初读扬州First Impressions of Yangzhou

来扬州不过半月余，便生出一些感慨。

慕名来扬州，多半为的是“烟花三月”1的扬州、“二分明月”2的扬州和大运河畔商贾云集的扬州，当然还有隋炀帝、琼花、扬州八怪3……自然还少不了我的同乡史可法（同为开封人）。

Having been for just over half a month in Yangzhou， I am inspired to think and reflect.

People mainly travel to Yangzhou so they can enjoy its natural beauty during early spring described in the poem “For River Town when willow-down and flowers reign” by Li Bai， its moonlit nights delineated in the poem “Of all the beautiful moonlit nights in the world， it seems that 2/3 of them can be found， like it or not， in Yangzhou.” by Xu Ning， and its lively scene of merchants situated along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal. They also move here because of an allusion to Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty， the Jade flower， Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou and so forth. The hero Shi Kefa is surely never forgotten. He came from present-day Kaifeng， the city where I was born.

扬州是个矛盾体。（剩余6405字）