Capital of Jiangsu, China
About Nanjing
Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu, East China. The city, which is located in the southwestern corner of the province, has 11 districts, an administrative area of 6,600 square kilometres (2,500 sq mi), and as of 2021 a population of 9,423,400. Situated in the Yangtze River Delta, Nanjing has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having served as the capital of various Chinese dynasties, kingdoms and republican governments dating from the 3rd century to 1949, and has thus long been a major center of culture, education, research, politics, economy, transport networks and tourism, being home to one of the world's largest inland ports. The city 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. It has also been awarded the title of 2008 Habitat Scroll of Honor of China, Special UN Habitat Scroll of Honor Award and National Civilized City. Nanjing is also considered a Beta city classification, together with Chongqing, Hangzhou and Tianjin by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and ranked as one of the world's top 100 cities in the Global Financial Centres Index.
Names
The name "Nanjing" (literally "Southern Capital") was formally established to designate the modern-day city in 1368, the first year of the Ming dynasty. Upon establishing his capital there, the Hongwu Emperor officially named it "Southern Capital" to distinguish it from the "Northern Capital" at Kaifeng. The name later served as a counterpart to the Northern Capital, Beijing. Nanjing, formerly romanized as Nanqim, Nankin, and Nanking, was also transcribed in the Wade–Giles system as Nan-ching. There was a yi (settlement) known as Jinling (Chinese: 金陵; pinyin: Jīnlíng; lit. 'Ridge with the Gold') around the 4th century BCE in the area—mentioning the specific metal that later lore insisted must have been buried by the Chu monarch, before it was renamed Moling (Chinese: 秣陵; pinyin: Mòlíng; lit. 'Haltered Ridge') after Qin's unification. …
History
Human habitation in the Nanjing region dates to the Neolithic period. Sites near the modern urban core, including the type-site of the Beiyinyangying (北阴阳营) culture, contain a cemetery with 225 burials and grave goods like polished stone tools, jade, and agate, indicating connections with the Lake Tai region. Incised pictorial marks on zun pottery vessels have also been recovered from Beiyinyangying and related late Dawenkou-period deposits. The lower strata of the Dianjiangtai (点将台) site in Pukou are contemporaneous with the Erlitou period and predate the Bronze Age Hushu (湖熟) culture, which characterized the Ning–Zhen (Nanjing–Zhenjiang) area during the second millennium BCE. At the Xijie (西街) site on the south bank of the Qinhuai River, archaeological excavations have identified a fortified settlement with concentric ditches and wall foundations dating to the Shang–Zhou transition. …
Geography
Nanjing, with a total land area of 6,598 square kilometres (2,548 sq mi), is situated in the heartland of the drainage area of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and in the Yangtze River Delta, one of the largest economic zones of China. The Yangtze River flows past the west side and then the north side of Nanjing City, while the Ningzheng Ridge surrounds the north, east and south sides of the city. The city is 650 kilometres (400 mi) southeast of Luoyang, 900 kilometres (560 mi) south-southeast of Beijing, 270 kilometres (170 mi) west-northwest of Shanghai, and 1,200 kilometres (750 mi) east-northeast of Chongqing. The Yangtze flows downstream from Jiujiang, Jiangxi, through Anhui and Jiangsu to the East China Sea. The northern part of the lower Yangtze drainage basin is the Huai River basin and the southern part is the Zhe River basin. …
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