Nanjing

Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu province in East China, on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the Yangtze River Delta economic region. The city's census population was 9,341,685 in 2020, and annual statistics put its resident population at about 9.6 million by 2025. It is a sub-provincial city with eleven districts and an administrative area of roughly 6,600 square kilometres. Its economy is among the largest of any Chinese city, and it is one of the country's most important centres of higher education and scientific research.

Nanjing's historical weight comes from its role as a capital. It served as the seat of several regimes, including the Six Dynasties of the Three Kingdoms era and the Ming dynasty in its early period (Ming dynasty), and it was the national capital of the Republic of China from 1927 to 1937. The city's surviving walls, imperial tombs and republican-era monuments make it one of the most historically layered urban centres in China. Its modern history also includes the 1842 treaty that ended the First Opium War, the Taiping capital established in 1853, and the Japanese occupation beginning in December 1937, which is documented as the Nanjing Massacre.

This entry covers Nanjing's name and physical setting, its political and administrative status, and its history from early settlements through imperial, republican, wartime and socialist periods. It then addresses the contemporary city: its economy, planning and transport, education and research, demography and language, cultural heritage, environmental challenges and international ties.

Names and origins

Nanjing (南京, Nánjīng) means “southern capital”: the two Chinese characters denote “south” and “capital.” The designation belongs to the city’s later political history, rather than to its earliest settlement. Nanjing’s municipal historical account dates its formal adoption to 1368, when Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming dynasty at Yingtian, the prefecture encompassing the city. Earlier names—including Yecheng, Jinling, Moling, Jianye and Jiankang—referred to settlements or administrative centres whose locations and boundaries were not identical. They should therefore not be treated simply as successive labels for an unchanged urban area. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Different foundation dates reflect different definitions of the city’s beginnings. One tradition places the construction of Yecheng (冶城), associated with metalworking near the present Chaotian Palace, around 495 BCE, during the late Spring and Autumn period, and attributes it to Fuchai, king of Wu. This is a traditional attribution, not a securely established archaeological date for the foundation of the whole city. Another chronology begins with Yuecheng (越城), a fort south of the later Zhonghua Gate, conventionally dated to 472 BCE and associated with King Goujian of Yue and his minister Fan Li. The date 333 BCE, in the Warring States period, instead marks the establishment by Chu of Jinling Yi (金陵邑), a fortified administrative settlement around present-day Qingliang Hill. Thus, the Yecheng tradition concerns an early fortified industrial settlement, whereas the Jinling date concerns the establishment of a named administrative centre. Neither necessarily dates the first human occupation of the area. (tb.nanjing.gov.cn)

Jinling (金陵), literally “gold mound” or “gold hill,” became one of the city’s enduring historical names. Under the Qin dynasty, the settlement was called Moling (秣陵), whose first character denotes animal fodder. Sun Quan renamed Moling Jianye (建業) in 212 CE, expressing the ambition to establish a great enterprise; in 229 it became the capital of Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period. After changes under the Western Jin, the name was written 建鄴, also romanized Jianye. In 313 it became Jiankang (建康) to avoid the personal name of Emperor Min, Sima Ye (司馬鄴), under the imperial naming taboo. Jiankang subsequently designated the capital of the Eastern Jin and successive southern dynasties. (chinaheritage.net)

Later names similarly recorded changes in political standing. Jiangning (江寧) served as an administrative name in several periods, while Yingtian (應天), meaning “responding to Heaven,” was the prefectural designation associated with the Ming founding. After the imperial court moved to Beijing in 1421, Nanjing remained a secondary capital: “southern capital” now distinguished it from the principal northern seat of government. Under the Qing dynasty, Jiangning again became the official administrative name, although foreign writers continued to use Nanking. During the Taiping Rebellion, the city was renamed Tianjing (天京), “heavenly capital,” after its capture in 1853. (ora.ox.ac.uk)

Nanking is a historical Roman-letter spelling of 南京, not a separate Chinese name. It appears extensively in older Western publications, including the Encyclopædia Britannica, and survives in the conventional English title “Treaty of Nanking.” Signed aboard HMS Cornwallis on 29 August 1842, that treaty ended the First Opium War; its English text explicitly records the place of signature as “Nanking.” Modern Nanjing represents the name in Hanyu Pinyin, while the older spelling remains appropriate when reproducing historical titles and documents. (britannica11.org)

