NANJING Formerly known as Nanking; a city with a population of about 4.5 million that is the capital of Jiangsu Province in eastern China, Nanjing is one of China’s four ancient capital cities and has also been the modern capital of the country. It has a strategic location on the southern bank of the Yangzi River (Changjiang), one of China’s two longest rivers and major transportation routes, and lies 150 miles west of Shanghai, China’s largest city and port. The Qinhuai River flows through Nanjing Proper, and Zijinshan (Purple Mountain) lies to the east of the city Nanjing has many universities, notably Nanjing University and Nanjing Normal University, and has become an important industrial center for the automobile, electronics and machine tool industries.
Nanjing lies between two fertile plains, the Jiangnan Plain to the south and the Huai River (Huaihe) Plain to the north. The Yangzi River valley was a cradle of Chinese civilization. About 200 sites dating from the Shang (1750—1040 B.C.) and Zhou (1100—256 B.C.) dynasties have been excavated in the Nanjing area. In the Spring and Autumn (772—481 B.C.) and Warring States Periods (403—221 BC), Nanjing was considered "a home of emperors and kings." The city is also called Jinling (Golden Ridge) because in 333 B.C., after the king of the Chu conquered the kingdom of Yue, he ordered men to bury gold on a hillside at Nanjing to propitiate the spirits and keep him in power. In the third century AD., Sun Quan, the king of Wu, one of the three contending Kingdoms during the Three Kingdoms Period (220—SO) moved his capital south from Wuchang to Nanjing and renamed it Stone City The court of the Eastern Jin dynasty (317-420) settled there after fleeing from northern invaders. Four brief dynasties in succession made it their capital, the Song (420—79), the Qi (479—502), the Liang (502—57) and the Chen (557—89). It was also the capital of the Southern Tang (923—36), one of the 10 states during the Five Dynasties Period (907—60). Many wealthy and powerful northern Chinese families moved to the Nanjing region and several industries developed there, including papermaking, porcelain, copper smelting and silk brocade weaving.
In 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang (Chu Yuan-chang), the leader of a peasant rebellion, overthrew the Yuan dynasty and founded the Ming dynasty (1368—1644); he is known as Emperor Hongwu (Hung-wu). He chose Yingtian Prefecture, located on the Yangzi and the Grand Canal, as his capital, which he renamed Nanjing (Southern Capital). He made Beijing to the north, the former Yuan capital, his secondary capital. Hongwu brought thousands of workmen to build, over a period of 21 years, what became the world’s largest city at the time. They built a 26-mile-long city wall 46 feet wide at its base, 13 to 26 feet thick on top and 39 feet high. This is the longest city wall ever built, and most of it still stands today including Jubao Gate, now known as Zhonghua Gate, which has remained intact through numerous wars. Zhudi (Chu Ti), known as Ming emperor Yongle (Yung-lo), moved the capital to Beijing in 1420 and Nanjing suffered a decline in influence. When the Ming fell to the Manchus who established the Qing dynasty (1644—1911) at Beijing, several pretenders to the Ming throne attempted to continue the dynasty in Nanjing and other southern locations but were eventually defeated. However, during the Qing, Nanjing remained a major commercial and cultural center and enjoyed two centuries of peace.
In the 19th century Great Britain fought two Opium Wars to open China to foreign trade. In 1842 a British naval squadron of 80 ships sailed up the Yangzi, took the city of Zhenjiang, and went as far as Nanjing, where they threatened to attack the city. The Qing government capitulated and signed the Treaty of Nanjing, the first of the so-called "unequal treaties" that it was forced to sign with foreign powers, opening Chinese cities to foreign traders and residents as treaty ports. Among other things, the treaty ceded the island of Hong Kong to Great Britain. Nanjing was declared a treaty port in 1858 but not opened to foreigners until 1899. A powerful anti-Qing and anti-foreign movement known as the Taiping Rebellion (1850—64) developed in southern China, and the Taiping army moved as far north as Nanjing, where it made its capital. The British and other foreign powers allied themselves with the Qing against the Taipings and besieged and attacked Nanjing for seven months in 1864. They finally took the city and killed the Taipings, ending the rebellion.
