Nanchang

 

(nän'chäng') , city (1994 est. pop. 1,168,700), capital of Jiangxi prov., China, on the Gan River, near the southern end of Poyang Lake. A major transportation center, it has a port, rail links to Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Hunan, and an airport. It is a large economic and industrial center with machine shops, food-processing establishments, textile and paper mills, and plants making chemicals, tractors, cement, tires, and pharmaceuticals. An old walled city, Nanchang dates from the Sung dynasty (12th cent.), but it received its present name in the Ming dynasty. Nanchang is considered the birthplace of the People's Liberation Army. There, in 1927, a force of 30,000 Communist troops, led by Zhu De, rose against the Kuomintang government and briefly established the first soviet republic in China. Occupied by the Japanese (1939–45) in World War II, Nanchang was reoccupied by the Nationalists in 1945 but fell to the Communists in 1949. An agricultural institute and a medical college are in the city. It is also called Nanjing.

南昌市
Nánchāng Shì

Abbreviation: 洪 (Pinyin: Hóng)
Origin of Name	from the early Han dynasty 南方 nán - Southern 昌盛 chāng - prosperous Together - Southern prosperity
Administration Type	Sub-provincial city, Provincial capital
Mayor	Lǐ Dòuluó
Area	74,236 km²
Population (2004)  - Density	3,790,000 51.03/km²
GDP - Total - Per Capita	¥77,046 billion (2004) ¥
City Flower	Chinese Rose R. chinensis Jacq.
City Tree	Camphor Laurel Cinnamomum camphora
Official website: City of Nanchang

Nanchang (Chinese: 南昌; pinyin: Nánchāng) is the capital of Jiangxi Province in southeastern China. It is located 60 km south of the Yangtze River and sits on the banks of the Gan River. Nanchang is known for the Tengwang Pavilion, a towering pavilion dating to 653 and Bayi Square (Literally Aug. 1st Square aka. People's Square), whose size is approximately 78,000 m²,[1] the second largest public square in China, after Beijing's Tiananmen Square. It is also home to the world's tallest ferris wheel called the The Star of Nanchang [2]. Nanchang has a population of 1,934,445 people and a metropolitan area consisting of 1,990,184 people[3].

Economics

Nanchang exists as a regional hub for agricultural production in Jiangxi Province. Products such as rice and oranges are economic staples. The Ford Motor Company has a plant in Nanchang, assembling the Ford Transit van as part of the Jiangling Motor joint venture. Nanchang also is a center of the production of traditional Chinese medicine and pharmaceuticals.

History

In the early Han Dynasty (201 BC), a city called Gàn (赣) was constructed.

In 589 AD (Sui Dynasty), it was renamed Hongzhou (洪州), and eventually Nanchang.

In 653 AD, the Tengwang Pavilion was constructed. In 675 AD, Wang Bo (王勃) wrote the classic “Tengwang Ge Xu”. The building as well as the city became celebrated for Wang’s introduction article and the author is known to all Chinese-speaking population by this master-piece. The Pavilion has been destroyed and rebuilt several times throughout China's history. In its present form, Tengwang Pavilion was reconstructed in the 1980s after being destroyed in 1929 during Chinese civil war.

In 1927, the Nanchang Uprising took place.

In 1939, the Battle of Nanchang took place.

Colleges and universities

• Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics (江西财经大学) (founded 1923)
• Nanchang University (南昌大学)
• Jiangxi Normal University (江西师范大学)
• Jiangxi Normal College of Science and Technology (江西科技师范学院)
• Jiangxi Agricultural University (江西农业大学)
• East China Jiaotong University (华东交通大学)
• Nanchang Institute of Aeronautical Technology (南昌航空工业学院)
• Jiangxi Institute of Traditional Chinese Medicine (江西中医学院)

Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not listed.

Transportation

In the aspect of railway transportation, Nanchang is the joint of the Beijing-Jiulong Railway and Shanghai-Kunming Railway(formerly Zhe-Gan Railway, literally Zhejiang-Jiangxi Railway), making it one of the most important transport hubs in the south of China and the home to the Nanchang Bureau of Railway, which is in charge of the railway system in the majority of the provinces of Jiangxi and Fujian.

From 2007, Nanchang is also connected with neighboring cities Hangzhou, Changsha and Shanghai with CRH(China Railway High-speed).

• Nanchang Changbei International Airport (南昌昌北国际机场)
• Beijing-Jiulong Railway (京九铁路)
• Shanghai-Kunming Railway (沪昆铁路)

External links

• Official Website (Chinese)
• Nanchang Dialect
• TravelChinaGuide.com - City Guide of Nanchang
• Jiangxi Agricultural University
• A Brief introduction of American Newsweek to Nanchang
• [4] A introduction to Bayi Square in Chinese

Prefecture-level divisions of Jiangxi Prefecture-level cities: Fuzhou | Ganzhou | Ji'an | Jingdezhen | Jiujiang Nanchang | Pingxiang | Shangrao | Xinyu | Yichun | Yingtan

List of Jiangxi County-level divisions

Major cities of Greater China

People's Republic of China Direct-controlled municipalities Beijing · Chongqing · Shanghai · Tianjin Sub-provincial cities Changchun · Chengdu · Dalian · Guangzhou · Hangzhou  · Jinan · Harbin · Nanjing · Ningbo · Qingdao · Shenyang · Shenzhen · Wuhan · Xi'an · Xiamen Provincial capitals (not included above) Changsha · Fuzhou · Guiyang · Haikou · Hefei · Hohhot · Lanzhou · Lhasa · Nanchang · Nanning · Shijiazhuang · Taiyuan · Ürümqi · Xining · Yinchuan · Zhengzhou  · Kunming Special administrative regions Hong Kong · Macau Republic of China (Taiwan) Direct-controlled municipalities Kaohsiung · Taipei

Coordinates: 28°41′N, 115°53′E

Donate to Wikimedia