The Qin Huai River, about 110 kilometers long, formerly called Huai Shui in ancient times is a tributary of the Yangzi River. Flowing through the city from west to east, it is a main waterway in Nanjing area. It's said that the Qin Huai River was named after Qin Shi Huang, the emperor of the Qin Dynasty. In his period of time, a channel through stony mountains was hewed and water of the River was drawn up. Ever since the Six Dynasties, the region on either bank along the Qin Huai River was the place where many nobles lived in compact communities; merchants and talents in culture and arts used to gather here; song and dance halls were everywhere as well. A truly flourishing region! But, with the rising and falling of the Dynasties, the picture there was quite different.


Now, the region has been taken a new look after years of development and reconstruction, and become one of the busiest tour zones centering around Fu Zi Temple (for paying respect to Confucians), Xue Gong (palaces for scholars to study), Gong Yuan (palaces for persons to take part in the imperial examinations). Here, temples, markets and landscape are blended into one picture of folk custom of Nanjing.