Nanjing History

Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province in eastern China, is an ancient city having 2,470 years of history, during which there were ten imperial ruling dynasties that established their capital here. The accumulated number of years as a capital city is about 450. According to the newest archeological findings, people were first lived in Nanjing area about 300,000 years ago, and 6000 – 4000 BC, there were primitive tribes living.

In 472 BC, an emperor of the ancient Yue State ordered to build a great city wall near the nowadays Zhonghuamen Gate and architected the new capital city along Qinhuai River. In 333 BC, Chu State built a town on the hillside located west of Qingliang Mountain, called Jinling (金陵), an old name for Nanjing.

229 AD, Wu State from the Three Kingdoms Period moved its capital to Jianye (建业), another old name of the city. After the Sui Dynasty (581 – 618 AD), the Eastern Jin and Song, Qi, Liang and Chen of the Southern Dynasty era had founded their capital in Nanjing, where situated in the northern bank of Qinhuai River. The total population was estimated about one million, thus Nanjing became the political, economic and cultural center in the region of the lower reaches of Yangtze River. The Sui eliminated Chen by war, and brutally demolished Nanjing, where to be for agricultural use then. During the Five Dynasties and Ten States Period, the Southern Tang made Nanjing as its capital, and the city was to be prosperous again. At that time the layout of Nanjing was that the busiest business and most populous areas were established closely within the downtown zone. Zhonghua Road today was the middle line of the ancient Southern Tang's capital.

The first emperor of the Ming Dynasty captured Nanjing in 1356. Since 1366, he decreed his army and subjects to do a gigantic project to build a grand Nanjing Capital City. It took 21 years to complete. This project has settled the main designs of modern Nanjing. In mid-nineteenth century, the rebellious Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's capital was here too, called the Heavenly Capital.

On January First, 1912, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's accession as the Temporary Grand President of the Republic of China was in Nanjing. In 1927, Nanjing became the nation's capital. Traffic infrastructure had been built since then, thus the framework of the city that today we see had been made. During the Anti-Japanese War, the city was seriously damaged by heavy battles and brutal sabotages. The liberation of Nanjing in April 1949 has marked a dawn of new and development age for the heroic city, and today Nanjing is one of the big cities in eastern China.