争，不幸殉难，扬州城只剩数千人。100多年间，扬州一起是抗金、抗元的战场。韩世忠、刘琦、岳飞等南宋名将将在这一地区进行了艰苦的斗争。战争使经济和社会遭到严重破坏，但在局势相对稳定的情况下，扬州的经济又不断恢复发展。在文化上，欧阳修、苏轼、秦观、姜夔、王令等在扬州留下大量传世名作。元、明两代，扬州经济发展加快。来扬州经商、传教、从政、定居的外籍人日渐增多，其中仍以波斯人和阿拉伯人为最。
元时，几次整治运河扬州段，基本形成了今天的走向，恢复了曾一度中断的漕运，扬州又迅速繁华起来。其时，意大利旅行家马可?波罗旅居扬州为官三年，成为中意两国的人民的友好使者。
明时，随着商品经济的发展，孕育了资本主义生产关系的萌芽。扬州的商业主要是两淮盐业的专卖和南北货贸易。盐税收入几乎与粮赋相等。商业扩大到期旧城以外。手工业作坊生产的漆器、玉器、铜器、竹木器具和刺绣品、化妆品都达到了相当高的水平。为防止倭寇再次入侵，公元1556年，扬州又建“新城”。在文化上出现了睢景臣等一批杂剧、小说家。在元末农民起义中，张士诚领导的农民起义军坚持了16年。明朝灭亡后，为阻止清兵南进，南明督师史可法率军坚守孤城，宁死不降，表现了坚贞不屈的民族气节。城陷后，清军屠城10日，死者数十万。
清代，康熙和乾隆多次“巡幸”，使扬州出现空前的繁华。城市人口超过50万。当时的扬州，居交通要冲，富盐渔之利，盐税与清政府的财政收入关系极大。各地商人增多，纷纷在扬州建起了会馆，各有营业范围和地方特色。同时兴起的还有会票——信用汇兑。在文化上，一些盐商广结文士，爱好藏书，修建府学、县学，恢复名胜古迹，对扬州的文化发展具有一定的贡献。这期间出现了以金农、李鱼单、高翔、郑燮、罗聘等“扬州八怪”为代表的扬州画派，以阮元、焦循、汪中、任大椿和王引之父子为代表的“扬州学派”。扬州戏剧历史悠久，至清代大盛。1790年，为庆祝乾隆皇帝80寿辰，以宝应高朗亭为班主的三庆班进京演出，与其它剧种一起，对京剧的形成和发展产生重要影响。扬州的评话、清曲、扬剧、木偶和棋、琴均在清代形成自己的特色，促进了扬州成为当时中国文化中心的形成。
扬州繁荣昌盛的历史，积淀了深厚的历史文化底蕴，李白、白居易、欧阳修、苏轼、郑燮、朱自清以及马可?波罗、崔致远等大批中外文人雅士的在古城扬州留下千古佳作。以\扬州八怪\为代表的扬州画派和扬州学派在中国文化领域独树一帜。扬州戏曲、扬州评话、玉雕漆器、扬派盆景、雕版印刷、淮扬菜系等更是独具特色，源远流长，为今日“文化扬州发展战略”的全面实施，奠定了坚实的基础。
扬州，地处江苏省中部、长江下游北岸、江淮平原南端，是中国最具活力的“长三角”经济圈内重要节点城市。现辖宝应、高邮、江都、仪征4个县（市），邗江、广陵、维扬3个区和经济技术开发区、化工园区、新城西区、蜀冈—瘦西湖风景名胜区。全市总面积6638平方公里，人口460万，其中市区面积近1100平方公里，人口131万。
Located in the middle of Jiangsu province, the north shore of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the south end of the Yangtze-Huai
Rivers plain, Yangzhou is the most vibrant and an important city in the economic circle of the Yangtze River delta. It is made up of four counties (cities) of Baoying, Gaoyou, Jiangdu and Yizheng, three districts of Hanjiang, Guangling and Weiyang, Economic and Hi-tech Development Zone, Chemical Park, Metro West and the scenic spot of Shugang-Slender West Lake. It boasts land coverage of 6,638 square kilometers and a population of 4.6 million, including the downtown area of 1,100 square kilometers with a population of 1.31 million.