Geography and climate

Nanjing lies in eastern China, on the lower Yangtze River at the western side of the Yangtze Delta region. Its historic urban core occupies the southern bank, although the modern municipality extends across both banks. The municipal territory is elongated north–south, extending approximately 150 kilometres, and combines low hills, gently rolling uplands, river valleys and alluvial lowlands rather than forming a uniformly flat delta landscape. The Ningzhen hills south of the Yangtze and the Laoshan hills north of it cross the central part of the municipality. (tb.nanjing.gov.cn)

The Qinhuai River and Xuanwu Lake define important edges of the old city. The Qinhuai approaches from the southeast and divides into waterways passing through and around the historic centre before joining the Yangtze; its inner channel runs through the Confucius Temple area, while the outer channel follows part of the former defensive perimeter. Xuanwu Lake lies beside the northeastern city wall, with Purple Mountain farther east. These waters served both drainage and defence: the eastern and western water gates incorporated into the Ming walls regulated the Qinhuai’s passage through the city while maintaining a fortified boundary. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Purple Mountain, also called Zijin Shan or Zhongshan, rises to approximately 448 metres east of the urban core. Lower ridges and hills extend into the city, including Jiuhua Hill, Jilong Hill and Qingliang Hill; Mufu Hill and Qixia Hill mark another ridge nearer the Yangtze. This broken terrain helped shape the city’s defensive lines rather than permitting a simple rectangular enclosure. Along Xuanwu Lake, for example, the surviving wall follows the contours of the landscape, linking elevated ground with the lakeside barrier. The detailed construction history of these fortifications belongs to the city’s Ming-period development. (zschina.nanjing.gov.cn)

Nanjing has a humid subtropical climate, strongly influenced by the East Asian monsoon, with hot, humid summers, cool winters and relatively short spring and autumn transitions. The municipal climate overview reports average January and July temperatures of 3.1 °C and 28.4 °C respectively, annual precipitation of approximately 1,144 millimetres, and about 113 precipitation days. Northeasterly winds predominate in winter and southeasterly winds in summer. Cold spells can bring freezing temperatures: the recorded minimum at the Nanjing station was −14.0 °C on 6 January 1955. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Rainfall is especially pronounced during the early-summer meiyu, or “plum rain”, season, generally in late June and early July. The rain belt develops where warm, moisture-bearing air meets cooler air along the northern margin of the western Pacific subtropical high; repeated frontal activity can produce prolonged wet weather. Rainfall nevertheless varies considerably between years. In 2024, the municipal statistical yearbook recorded 1,501.5 millimetres, including 276.0 millimetres in June and 266.4 millimetres in July—together more than one-third of that year’s total. (tb.nanjing.gov.cn)

The Yangtze’s floodplain and water-rich soft soils create constraints distinct from those of the hills. High river levels can obstruct drainage or drive water back into connected channels, making low-lying development dependent on embankments and controlled outlets. The riverbed is also mobile: research using underwater topographic surveys from 1958–2003 identified a shift from net deposition towards erosion in the Jiangsu reach around 1985 as upstream sediment supply declined. Both flood levels and changing channel morphology therefore affect the stability and use of Nanjing’s riverfront land, navigation channels and waterfront infrastructure. (tb.nanjing.gov.cn)

Administrative status and governance

Nanjing is the capital of Jiangsu province and a sub-provincial city, a status assigned in February 1994. This designation concerns the administrative rank of its leadership and institutions; it does not make Nanjing a province-level municipality like Beijing or Shanghai. Its economic-management arrangements developed through an earlier reform: in 1990, Nanjing entered the system of separately listed state planning and received economic-management powers comparable to those of a province. Separate planning for provincial capitals was discontinued in 1993, before the introduction of sub-provincial status. Nanjing remains within Jiangsu’s provincial administrative structure rather than exercising an unrestricted set of provincial powers. (cnr.cn)

