Nanjing

( Chinese: 南京; Romanizations: Nánjīng ( Pinyin), Nan-ching ( Wade-Giles), Nanking ( Postal map spelling); ) is the capital of Jiangsu Province, China and a city with a prominent place in Chinese history and culture. The different spellings 'Nanjing' or 'Nanking' bear the same Chinese name '南京' - meaning 'Southern capital' - Nanking was widely used until the Pinyin language reform after which Nanjing is the international standard spelling of the city's name. Located in the lower Yangtze River drainage basin and Yangtze River Delta economic zone, Nanjing has always been one of China's most important cities. It served as the capital of China during several historical periods and is listed as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. Nanjing was the capital of the Republic of China before the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Nanjing is also one of the fifteen sub-provincial cities in the People's Republic of China's administrative structure, enjoying jurisdictional and economic autonomy only slightly less than that of a province. Apart from having been the capital of China for six dynasties and of the Republic of China, Nanjing has also served as a national hub of education, research, transportation and tourism throughout history. It will also host the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics. With an urban population of over five million (2006), Nanjing is the second largest commercial center in the East China region, after Shanghai. It has been ranked fourth by Forbes magazine in its listing of "2008 Top 100 Business Cities in Mainland China", seventh in the evaluation of "Cities with Strongest Comprehensive Strength" issued by the National Statistics Bureau, and second in the evaluation of cities with most sustainable development potential in the Yangtze River Delta. It has also been awarded the title of 2008 Habitat Scroll of Honor of China, Special Award of UN Habitat Scroll of Honor and National Civilized City.http://nanjing2009.fide.com/

History

Earlier History

, the world's longest, built in the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644)]] Nanjing was one of the earliest established cities in the southern China area. According to the legend, Fu Chai, the Lord of the State of Wu, founded the first city, Yecheng (冶城) in today's Nanjing area in 495 BCE. Later in 473 BCE, The State of Yue conquered Wu and constructed the city of Yuecheng (越城) on the outskirts of the present-day Zhonghua Gate. In 333 BCE, after eliminating the State of Yue, the State of Chu built Jinling Yi (金陵邑) in the northwestern part of present-day Nanjing. Under the Qin and Han dynasties, it was called Moling. Since then, the city has experienced destruction and renewal many times. Nanjing first became a capital in 229 CE (公元), where Sun Quan of the Wu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms Period relocated its capital to Jianye (建業), a city he extended on the basis of Jinling Yi in 211 CE. After the invasion of the Five Hu, the nobles and wealthy families of the Jin Dynasty escaped across the Yangtze River and established Nanjing as the capital, which was then called Jiankang (建康). Thereafter, Jiankang remained as the capital of Southern China during the North-South Division period. Possibly the best preserved monument of that era is the ensemble of the Tomb of Xiao Xiu (475–518), a brother of Emperor Wu of Liang, located in today's Qixia District on the eastern outskirts of the modern Nanjing.Albert E. Dien, «Six Dynasties Civilization». Yale University Press, 2007 ISBN 0300074042. Partial text on Google Books. P. 190. A reconstruction of the original form of the ensemble is shown in Fig. 5.19. 梁安成康王萧秀墓石刻 (Sculptures at the Tomb of Xiao Xiu) (description and modern photos) The period of division ended when the Sui Dynasty reunified China and destroyed almost the entire city, turning it into a small town. The city was reconstructed during the late Tang Dynasty. It was again named capital (then known as Jinling (金陵) during the short-lived Southern Tang Kingdom (937–975) (who renamed it Xidu), who succeeded the Wu Kingdom. Jiankang's textile industry burgeoned and thrived during Song Dynasty despite the constant threat from the northern foreign invasions. The Mongolians, the occupiers of China, further consolidated the city's status as a hub of the textile industry under the Yuan Dynasty.

The Ming capital

complex, located in Eastern Suburb Scenic Area]] The first emperor of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang (the Hongwu Emperor) who overthrew the Yuan Dynasty rebuilt this city and made it the capital of China in 1368. He constructed what was the longest city wall in the world at that time. It took 200,000 laborers 21 years to finish the project. The present-day city wall of Nanjing was mainly built during that time, and it is the longest surviving city wall in the world. Nanjing remained the capital of the Ming Empire until 1421, when the third emperor of the dynasty, Zhu Di, relocated the capital to Beijing. It is believed that Nanjing was the largest city in the world from 1358 to 1425 with a population of 487,000 in 1400. Largest Cities Through History Besides the city wall, other famous Ming-era structures in the city included the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum (still one of the most famous sites of the region) and the Porcelain Tower (destroyed by the Taipings in the 19th century). As the center of the empire, early-Ming Nanjing had worldwide connections: it was home of admiral Zheng He, who went to sail the Pacific and Indian Oceans, and it was visited by foreign dignitaries, such as the sultan of Brunei Abdul Majid Hassan, who died during his visit to China in 1408. The sultan's grave, with a suitably royal bixi stone tortoise monument, was discovered in Yuhuatai District south of the city in 1958.Rozan Yunos, "The Brunei Sultan who died in China" The Brunei Times, 9.11.2008

