See also: Nanjing (homonymy)

Nanjing (南京 , Pinyin: Nánjīng; literally “capital of the South” compared to Beijing “capital of North”), immediately upstream of the delta of the Chang Jiang, the first Chinese river, of the Chinese province of the Jiangsu is the capital. The city counts today more than six million inhabitants. She played a considerable part in the Chinese history . Several times capital of the country, the government of République of China (Taiwan) regards it still today as the legitimate capital. The catch of the city by the Japanese in 1937 was accompanied by a massacre of great width.

Nanjing has the administrative statute of under-provincial city. Formerly called Nanking according to the transliteration EFEO. The Chinese abbreviation of the name of the city east níng (寧).

Francization Nankin comes from the missionaries French Jesuits of the 17th century and does not take account of the change of pronunciation which occurred during the Dynastie Qing and which transformed the front one into the consonant (noted J in Pinyin). It is nevertheless similar to that adopted by the other Western languages: Nanchino in Italian, Nanking in Dutch, or Nanquim (pronunciation similar to that of French) in Portuguese, for example.

Geography

  • 31°17' - 32°37' NR 118°22' - 119°14' E

Nanjing, covering an entire surface of: 6598 km ², are located in one of the greatest economic zones of China, the delta of the Yangzi Jiang. This river runs with the western part of the town of intramural Nankin. It is located at 300 kilometers of Shanghai: 1200 kilometers of Beijing: 1400 kilometers of Chongqing.

Nanjing has a subtropical climate, under the influence of monsoons of East Asia. The seasons are differentiated, with very hot summers and rain throughout the year. The average temperature is of 15,7 degrees Celsius, with records of 43 degrees (July 13rd, 1934) and -16,9 degrees (January 6th, 1955). On average 117 days ago of rain per annum, with 1106,5 mm of precipitations. The season meiyu (梅雨, rain of plums) takes place of mid-June at the end of July. According to the local tourist bureau, the best period is between September and November.

Many natural resources are located at Nankin, with more than 40 types of minerals, of which the Fer, the Soufre which constitutes 40  % of the reserves of Jiangsu; it has of the first reserves of Strontium in East Asia and south-east. Nankin has moreover vast reserves of Eau, of river and phreatic origin; there are several sources of warm water, the such source of Tangshan de Jiangning and the source of Tangquan de Pukou.

Surrounded of Yangzi Jiang and mountains, Nankin has superb landscapes. Natural lakes like the lake Xuanwu and the lake Mochou are accessible to the public in the center from the city; the Mountains Crimsons located in the part is city are also the site of archaeological vestiges and cultural sites. The famous strategist and politician of the period of the Three Kingdoms, Zhuge Liang, wrote the following sentence:

" With the Mountains Crimsons in emerging dragon and the Walls of Pierre in howling tiger, Jinling is the devoted residence of the empereurs". (钟山龙蟠, 石头虎踞, 真乃帝王之宅也)

History

Chronology

-495 : foundation of the first site of the city, Yecheng

229: capital of the kingdom of Wu, baptized Jiankang
937: capital of the kingdom of Tang of the South
1368: capital of Ming, baptized Nanjing (current name)
1842: Treaty of Nankin. Transfer of HongKong to the British and opening of certain Chinese ports to the European trade.
1853 : capital of the Taiping, baptized Tianjing.
1911 : Republic of Nankin
1912: Capital of the Republic of China
1937: Massacre of Nankin; puppet government of Wang Jingwei
1949: displacement of the capital in Beijing
1989: go of protest following the events of the place Tian' anmen

History

Nanjing is one of the oldest cities of China of the South. According to the legend, Fu Chai, the lord of the country of Wu, founded the first site of the city, Yecheng (冶城) in 495 av. J-C. In -473, the country of Yue conquered the country of Wu and founded the town of Yuecheng (越城) in the surroundings of the current site of the Bridge of Zhonghua. In -333, after having eliminated the country from Yue, the country of Chu founded Jinling Yi (金陵邑) in the north-western part of the current city. Since, many destruction and rebuildings marked the history of Nankin.

