12th May 2012
Nanchang, China 155.0 mm
Nanchang (
Chinese: 南昌;
pinyin:
Nánchāng) is the capital of
Jiangxi Province in southeastern
China. It is located in the north-central portion of the province. As it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east by
Poyang Lake, it is famous for its scenery, rich history and cultural sites. Owing to its central location relative to the
Yangtze and
Pearl River Delta regions, it is a major railroad hub in Southern China.
History
The modern Jiangxi area – including Nanchang – was first incorporated into Chinese territory during the
Qin dynasty, when it was conquered from the
Baiyue peoples and organized as Jiujiang Commandery (
Chinese: 九江郡).
[1] In 201 BC, during the
Han dynasty, the city was given the Chinese name Nanchang and became the administrative seat of Yuzhang Commandery (
Chinese: 豫章郡), and was governed by Guan Ying (
Chinese: 灌嬰), one of
Emperor Gaozu of Han's generals.
[1] The name Nanchang means "southern flourishing", and is from a motto of developing what is now southern China that is traditionally attributed to Emperor Gaozu himself.
[1]
In AD 589, during the
Sui dynasty, this
commandery was changed into a prefecture named Hongzhou (
Chinese: 洪州), 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, the
Tengwang Pavilion was constructed. In 675,
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 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.
During the reign of the
Wanli Emperor of the Ming dynasty, it housed relatives of the emperor who had been exiled because they were potential claimants of the imperial throne, members of the imperial family constituting about one quarter of the city's population; as a result of this,
Matteo Ricci came here when trying to gain entry to Beijing.
[2]
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.
Geography and climate
Nanchang is located 130 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[disambiguation needed 
] and some 40 km southwest of its discharge into
Poyang Lake.
Nanchang has a
monsoon-influenced
humid subtropical climate (
Koppen Cfa) with four distinct seasons. Winters are short and cool with occasional frosts; snow is not unheard of but heavy falls are otherwise rare. Summer is long and humid, with amongst the highest temperatures in China. Rain is greatest from March to June, and least in fall and early winter. Monthly averages in the city range from 5.3 °C (41.5 °F) in January to 29.2 °C (84.6 °F) in July, with an annual mean of 17.6 °C (63.7 °F).
| [hide]Climate data for Nanchang (1971-2000) |
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 8.7
(47.7) | 10.4
(50.7) | 14.6
(58.3) | 21.2
(70.2) | 26.3
(79.3) | 29.4
(84.9) | 33.4
(92.1) | 33.0
(91.4) | 28.7
(83.7) | 23.7
(74.7) | 17.6
(63.7) | 12.1
(53.8) | 21.6
(70.9) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 2.7
(36.9) | 4.4
(39.9) | 8.2
(46.8) | 14.3
(57.7) | 19.2
(66.6) | 22.8
(73.0) | 25.8
(78.4) | 25.6
(78.1) | 21.6
(70.9) | 16.3
(61.3) | 10.1
(50.2) | 4.6
(40.3) | 14.6
(58.3) |
| Precipitation mm (inches) | 74.0
(2.913) | 100.7
(3.965) | 175.6
(6.913) | 223.8
(8.811) | 243.8
(9.598) | 306.7
(12.075) | 144.0
(5.669) | 128.9
(5.075) | 68.7
(2.705) | 59.7
(2.35) | 56.8
(2.236) | 41.5
(1.634) | 1,624.4
(63.953) |
| % humidity | 77 | 78 | 81 | 81 | 80 | 83 | 77 | 77 | 77 | 73 | 72 | 70 | 77.2 |
| Avg. precipitation days (≥ 0.1 mm) | 13.0 | 13.2 | 18.0 | 17.7 | 16.6 | 15.5 | 10.8 | 10.3 | 7.7 | 8.8 | 7.9 | 7.8 | 147.3 |
| Mean monthly sunshine hours | 91.9 | 83.7 | 85.2 | 114.4 | 151.1 | 160.2 | 248.7 | 243.2 | 185.8 | 167.0 | 147.5 | 141.7 | 1,820.4 |
Source: 中国气象局 国家气象信息中心 |
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