Stretching over 63 kilometers, the Ancient Causeway of Yellow River in Siyang County desolate in the old days has turned to be a bona fide forest belt now. With a forestation area reaching more than 40 thousand mu, the belt is lined by millions of Italian Poplars standing erect and straight into the clouds. Some tourists call this forest belt as the “New Emerging Green Corridor in Jiangsu”. Comrade Qiu He, Vice Provincial Governor and original Suqian Municipal Party Committee Secretary once extolled, “looking at Siyang from the sky, I see a forest buries the land. Villages are invisible in the daytime while light cannot be seen at night”.

In the eighth year in Peace and Rejuvenation of Song Dynasty (983 A.D.), Yellow River invaded Huaihe River before infusing into Si River( hence the Ancient Causeway), flowing from the current Suyu County, through Siyang County and heading southeast from northwest. After passing through towns like Yanghe, Zhenglou, Cangji, Linhe, Chengxiang, Zhongxing, Likou and Xinyuan, it ended in Huaiyin County, winding on the south of the Grand Canal. Later the Huai’an section of the Canal got silted up and south-to-north transport must resort to Yellow River which however featured raging waves that were not suitable for boats. In the 25^th year of Emperor Kangxi in Qing Dynasty, Channel Governor Jin Fu dug out a “mid-river” which arrived at Qing River through Suqian and Siyang, thus averting the 190-mile danger of Yellow River. Since then, the 3,000-mile Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal has run through the “mid-river” and traversed Siyang.

Thousands of years of deposit and sedimentation has growingly increased the riverbed of Yellow River until it finally got silted up and abandoned. The 37-kilometer Ancient Causeway has been covered with yellow sand with swirling dust soaring in the air, hence the following lines: “Sand holds sway in the sky after three days deprived of rain.” and “a white expanse in winter and spring; sand rises once the wind blows; A bowl of grains sown in the spring yields half in autumn”. Thenceforth, under the strengthened efforts in administration of the CPC and Government, the Causeway has gradually got dressed up in green, becoming a glorious and glamorous scene on the land of Siyang. Lined with shrubs like the amorpha fruticosas and osiers and the cluster of wild flowers and grass on both banks, the Ancient Causeway is characterized by limpid water clear as a mirror and luxuriant waterweeds. The whole forest belt is pure and natural without any touch of artifact, stoking up a feeling of lucidness, tranquility and other-worldly elegance in people’s hearts. When tourists stroll down the path, listening to the chirping of birds and taking a deep breath of the fresh air, it looks as if they’ve walked into a huge natural oxygen bar, embracing the blessings from Heaven far away from hustle and bustle of the mortal life to their hearts’ content. Paying a visit to the lush forest in times of mass damage of forests in a great many places is all the more easier to throw tourists into a feeling of bizarre peculiarity and interest.

A wide highway connects the east and west on the northern shore of the “Green Corridor”. On weekends or holidays, the Corridor will witness a large number of people driving all the way here to strain their eyes looking in the distance amidst the verdant forests. Gaining a panoramic view of the flowing water, the fish ponds, the lotus ponds, natural ferry and rural houses, tourists feel as though exposed to a gorgeous picture.

Here offers both natural scenery and humanity finding expression in places of historical significance. The Ancient Town in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, the Relics of Sishui Kingdom Capital in Han Dynasty and Historical Sites of Taoyuan City were embedded in the Causeway mosaics like bright pearls, bringing history amateurs great seclusion to dream back into the ancient times and give vent to the in-pent feelings.

Suqian lies in the north of Jiangsu Province, connecting with Hongze Lake in the south. It is crisscrossed with numerous rivers and lakes, among which Luoma Lake and Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal are representatives. Suqian boasts four distinct seasons with relatively shorter springs and autumns and longer summers and winters (exceeding 130 days). The rain season and heat season overlap so that the city receives sufficient rainfalls with an average annual temperature of 16℃, an obvious Luhuai monsoon climate in the warm temperature zone.

Suqian, dominated by hills with fewer highlands, features sufficient sunshine and a long frost-free period. The wind direction varies in line with the different seasons. The hottest month is July and travel in spring and autumn is suggested.