The Qing period

Over two centuries after the removal of the capital to Beijing, Nanjing was destined to become the capital of a Ming emperor one more time. After the fall of Beijing to the Li Zicheng's rebels and then to Manchu Qing invaders, and the suicide of the last "real" Ming emperor Zhu Youjian (the Chongzhen Emperor) in the spring 1644, the Ming prince Zhu Yousong was enthroned in Nanjing in June 1644 as the Hongguang Emperor. His short reign was described by later historians as the first reign of the so-called Southern Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yousong, however, fared a lot worse than his ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang three centuries earlier. Beset by factional conflicts, his regime could not offer effective resistance to Manchu troops, when the Manchu army, led by Prince Dodo approached Jiangnan the next spring.Struve (1993), p.55-56 Days after Yangzhou fell to the Manchus in late May 1645, the Hongguang Emperor fled Nanjing, and the imperial palace was looted by local residents.Struve (1993), pp. 60-61 On June 6, Dodo's troops approached Nanjing, and the commander of the city's garrison, Zhao the Earl of Xincheng, promptly surrendered the city to them.Struve (1993), pp. 62-63 The Manchus soon ordered all male residents of the city to shave their heads in the Manchu way, requisitioned a large section of the city for the bannermen's cantonment, and destroyed the former imperial palace, but otherwise the city was spared the mass murders and destruction that befell Yangzhou.Struve (1993), pp. 64-65, 72 -based stele commemorating the Kangxi Emperor's visit to Nanjing in 1684, in the city's Drum Tower]] During the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), the Nanjing area was known as Jiangning (江宁) and served as the seat of government for the Liangjiang Viceroy. It had been visited by the Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors a number of times on their tours of the southern provinces. Nanjing was invaded by British troops during the First Opium War, which was ended by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. Nanjing was the capital of the Taiping Kingdom Eduardo Real: ‘’The Taiping Rebellion’’ in the mid-19th century, being renamed as Tianjing (天京) (lit. Heaven's Capital). Both the Qing Viceroy and the Taiping king resided in buildings that would later be known as the Presidential Palace. As Qing general Zeng Guofan retook the city in 1864, massive slaughter occurred in the city with over 100,000 committing suicide or fighting to the death.

Early years of Republic of China

Nanjing as Captial

, when Nanjing was its capital]] The Xinhai Revolution led to the founding of the Republic of China in January 1912 with Dr. Sun Yat-sen as the first provisional president, and Nanjing was selected as its new capital. However, the Qing Dynasty still controlled the northern provinces, so revolutionaries asked Yuan Shikai to replace Sun as president in exchange for the emperor's abdication. Yuan demanded the capital be at Beijing (closer to his power base). In 1927, the Kuomintang (KMT) under Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek again established Nanjing as the capital of the Republic of China, and this became internationally recognized once KMT forces took Beijing in 1928. The following decade is known as the Nanjing decade, as they used the Presidential Palace in Nanjing as their headquarters.

World War II

]] In 1937, the Japanese army invaded and occupied Nanjing, the capital city of Republic of China, and carried out the systematic and brutal Nanking massacre. The total death toll could not be confirmed, since no official records were kept. Though often contested, most estimates, including those made by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and the Nanjing War Crimes Tribunal, put the number of dead between 200,000 and 350,000.In a document sent by former Japanese foreign minister Hirota Koki to the Japanese Embassy in Washington in January 17, 1938, he stated "based upon investigation, over 300,000,000,000 Chinese killed". (ref. National Archives, Washington, D.C., Released in Sept. 1994) The verdict of the International Military Tribunal for the Far East reads in part: "Approximately 20,000 cases occurred within the city during the first month of the occupation ... The total number of civilians and prisoners of war murdered in Nanking during the six weeks was over 200,000. ... These figures do not take into account those persons whose bodies were destroyed by burning or by throwing into the Yangtze River or otherwise disposed by Japanese." The 200,000 number was mostly based on the records of several humanitarian and charity organizations who buried the remaining bodies a week to four months after the massacres began. Six charity groups buried total of 195,240 bodies from 1937.12--1938.10. Detailed bury records are available. From the verdict, the 200,000 number did not include victims whose bodies were disposed by Japanese (as common in the early stages of the massacre) or by individuals Chinese other than the charities groups, nor did it include those who were massacred after the first six weeks. Therefore, the 200,000 number is the most conservative number. Adding the people murdered in smaller scale killings and whose bodies had been buried by other people, over 300,000 Chinese were massacred in Nanking. The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall was built in 1985 to commemorate this event. After the conquest of the city, the Imperial Japanese Army established the bacteriological research Unit 1644, a section of Unit 731, where Japanese doctors experimented on humans.Hal Gold, Unit 731 Testimony, 1996, p.151-152 Many of the atrocities of the massacre were documented in the diaries of John Rabe, a German businessman who created a "Safety Zone", an area whose borders were Sikang Street to the west, Hanchung Men Gate to the south and ironically the Japanese Embassy to the east. Rabe's own house, the German & US Embassies and Nanjing University were all encompassed within the Safety Zone. Many took refuge within his walls, Rabe in many instances exploiting Germany's alliance with Japan to stop Japanese soldiers from entering the compound to rape and slaughter the many women and children inside. A Japanese-collaborationist government known as the " Nanjing Regime" or "Nanjing Nationalist Government" led by Wang Jingwei was established in Nanjing as a rival to Chiang Kai-Shek's government in Chongqing. After the Surrender of Japan, the KMT relocated its central government back to Nanjing.

In People's Republic of China

On April 23, 1949, The People's Liberation Army conquered Nanjing. After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Nanjing was initially a province-level municipality, but very soon became, and today remains, the provincial capital of Jiangsu. The Ministry of Interior of the Republic of China, as well as textbooks published in Taiwan, refer to Nanjing as the official capital of the Republic of China, while Taipei is just its provisional capital. It had long been rumored that Nanjing might be split from Jiangsu Province in future years and become its own municipality, but the rumour was never officially confirmed.

Geography and climate