Nanchang

Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi Province in southeastern China. Nanchang is famous for its scenic lakes, mountains, rich history and cultural sites.

Geography and Climate
Nanchang is located 60 km south of the Yangtze River and is situated on the right bank of the Gan River just below its confluence with the Jin River and some 40 km south of its discharge into Poyang Lake.

Nanchang has a humid subtropical climate with four distinct seasons. Winters are short and fairly mild (average high in January is 9 degrees C or 48F), but with occasional frosts and snow is not unheard of. Summer is long and humid, with amongst the highest temperatures in China (average 34C or 93F in July). Rain falls throughout the year, but is heavier in the summer months.

History
The city, called Gan, was founded and first walled in 201 BC (during the early Han dynasty), when the county town was given the name Nanchang. It was also the administrative seat of a commandery, Yuzhang. In 589 (during the Sui dynasty) this commandery was changed into a prefecture named Hongzhou, and after 763 it became the provincial center of Jiangxi, which was then beginning the rapid growth that by the 12th century made it the most populous province in China.

In 653 AD, the Tengwang Pavilion was constructed. In 675 AD, Wang Bo 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 masterpiece. 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 the Chinese Civil War.

In 959, under the Southern Tang regime, it became Nanchang superior prefecture and also the southern capital. After the conquest by the Song regime in 981 it reverted to the name Hongzhou. In 1164 it was renamed Longxing superior prefecture, which name it retained until 1368. At the end of the Yuan (Mongol) period (1279 - 1368), it became a battleground between Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644), and the rival local warlord, Chen Youliang. At the beginning of the 16th century it was the power base from which Zhu Chenhao, the prince of Ning, launched a rebellion against the Ming regime.

In the 1850s it suffered considerably as a result of the Taiping Rebellion (1850 - 64)and its importance as a commercial center declined as the overland routes to Canton were replaced by coastal steamship services in the latter half of the 19th century. Nanchang has, however, remained the undisputed regional metropolis of Jiangxi.

On August 1, 1927, Nanchang was the site of one of a series of insurrections organized by the Chinese Communist Party. The Nanchang Uprising, led by pro-communist Kuomintang officers under Russian direction, succeeded in holding the city for only a few days, and provided a core of troops and a method of organization from which the People's Liberation Army (PLA) later developed.

In 1939, the Battle of Nanchang, a ferocious battle between the Chinese National Revolutionary Army and the Japanese Imperial Japanese Army in the Second Sino-Japanese War took place.

In 1949 Nanchang was still essentially an old-style administrative and commercial city, with little industry apart from food processing; it had a population of about 275,000. Nanchang first acquired a rail connection in 1915, when the line to Jiujiang, a port on the Yangtze River, was opened. Several other rail links have since been opened. After World War II a line was completed to Linchuan and Gongqi in the Ru River Valley to the south-southeast.

Since 1949 Nanchang has been extensively industrialized. It is now a large-scale producer of cotton textiles and cotton yarn. Papermaking is also a large industry, as is food processing (especially rice milling). Heavy industry began to be important in the mid-1950s. A large thermal-power plant was installed and uses coal brought by rail from Fengcheng, to the south. A machinery industry also grew up, at first mainly concentrating on the production of agricultural equipment and diesel engines. Nanchang then became a center of the automotive industry, producing trucks and tractors and also such equipment as tires. An iron-smelting plant helping to supply local industry was installed in the later 1950s. There is also a large chemical industry, producing agricultural chemicals and insecticides as well as pharmaceuticals.

Landmarks
The Pavilion of Prince Teng is a building in the north west of the city of Nanchang, in Jiangxi province, China.  The Star of Nanchang Ferris WheelNanchang is known for: The Tengwang Pavilion, a towering pavilion dating to 653,on the east bank of the Gan River and is one of "the Four Great Towers of China"

Poyang Lake, the largest fresh water lake in China, it is also called "the Migrator Birds Paradise". It is also home to the Star of Nanchang, which was the world's tallest Ferris wheel from 2006-2008. The Jiangxi Provincial Museum and Bada Shanren Exhibition Hall.