(Photo/Yu Ping)
People from across Jiangsu Province continued to mourn former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, who was a native of the province and died on November 30 in Shanghai at the age of 96.
On Dongguan Street in Yangzhou City, flower bouquets lined the entrance to the former residence of Jiang. Locals held white chrysanthemums and queued to pay respect to him.
Jiang once studied at Yangzhou Dongguan Primary School, to which he had a deep feeling and always remembered the school song. In answering a letter of the school's students in November 2000, Jiang encouraged the students to study well and strive to become a talent useful to the country and make contributions to the country's prosperity, the wellbeing of the people and the progress of mankind.
Jiang also wrote inscriptions for Yangzhou High School, his alma mater, hoping the school can achieve new development levels and cultivate more professionals for the motherland.
In the summer of 1991, when Jiangsu was hit by the massive flooding, Jiang made special visit to Suzhou and inspected the damage and flood control at Taipu Sluice in Wujiang District and the downtown Xumen Substation.
Comrade Jiang Zemin once served as minister of electronics industry and made important contributions to the industry's development in China. He visited Nanjing China Electronics Panda Crystal Technology Corporation, which had a history of more than 80 years, for several times. He also wrote inscription to celebrate the company's 60th anniversary of founding and the brand Panda's 40th anniversary on October 18, 1996.
In recent years, the company's products have played an important role in major events such as the Olympic Games, the military parade held to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, as well as important projects including Shenzhou spacecraft and BeiDou Navigation Satellite System.
Jiang also paid attention to Jiangsu's building of new bridges across the Yangtze River. On October 20, 2000, he attended the foundation stone laying ceremony for the Runyang Yangtze River Bridge. In the past, it took two hours for local residents on Shiyezhou Island to cross the river by ferry boat, a service not available at nighttime. After the new bridge opened in 2005, residents could arrive downtown Zhenjiang in 20 minutes by car.
On April 20, 1998, Jiang stressed that the development of township enterprises was a major strategy during his visit to Huaxi Village. Today, people of the village have enjoyed a prosperous life by running township firms, and they were overwhelmed with grief to see off comrade Jiang.
Jiang noted that a culture of socialism with Chinese characteristics is an important force that unites and inspires people of all ethnic groups throughout the country. On June 8, 2001, he visited the ancient town of Zhouzhuang and praised the local efforts to preserve cultural heritage.
To advance the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, Jiang pointed out that development is of paramount importance and constant efforts are needed to promote modernization. During a visit to the Suzhou Industrial Park on May 12, 1995, he encouraged the park to accumulate new experience in boosting Sino-foreign economic and technological cooperation that benefits both sides.
Six years later, he revisited the park and said, in a meeting with Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew, that the park has drawn on Singapore's management experience and made great achievements in foreign investment attraction. He called the park one of the important windows of China's opening up to the outside world.
Jiang pointed out that building socialism with Chinese characteristics should embody comprehensive material and spiritual civilizations development. During his visit to Zhangjiagang on May 13, 1995, Jiang recognized the city's efforts in "focusing on economic construction and advancing the two civilizations together".
