NANCHANG

'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' () 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].

Contents

Economics

History

Colleges and universities

Transportation

External links

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

As the capital and metropolis of the province, Nanchang saw the province reaching its peak in the education of Ancient China. While in the 20th century, Nanchang and the province itself was forgotten. The only modestly good university that ever existed in Nanchang is the National Chung Cheng University(Simplified Chinese: 国立中正大学, ''Pinyin'': Guoli Zhongzheng Daxue), which is later closed by the Communist government after KMT retreated to Taiwan. Another university under the same name was established in Chia-yi, Taiwan by in Jul. 1, 1986.

★ 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