At the end of 2025, the municipality comprised eleven districts: Xuanwu, Qinhuai, Jianye, Gulou, Qixia, Yuhuatai, Jiangning, Pukou, Luhe, Lishui and Gaochun. These districts constitute its county-level territorial divisions; there are no separately administered counties or county-level cities. Below them were 95 subdistricts and six towns, with 935 urban communities and 322 rural communities. The municipal territory therefore extends well beyond the central built-up city. Xuanwu, Qinhuai, Jianye and Gulou form a particularly important central grouping: their 2021–2035 spatial subdivision plans received municipal approval by March 2025, whereas the provincial government approved the territorial spatial master plans for the other seven districts. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Political leadership is exercised by the Nanjing Municipal Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and its Standing Committee. Official leadership listings available in September 2026 identify Zhou Hongbo as municipal Party secretary and Li Zhongjun as deputy Party secretary and mayor. Standing Committee meetings establish priorities and coordinate implementation of central and Jiangsu provincial Party decisions. For example, the joint meeting of the Standing Committee and municipal Financial and Economic Affairs Commission on 17 July 2026 reviewed the first-half economic situation and directed subsequent economic work. The Municipal People’s Government, headed by the mayor, administers departments and implements plans, budgets and public-service responsibilities, including education, public health, urban construction and environmental protection. Li was elected mayor by the municipal people’s congress on 24 January 2026. (nanjing.gov.cn)

The Nanjing Municipal People’s Congress and its Standing Committee perform legislative, appointment and supervisory functions. The congress approves the municipal development plan and budget; its Standing Committee conducts continuing oversight between plenary sessions. Municipal local regulations require approval by the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress Standing Committee before taking effect, providing a formal link between municipal lawmaking and provincial authority. Lü Deming was identified as chairman of the municipal Standing Committee in its January 2026 work report. That report recorded eight Standing Committee meetings during 2025, the adoption or amendment of five local regulations, and consideration of 30 special or financial oversight reports concerning the government, supervisory commission, courts, procuratorate and related public administration. (npc.gov.cn)

The municipal committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference provides political consultation and submits proposals rather than enacting legislation or administering departments. Zhang Baojuan was elected its chairwoman on 24 January 2026. Its proposal-handling mechanisms include assigning important proposals to conference leaders for follow-up and coordinating municipal and district-level consideration; the chairpersons’ meeting of 30 March 2026 allocated these responsibilities for that year. (zx.nanjing.gov.cn)

Special development-area administration operates alongside the district structure. Jiangbei New Area, approved by the State Council in 2015, is not a twelfth district. Its administrative framework authorizes a management committee to exercise delegated provincial, municipal and district-level powers in its directly administered area, including economic management, urban construction and social affairs. Under the framework explained in 2018, people’s congress, consultative conference, court and procuratorate responsibilities remained with Pukou and Luhe according to territorial jurisdiction. This separates delegated development-area administration from the municipality’s formal district divisions. (njna.nanjing.gov.cn)

Early history to the Six Dynasties

The Nanjing area lay within the territory of Wu during the Spring and Autumn period and subsequently passed through Yue into the sphere of Chu. Local historical accounts associate the establishment of Jinling with Chu’s expansion during the Warring States period, traditionally dating a fortified administrative settlement on Stone Mountain, now Qingliang Hill, to 333 BCE. This settlement occupied a different site from the county seat of Moling farther south. Under the Qin dynasty, the area was incorporated into the commandery-and-county system; during the Han dynasty, Moling belonged to Danyang Commandery. These arrangements placed the settlements within a larger regional administration rather than giving them the status of a capital. (nanjing.gov.cn)

The decisive transformation began under Sun Quan during the late Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms periods. He transferred his headquarters from Jingkou, present-day Zhenjiang, to Moling in 211 CE, renamed it Jianye in 212, and built the Stone City fortress on the former Jinling site. After proclaiming himself emperor at Wuchang, present-day Ezhou, in April 229, he moved his court to Jianye in September. The city thus became the capital of Eastern Wu, although the court briefly returned to Wuchang in 265–266. Its position beside the Yangtze River combined a defensive barrier with access to the resources and transport networks of the lower Yangtze region. (dfz.nanjing.gov.cn)

