanjing, Wuxi, Suzhou and Shanghai have all been among the foremost hubs of economic activity in China. Shanghai was separated from Jiangsu to become a municipality in 1927. Since the initiation of economic reforms in 1990, Jiangsu has become a focal point for economic development. It is widely regarded as China's most developed province measured by its Human Development Index (HDI). However, its development is not evenly distributed, with the Wu-speaking southern part of the province being significantly more well-off than its Mandarin-speaking north, which sometimes causes tensions between northern and southern residents.

Lee Kuan Yew

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.