Nanjing became a capital into 229, when Sun Quan of the Royaume of Wu moved its capital towards Jianye (建邺), like extension of Jinling Yi in 211, during the period of the Three Kingdoms. After the invasion of Cing Wu, the noble ones and the rich person of the Dynastie Jin are escaped on the other side of Yangzi Jiang and established their capital with Nankin, called then Jiankang (建康). Nankin was then the capital of China of the South during the period of North-South division, until the dynasty of Sui joins together China and destroys all the city.

The city was rebuilt during the Dynastie Tang, and became again capital during the episodical reign of the kingdom of Tang of the South (937-975). The industry of Jiankang developed louse to reach its apogee under the Song dynasty, although constantly threatened by the foreign invaders. After the Mongolian invasion, the city was consolidated as a textile technological pole.

After being itself imposed like winner following divisions of the period of the wars between lords of the end of the Yuan dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Dynasty Ming, again establishes the capital with Nankin in 1368, adopting for the first time its modern name, Nanjing. It builds what proved to be more the big city of the world at the time, with 200.000 workmen who completed this project at the end of 21 years. The current wall of Nankin goes back to this period: it is the oldest urban wall of the world which still remains.

During the Dynasty Qing (1644 - 1911), the area of Nankin was called Jiangning, and was used as seat with the government of the Liangjiang viceroy. Nankin was the capital of the Taiping kingdom in the middle of the 19th century, renamed Tianjing (天京, “  capital of Ciel  ”) on this occasion. When the general Zeng Guofan took again the city in 1864, a massacre of great width took place: 100.000 people perished as a combatant or giving each other death.

In 1911, Sun Yat-SEN lance with Wuhan with the Guomindang a revolution of certain elites which reversed the Qing dynasty and founded the République of China in 1912, with Nankin like capital: it is the period known as of the République of Nankin. The capital was then moved with Beijing when Yuan Shikai became president. In 1928, Tchang Kaï-chek seizes the power of Guomindang establishes its capital with Nankin again: Beijing, controlled by the lords of the war, and Wuhan, carried out by Wang Jingwei, also claimed with the statute of capitals.

In 1937, the Japanese army conquers Beijing then ended up occupying Nankin, the official capital. In order to escape the invasion, the government of the Guomindang then moves with Chongqing. Subject with surging controversies negationists, a massacre of great width carried out by the occupying forces took place in December in Nankin. The estimates vary according to the sources. The Chinese government estimates that 300.000 people perished; other sources locate this figure around 200.000.

During the Japanese occupation, a puppet government, held by Wang Jingwei, was installed in the city. The army Showa also established the bacteriological research unit 1644 to with it, a subsidiary company of the Unité 731 where Japanese doctors practiced experiments on human guinea-pigs.

After the Second world war, the Guomindang remade city its capital. The April 23rd 1949, the Popular Armed with Release after having conquered Beijing with ralliment of most of the troops of Guomindang, conquers Nankin, forcing Guomindang to fold up itself with Taiwan, helped by the the United States of America, officially putting a term at the Republic of China in continental China. Since, Nankin is the provincial capital of Jiangsu, and remains despite everything the official capital of the Republic of China based in Taiwan.

Personalities related to the city

Demography

According to the official sources, the total population of the town of Nankin reached 6,24 million in 2000. The city would have reached 6,40 million in 2004 according to statistics, with 5,836 million residents incrits. Birth rate is of 7,73%, the death rate of 5,44%. : 47429 couples married in 2004: 7036 divorced. : 10473 people are remariées.

The ethnos group Han is dominant (98,56  %), with 50 other ethnos groups present. In 1999: 77934 residents belonged to the other minorities, of which a vast majority of Today (: 64832, is 83,76% of the minorities). Follow Man (: 2311) and Zhuang (533). The majority of these minorities lie in the district of Jianye.