Capital construction produced a differentiated urban landscape. The imperial precinct stood toward the northern part of the city, while residential and commercial quarters developed along the Qinhuai River. The Qingxi canal, excavated in 241, served both transport and defensive purposes and connected with other urban waterways. Large-scale palace construction included the rebuilding of Taichu Palace in 247; metalworking workshops occupied the Yecheng area near present-day Chaotian Palace. These projects connected court administration, military installations, manufacturing and river commerce within the expanding capital. Wu’s conquest by the Western Jin in 280 interrupted its role as an imperial seat. (dfz.nanjing.gov.cn)

Renamed Jiankang in 313 to avoid the personal name of Emperor Min of Jin, the city became a refuge for people displaced by warfare in northern China. Sima Rui established the Eastern Jin regime there in 317 and assumed the imperial title in 318. Northern emigrant families, notably the Wang of Langya and Xie of Chen Commandery, occupied leading offices and accumulated extensive landed property. Their political influence made aristocratic lineage a central feature of the southern court. The Wang and Xie residential quarters south of the Qinhuai were associated with Wuyi Lane, which later literature remembered as an emblem of aristocratic Jiankang. (en.wikipedia.org)

The Six Dynasties associated with the city were Eastern Wu, Eastern Jin (317–420), Liu Song (420–479), Southern Qi (479–502), Liang (502–557) and Chen (557–589); Liu Song was distinct from the later Song dynasty. Their courts supported religious and literary institutions. Buddhism gained patrons among imperial and aristocratic households, while learned monks participated in the capital’s intellectual life. Emperor Wu of Liang, who ruled from 502 to 549, repeatedly offered himself to monastic service at Tongtai Temple, prompting courtiers to redeem him through substantial donations. His son, Crown Prince Xiao Tong (501–531), assembled scholars who compiled the Wen xuan in the 520s, organizing exemplary poetry and prose by literary genre. (unvis.it)

Warfare eventually undermined the capital’s institutions. Hou Jing’s rebellion culminated in the capture of Jiankang in 549 after a prolonged siege, bringing severe destruction and starvation. The Chen dynasty subsequently maintained its court there until the Sui conquest in 589. Following that conquest, Emperor Wen ordered the destruction of the former capital, ending the sequence of southern courts based at the site. (en.wikipedia.org)

Southern Tang, Ming founding and the early Ming capital

In 937, three decades after the collapse of the Tang dynasty, Li Bian, previously known as Xu Zhigao, replaced the Wu ruler and established the Southern Tang, with its capital at Jiangning, present-day Nanjing. The capital’s development involved enlarging and remodelling fortifications inherited from Wu rather than constructing an entirely new city. Its walls enclosed residential districts on both banks of the Qinhuai River, shifting the fortified urban centre southward and westward from the earlier Jiankang layout. This enclosure subsequently provided the basis for the southern portion of the Ming capital. Jiangning’s renewed role as a royal seat ended with the Southern Tang’s conquest by the Song dynasty in 975. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Zhu Yuanzhang established himself in Nanjing in 1356 and used the city as his base during the wars preceding the foundation of the Ming dynasty. In 1368 he proclaimed himself emperor there, adopting the reign title Hongwu and making the city the imperial capital. Under the Hongwu Emperor, the capital combined an imperial palace, government offices and extensive defensive works. The palace became the setting for enthronements, imperial administration and the palace stage of the civil-service examinations. Its surviving remains, including the Meridian Gate foundations and stone architectural elements, mark the location of the early Ming court within the modern city. (wlj.nanjing.gov.cn)

The fortification programme began in 1366, before the dynasty’s proclamation, and continued through successive phases of construction during Hongwu’s reign. It produced four enclosing systems: the palace city, imperial city, capital city and outer enclosure. Unlike a strictly rectangular planned capital, Nanjing’s main wall followed the surrounding hills and waterways; it had thirteen land gates and two large water gates. Approximately 25.1 kilometres of the capital-city wall survive. Construction also depended on an extensive system of labour obligations and accountable brick production. Brick inscriptions recorded places of origin, supervising officials and individual makers. Obligations could extend to religious institutions: Tianjie Temple supplied brickmaking labour according to its landholding until Hongwu granted an exemption in 1383. (wlj.nanjing.gov.cn)