扬州是一座历史悠久、文化昌盛的人文名城。扬州是国务院首批公布的24座历史文化名城之一，自公元前486年吴王夫差开邗沟、筑邗城始，至今已有近2500年的建城史。扬州历史上曾经有过三次繁荣时期，兴盛于汉，繁盛于唐，鼎盛于清。唐代的李白、杜甫，宋代的欧阳修、苏东坡等一批政治家、文学家、艺术家曾在扬州为官、游历，留下了大量吟咏扬州的名篇佳作。扬州八怪、扬州学派、扬州曲艺等独树一帜，扬剧、扬州评话、清曲、剪纸、漆艺、玉雕、雕版印刷、弹词等16项已被列入中国非物质文化遗产项目，广陵古琴、雕版印刷和扬州剪纸被列入世界非物质文化遗产项目。
Yangzhou is a cultural city with a long history and thriving culture. It is one of the first 24 historic and cultural cities released by the State Council with a founding history of about 2,500 years since King Fu Chai of Wu ditched Hangou and built Hancheng. There were three golden times in the history of Yangzhou. It took shape in the Han Dynasty, thrived in the Tang Dynasty and reached its peak in the Qing Dynasty. A number of politicians, writers and artists such as Li Bai, Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty and Ou yangxiu and Su Dongpo of the Song Dynasty all served as officials or went sightseeing there and left many poems chanting the beauty of Yangzhou. \opera all enjoy distinctive features. Sixteen items including Yangju, Yangzhou storytelling, Qingqu, paper cutting, lacquerware, jade carving, block printing and storytelling to the accompaniment of stringed
instrument were listed as the intangible cultural heritage of China and
Guangling seven-stringed plucked instrument, block printing and Yangzhou paper cutting were listed as world intangible cultural heritage.
扬州是一座生态优良、环境秀美的宜居名城。“烟花三月下扬州”、“绿杨城郭是扬州”、“春风十里扬州路”、“人生只合扬州居”等名言佳句，是扬州形象清丽、生态秀美、环境宁静、精致典雅的城市个性的真实写照。近几年来，扬州先后获得了国家优秀旅游城市、国家卫生城市、国家园林城市、国家环保模范城市、国家生态示范市、中国人居环境奖、国家森林城市等荣誉称号。2006年，被授予全球人居领域最高奖——“联合国人居奖”。在中国社科院2010年城市竞争力报告中，扬州环境优美度竞争力列全国第四。
Yangzhou is an ecologically friendly and environmentally beautiful city suitable for people to live in. Such famous well-known sayings as “In this flowery March journeyed south to Yangzhou”, “The green city is Yangzhou”, “The gentle spring breeze swept down a ten-mile-long road of Yangzhou”, “Only Yangzhou is suitable for people to live in” give true and vivid expression to Yangzhou featuring gorgeous image, beautiful ecology, serene environment, delicacy and elegance. In recent years, Yangzhou has been awarded the honorary titles of National Excellent Tourism City, National Hygiene City, National Garden City, National Environmental Protection Demonstration City, National Ecology Demonstration City, National Habitat Environment Prize and National Forest City. In 2006, it was awarded the United Nations Habitat Award, the highest prize in the area of global habitat. In the report of city competitiveness issued by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Yangzhou ranked fourth in terms of the competitiveness of beautiful environment.