The ratio man-women was of 106,49 men for 100 women in 2003.

The rough annual income of the city was of 191 million yuans in 2004 (3rd in Jiangsu), that is to say: 33050 per capita, 15% of more than in 2003. In 2004, the income available per capita was of: 11061 yuans per annum downtown: 5333 in the countryside; unemployment rate amounted to 4,03% (4,2% at the national level).

Economy

Since the period of the Three Kingdoms, Nankin became a textile industrial center, being given its geographical location, which made an ideal node of transport of it. During the Dynastie Ming, this industry developed with a greater width, which did of them one of the most prosperous cities of China and of the world. The textile, mint, printing works, the naval constrution and other industries were there with their technological height; it was one of the largest shopping malls of the Far East.

In first half of the 20th century, Nankin gradually evolved/moved of a production center in a great center of consumption, being given the political profit obtained and the increase in the corollary standard of living. Many stores such as Zhongyang Shangchang opened, attracting merchants of all the country which came there to run out their products. In 1933, the profits obtained thanks to the food sectors and with the entertainments exceeded those of manufactures and agriculture. A third of the population worked in the tertiary sector, where, following the example Shanghai, the trade of the sex, drug and the play flowered.

In the Years 1950, the central government invests massively in Nankin to build factories of State there, in a national plan of fast industrialization. Factories electric, mechanical, chemical, of steel were established the ones after the others, making of Nankin a great production center industrial of the Chinese littoral. Filled with enthusiasm with the idea to create a town of international standard, the leaders of the city made also disastrous errors during its development, investing for example million yuans to build mines exploiting a non-existent coal, which involved a negative growth in the years 1960.

Today

The current industry of the city is inherited roughly speaking the situation bequeathed after the Sixties, with electronics, the car, petrochemistry, iron, steel and energy like " five industries-piliers". Large companies of State such as Panda Electronics, Jincheng Motors and Nanjing Steel remain. Tertiary industry is done more prominent, representing a total of 44  % of the income of the city. Many investors came in Nankin, such FIAT, IVECO, A.O. Smith and Sharp. This situation was confirmed after the entry of China to OMC and two foreign companies on average establish an office there each day.

The local government tries to improve the attractivity of the city by building vast industrial parks, five today: Gaoxin, Xingang, Huagong and Jiangning. In spite of these efforts, Nankin is preceded by the cities close to Wuxi, Suzhou and Hangzhou. Moreover, the government enterprises are not able to be reconverted in competitive companies internationally, threatened by forced bankruptcies. That currently has as a consequence a big number of unemployed.

In 2005, total GDP was of 130,3 billion Yuan S, and the GDP per capita of: 37207 yuans.

Administrative divisions

The under-provincial city of Nankin exerts its jurisdiction on thirteen subdivisions - eleven districts and two counties  :
  • the district of Xuanwu - 玄武区 Xuánwǔ Qū   ;
  • the district of Baixia - 白下区 Báixià Qū   ;
  • the district of Qinhuai - 秦淮区 Qínhuái Qū   ;
  • the district of Jianye - 建邺区 Jiànyè Qū   ;
  • the district of Gulou - 鼓楼区 Gǔlóu Qū   ;
  • the district of Xiaguan - 下关区 Xiàguān Qū   ;
  • the district of Pukou - 浦口区 Pǔkǒu Qū   ;
  • the district of Luhe - 六合区 Lùhé Qū)   ;
  • the district of Qixia - 栖霞区 Qīxiá Qū   ;
  • the district of Yuhuatai - 雨花台区 Yǔhuātái Qū   ;
  • the district of Jiangning - 江宁区 Jiāngníng Qū   ;
  • the county of Lishui - 溧水县 Lìshuǐ Xiàn   ;
  • the county of Gaochun - 高淳县 Gāochún Xiàn .

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