The Chinese people overthrew the Qing in the Revolution of 1911, and in 1912 Dr. Sun Yat-sen was inaugurated as the provisional president of the new Republic of China (ROC) in Nanjing. Sun soon had to yield the presidency to Yuan Shikai, who kept the capital in Beijing. That same year Sun founded the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang; KMT) and Yuan sent troops to take Nanjing and destroy the KMT. Sun fled to Japan and then went to Guangzhou (Canton) in southern China, where he established a military government and built up a movement to defeat the warlords in northern China. He died of cancer in 1925 and was later buried in a magnificent mausoleum in Nanjing, which today is a major tourist site. Chiang Kai-shek became the leader of the KMT and cooperated with the recently founded Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but in 1927 he turned against the CCP and ordered the massacre of Communists in several cities, including Nanjing. From 1928 to 1937 Nanjing served as the KMT capital.
In 1937 Japanese troops, which had invaded Manchuna (northeastern China) in 1931 and had continued into China Proper, captured Nanjing and committed a terrible slaughter of the residents, known as the "Rape of Nanjing." Chinese estimates place the number of victims at about 300,000. The KMT and CCP formed a united front to fight the Japanese, which became known as China’s War of Resistance against Japan (1937—45; World War 11). After Japan was defeated in 1945, the KMT government, which had fled west to Sichuan Province, returned to Nanjing in 1946. In 1946—47 the KMT and CCP held peace talks, but the two parties resumed their civil war. When Nanjing fell to the CCP in April 1949 the city was in ruins. Chiang Kai-shek and his KMT followers fled to Taiwan Island, where they established the provisional government of the ROC, and CCP chairman Mao Zedong (Mao Tse-tung) proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing on October 1, 1949.
Nanjing has been rebuilt, and large-scale campaigns tc plant trees and flowers have earned it the nickname Jiali. "Beautiful City" There are many public parks and gardens. and Xuanwu and Mochou lakes are popular recreation areas in the center of the city’s two most famous parks. The double-decker Yangzi River bridge, which opened in 1968, is one of the longest bridges in China and a great feat of Chinese Communist engineering. The road for automobiles on top is 14,760 feet long and the railway line below is 21,976 feet long. Before this bridge opened, there was no direct railroad connection between Beijing and Shanghai, China’s largest city and port.
In the center of Nanjing is the Drum Tower, built in 1382, and the Bell Tower, which houses a huge bronze bell cast in 1388. Chaotian Palace, built during the Ming as a school for children of the imperial court, was reconstructed in 1866. The Taiping Museum, built next to a garden belonging to the first Ming emperor, displays artifacts and copies of documents, maps and books relating to the Taiping Rebellion and the siege of Nanjing in 1864. The Memorial of the Nanjtng Massacre displays pictures of the Japanese massacre of Chinese residents during the Rape of Nanjing in 1937, and it has a viewing hall built over a grave where victims were buried. The Nanjing Museum houses exhibits on the region from prehistoric times to the PRC.
The Temple of Confucius in Fuzimiao in the southern part of Nanjing was a center of Confucian learning for more than 1,500 years. The buildings seen today are reconstructions. Nearby are the Imperial Examination Halls where Confucian-trained scholars studied for the examinations to gain positions in the imperial bureaucracy Fuzimiao is now the main entertainment center in Nanjing, crowded with restaurants, souvenir shops and other attractions.
The tomb of Hongwu, the first Ming emperor, lies on the southern slope of Zijinshan. Also located there is the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, a pilgrimage site for the Chinese because Communists and Nationalists alike honor Sun as the founder of modern China. A stone stairway more than one thousand feet long and 230 feet wide leads to Sun’s crypt at the top. Also on Zijinshan are the Beamless Hall, a temple built entirely of bricks in 1381; Pine Wind Pavilion, originally dedicated to Guanyin (Kuan Yin), the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy; and the Linggu Buddhist Temple and Pagoda. Zhongshan Mountain outside Nanjing is especially beautiful in early spring when thousands of plum trees blossom. Qianhang Mountain is heavily forested. The Stone City built on it by the kingdom of Wu during the Three Kingdoms Period is open to the public as a natural park..