扬州是一座资源丰富、特色鲜明的旅游名城。扬州自然遗产、人文遗产和非物质文化遗产丰富，是中国首批优秀旅游城市。5.09平方公里的老城区是国内历史风貌保存比较完好的古城之一，古迹、遗址、文物众多，仅市区就有500多处历史建筑群、500多条传统街巷，各类文保单位168个，其中国家级9个、省级16个。瘦西湖和扬州历史城区已被列入中国世界文化遗产预备名单重设目录。
Yangzhou is a tourism city with rich resources and unique characteristics. Yangzhou abounds in natural resources, cultural resources and intangible cultural heritages and is one of the first excellent tourism cities in China. The old quarter covering 5.09 square kilometers is one of the old cities with the best preserved historic landscape domestically. There are numerous historic sites and cultural relics, including 500 plus historic architectural complexes, 500 plus traditional lanes, 168 historic sites of various levels, among which nine are national and sixteen are provincial. Slender West Lake and Yangzhou historic quarter have been listed in the Preparatory Directory for World Cultural Heritages of China.
扬州是一座开明开放、经济繁荣的工商名城。扬州历史上就是著名的开放城市，唐代扬州是东南地区的最大都会和对外经济文化交流的四大港口之一，当时在扬外商达1万多人。高僧鉴真大师东渡日本传播中国佛教、医学、建筑、艺术等方面的文化。韩国的崔致远、阿拉伯的普哈丁、意大利的马可?波罗等都曾留下行迹。目前，扬州已与世界30多个城市结为友好城市或友好交往城市，与世界160多个国家和地区开展着经贸、文化往来。近年来，扬州经济实力显著增强，转型发展迈出新步伐。汽车船舶、石油化工、机电装备等三大支柱产业不断发展，以“三新一网一书”为代表的新兴产业发展迅速。
Yangzhou is an enlightened, open and economically prosperous industrial and commercial city. In history, Yangzhou is a famous and open city. In the Tang dynasty, it is the biggest metropolis in Southeast China and one of the four ports that conducted economic and cultural exchanges with other countries. Over 10 thousand foreign businessmen lived in Yangzhou then. Master Jianzhen went eastward to Japan to spread China’s culture including Buddhism, medical sciences, architecture and art. The Korean Choe Chi-won, the Arabian Pu Hading and the Italian Marco Polo all left their footprints here. Now Yangzhou has established sister relations
or carried out friendly exchanges with over 30 cities across the world and maintained economic and trade and cultural interactions with over 160 countries and regions in the world. In recent years, its economic strength was notably improved on the way toward economic transformation. The three pillar industries of automobile and shipbuilding, petrochemical and electromechanical equipment continue to develop and the emerging
industries represented by new energy, new light source, new material, smart power grid and electronic books develop rapidly.
扬州风物秀美、人杰地灵。在新的起点上，扬州抢抓新机遇、实现新跨越。为了让世界更好地了解扬州，扬州市人民政府新闻办公室从城市诸多亮点中梳理选取了30个具有代表性的采访点作为第二批对外宣传采访基地，以中英文双语和图文并茂的形式，编印了《扬州市对外宣传采访基地采访指南》，并为中外媒体记者来扬州提供相关服务信息。今后，根据形势的变化和媒体的需求，我们还将进一步调整、充实外宣基地及相关信息。
Yangzhou is endowed with beautiful natural scenery and produced a galaxy of talents. It seizes the new opportunities at a new starting point to realize leapfrog development. In order to allow the world to know Yangzhou better, the Press Office of Yangzhou Municipal People’s
Government sorted out all the highlights and chose 30 representative ones to be the second batch of interview bases of Yangzhou for publicity in both Chinese and English in a massive and lyrical outpouring of words and photographs and rendered related service information for Chinese and foreign journalists. We will further adjust and complement the interview bases and related information according to the changes of the situation and the need of the press.
“烟花三月下扬州”，扬州这座古代文化与现代文明交相辉映的历史文化名城正以崭新的姿态，迎接您的到来！
“In this flowery March journeyed south to Yangzhou”. Yangzhou, the historic and cultural city where ancient and modern civilization adds radiance to each other, embraces you with a brand new outlook.