[1] Shuyang sits on the Northern Jiangsu Plains and borders the cities of Xuzhou, Lianyungang, and Huai'an to the north, east, and south.

Shuyang is a pilot administrative division for "provinces governing county level units directly" in Jiangsu, along with Kunshan and Taixing.

[2] Prior to its proclamation as the Zhou Dynasty in 1111 BC, the area around the north of Jiangsu was inhabited by the Dongyi, an ancient ethnic group that established numerous city-states.

Part of the region was officially proclaimed as the territory of the State of Lu in 582 BC after the fortress "Zhongcheng" (中城), was built on the northwest.

[4] As the main natural disaster in northern Jiangsu, rain storms and floods were the principal threat to the county in the old days.

[citation needed] In the early modern period, life in this region was recognised as peaceful and stable for most of the time.

[5] Mount Han (Chinese: 韩山; pinyin: Hán Shān) is the highest point in Shuyang County, with an elevation of 70 metres (230 ft) above sea level.

However, cold northwesterly winds from Mongolia and Siberia can cause temperatures to drop below freezing in the night, and there has been occasional snowfall in winters in recent years.

[citation needed] Shuyang County administers 6 subdistricts, 23 towns, 1 township, and 2 other township-level divisions.

[citation needed] However, Shuyang County was of decreasing economic importance within Jiangsu from the time of the Cultural Revolution onwards.

[citation needed] As of 2018, Shuyang County had a total gross domestic product (GDP) of more than 80 billion renminbi (RMB).

[10][11] There are over 1.7 million people in Shuyang who speak a subdialect of Lower Yangtze Mandarin, called Haisi Dialect.

[citation needed] Speakers of the dialect can easily understand other varieties of Mandarin, but not vice versa.

[citation needed] As Standard Chinese becomes increasingly powerful in social life, it has largely impacted on the dialect in words, pronunciation, and grammar.