Shangyu District () is a district of the prefecture-level city of Shaoxing in the northeast of Zhejiang province, China. At the 2010 census, its population in the built-up (or metro) area was 779,412, up from 722,523 in the 2000 census. Shangyu is roughly fifty kilometers from north to south and about thirty kilometers from east to west. It makes up about one-fourth of the area of Shaoxing prefecture. Shangyu District is not part of the Hangzhou-Shaoxing built-up area as some countryside still prevent the city from being conurbated until now.
Administrative divisions
Subdistricts: Baiguan Subdistrict (百官街道), Cao'e Subdistrict (曹娥街道), Dongguan Subdistrict (东关街道)
Towns: Daoxu (道墟镇), Shangpu (上浦镇), Tangpu (汤浦镇), Zhangzhen (章镇镇), Xiaguan (下管镇), Fenghui (丰惠镇), Yonghe (永和镇), Lianghu (梁湖镇), Yiting (驿亭镇), Songxia (崧厦镇), Lihai (沥海镇), Xiaoyue (小越镇), Xietang (谢塘镇), Changtang (长塘镇), Gaibei (盖北镇)
Townships: Lingnan Township (岭南乡), Chenxi Township (陈溪乡), Dingzhai Township (丁宅乡)
Climate
Baiguan
Shangyu's urban center, Baiguan, is located where the Cao'e River flows out of the hilly area that makes up more than half of the county, into flat alluvial land bordering Hangzhou Bay. This river, and the Cao E Temple () next to it, are named after a fourteen-year-old girl who became famous in 143 AD for her filial devotion. She died in the river trying to retrieve the body of her father (Cao Xu) who drowned while officiating at a ceremony in honor of Wu Zixu who himself was famous for his filial piety.
Baiguan is about east of Shaoxing's urban center. The railroad from Hangzhou to Ningbo passes through Baiguan, and the new superhighway between Hangzhou and Ningbo skirts Baiguan. Within Shangyu, just northwest of Baiguan, the Hangzhou-Ningbo highway (mostly east–west) intersects with a superhighway that goes south to the seacoast and then down the coast, through Wenzhou and Fuzhou, all the way to Guangzhou.
In the name "Baiguan" () “bai” means “hundred” and “guan” means an imperial civil service official. The city came to be called this when it became famous for producing many scholars who became officials by passing the imperial civil service examination.
Culture
In the tragic legend of the Butterfly Lovers, the young lady was from Shangyu and the young gentleman was from Shaoxing.
Two books by Zhang Jinhuan () published by the Zhejiang University Press deal with porcelain (mostly celadon) produced in the Cao'e River Valley in Shangyu starting in the Eastern Han dynasty: Shangyu Yue Kilns () (2007) , and Yue Porcelain Gems () (2009) .
Language
Wu language, also known as Jiang Nan, Wu Yue, Jiang Dong language. Three thousand years of history from the Zhou Dynasty. In China, Wu language are distributing in Zhejiang, southern part of Jiangsu, Shanghai, southern part of Anhui and Fujian province. The population who use this language is about ninety million.
People in Shangyu are use Wu language as major communication way in daily life. This language retains many ancient tones and words, culture value of research Chinese development is very high. It is a vivid expression of the thinking way and life style of the people who live in the south of the Yangtze River. More than one hundred cities led by Shanghai, make up Wu city group and Jiangnan culture circle that have similar value recognition, creating huge treasure through unity and mutual aid. Yangtze river delta region became the richest area in the whole China, Shangyu district is one of important part in it.
Putonghua (Standard mandarin) is the general language of China, it takes Beijing pronunciation as the standard pronunciation, northern dialect as the basic dialect. Shangyu is located in the south of China, so these two languages are very different, but to enhance communication among all ethnic groups and promote the cohesion of the Chinese nation, the government started popularizing Putonghua on a national scale from 2005. Therefore, people in Shangyu using Wu language as daily communication and using Putonghua in schools or travel to other places.
Traditional food
Steamed pork with preserved vegetables ()
Cook pork firstly with star anise and soy sauce, then cover the pork with the pickled vegetables, finally steamed together in the specific pot. It tastes delicious but not greasy due to heavy fat, smooth and chewy. For the nutrition value, Pork have high quality protein and essential fatty acid, preserved vegetables have high concentration carotene and magnesium.
Fermented bean curd ()