Nanjing History

Ancient times through 1910

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 in today's Nanjing area in 495 BC. Later in 473 BC, The State of Yue conquered Wu and constructed the city of Yuecheng on the outskirts of the present-day Zhonghua Gate. In 333 BC, after eliminating the State of Yue, the State of Chu built Jinling Yi in the northwestern part of present-day Nanjing. Since then, the city has experienced numerous destructions and reconstructions.

Nanjing first became a capital in AD 229, where Sun Quan of the Wu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms Period relocated its capital to Jianye, a city he extended on the basis of Jinling Yi in AD 211. 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. Thereafter, Jiankang remained as the capital of Southern China during the North-South Division period, until 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 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 first emperor of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Yuanzhang 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.

It is believed that Nanjing was the largest city in the world from 1358 to 1425 with a population of 487,000 in 1400.

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.

During the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the Nanjing area was known as Jiangning and served as the seat of government for the Liangjiang Viceroy. Nanjing was the capital of the Taiping Kingdom in the mid-19th century, being renamed as Tianjing (lit. Heaven's Capital). Both the 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 slaughtering occurred in the city with over 100,000 committing suicide or fighting to the death.

After 1911

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 the Capital city of Republic of China - Nanjing, and carried out the systematic and brutal Nanking massacre. The total death toll could not be confirmed, since no official records were kept, and is often contested, but 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.[8] The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall was built in 1985 to commemorate the 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.

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, and after World War II, the KMT relocated its central government to Nanjing.

After 1949

On April 23, 1949, The People's Liberation Army conquered Nanjing, officially ending the Republic of China's rule on the mainland. 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.

Until 2002, the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of China (Taiwan), as well as textbooks published in Taiwan, referred to Nanjing as the official capital of the Republic of China, while Taipei is just its temporary capital.
It has 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.

Special Touring Regions:

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