Nanjing is one of my very favourite cities in China and, unfortunately, a place that many people simply don’t bother visiting. I wrote this article for Jumeirah Magazine about why you should give Nanjing a chance. Nanjing is one of China’s most historically important cities. While many travellers to China merely pass through, or don’t visit at all, Nanjing’s abundance of historical sites, contrasted against a modern city that it continually developing and looking forward, makes it well worth a few days’ visit. Over thousands of years, Nanjing, the stately capital of China’s eastern province of Jiangsu, has witnessed events that have shaped modern China and influenced how the Chinese see themselves.
Nanjing’s name literally means ‘Southern Capital’ and the city, formerly called Nanking in the west, has served as the capital for various Chinese dynasties, kingdoms and republican governments. Thanks to its position on the banks of the Yangtze River, which allowed for trade and easy travel, Nanjing has been important since the earliest of times – there is evidence of an impressive walled city dating from 600 BC. In 1368 the first emperor of the Chinese Ming imperial dynasty established the city as the capital of all China, a title it would hold for almost 300 years. While the Qing dynasty subsequently shifted the capital to Beijing it was in Nanjing that the Treaty of Nanking was signed. The 1842 treaty, which relinquished Hong Kong to the British, caused national embarrassment and significantly weakened the Qing emperors. In 1912, following the overthrow of the Qing emperors, Nanjing briefly became the provisional capital of the new Republic of China, with Sun Yatsen as its first president.
In 1937, violence defined the city when invading Japanese soldiers murdered an estimated 300,000 civilians. The sitting Kuomintang government fled the Japanese advance, although after Japan’s surrender, and the government’s subsequent return, Nanjing capital status was briefly reinstated. After four years of civil war, however, in 1949 the Communists chose to abandon Nanjing as capital and moved to Beijing to establish the People’s Republic of China’s first government. But it’s not all about looking back. As with most major Chinese cities, Nanjing has its eye firmly on the future, developing its infrastructure and economy at a wild pace, creating an affluent, modern metropolis that’s easy to navigate despite its huge size. Places to visit:
- Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre
- Sun Yatsen Mausoleum
- Defensive city walls
- Fuzi Miao
- Shanghai Road
- Chocolatini
- Jumeirah Nanjing
- Librairie Avant-Garde
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