Construction of the Xiaoling Mausoleum began in 1381 on the southern slopes of Purple Mountain, under the supervision of Li Xin. Empress Ma was buried there in 1382, followed by Hongwu in 1398; associated works continued until 1405 under his son, the Yongle Emperor. The complex joined a ceremonial approach, or Sacred Way, to the principal burial precinct, with monumental gateways, stone figures and an enclosed burial mound. Yongle commissioned a commemorative stele for his father in 1405. Xiaoling therefore remained an important site of dynastic commemoration even after the imperial court ceased to reside permanently in Nanjing. (en.chinaculture.org)

The Yongle Emperor transferred the principal imperial capital to Beijing in 1421, following a prolonged programme of palace construction and administrative preparation in the north. Nanjing nevertheless retained the status of a secondary capital rather than becoming an ordinary provincial city. It preserved a parallel establishment of the Six Ministries—Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice and Works—alongside other metropolitan offices, although their staffing and authority differed from those of the principal government in Beijing. This institutional arrangement continued through the remaining Ming period, maintaining Nanjing’s administrative importance as well as its connection to the dynasty’s founding emperor and ancestral monuments. (wwj.beijing.gov.cn)

Qing era and the Taiping Kingdom

In 1645, troops of the Qing dynasty under the Manchu prince Dodo secured Nanjing’s surrender, ending the short-lived Southern Ming court established there in 1644. The Qing replaced Yingtian Prefecture with Jiangning Prefecture and incorporated the former southern metropolitan province into Jiangnan Province. The division of Jiangnan into Jiangsu and Anhui in 1667 did not eliminate Jiangning’s regional importance: the city became the seat of the Liangjiang governor-general, whose jurisdiction encompassed Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi. It thus lost its remaining imperial-capital institutions while retaining a major role in provincial government and regional administration. (en.wikipedia.org)

Imperial patronage connected Jiangning’s textile production and scholarly culture directly to the Qing court. The Jiangning Imperial Silk Manufacturing Bureau produced fabrics for imperial and official use; its superintendent Cao Yin, who held office from 1692 to 1712, also supplied the Kangxi Emperor with information about regional affairs. Cao Yin and his brother-in-law Li Xu, superintendent of the Suzhou silk establishment, helped arrange four of Kangxi’s six southern tours and patronized scholars and cultural projects. These institutions linked specialized manufacturing, official expenditure and literary networks. Later, the Qianlong Emperor’s visits between 1751 and 1784 reshaped the city’s ceremonial landscape through imperial inscriptions and the appropriation of sites already celebrated in local poetry. (knowledge.uchicago.edu)

The Treaty of Nanking, signed aboard HMS Cornwallis on 29 August 1842, ended the First Opium War. Its provisions permitted British merchants and their families to reside and trade at Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai, ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain, and abolished the requirement that British merchants deal exclusively with the licensed Cohong merchants. China undertook to pay 21 million dollars: 6 million for surrendered opium, 3 million for merchant debts and 12 million for British military expenses. Although Nanjing supplied the treaty’s name and signing location, it was not one of the five ports opened by the agreement. Article XII made British withdrawal from Nanking and the Grand Canal conditional on imperial assent and payment of the first instalment. (china.usc.edu)

On 19 March 1853, forces of the Taiping Rebellion broke through Nanjing’s walls. Hong Xiuquan’s Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made the city its capital and renamed it Tianjing, meaning “Heavenly Capital”; it remained the regime’s seat for eleven years. The capture transformed the city’s political and religious institutions and brought extensive violence. The local scholar Wang Shiduo recorded that, two days after the breach, soldiers compelled him to carry battlefield corpses to the Qinhuai River. Tianjing also became a centre for the regime’s reform proposals: the Land System of the Heavenly Dynasty, issued in 1853, prescribed equal land allotments for men and women, while Hong Rengan’s New Treatise on Aids to Administration, presented in 1859, proposed changes to government and economic organization. These programmes expressed the regime’s ambitions rather than documenting their comprehensive implementation. (jstor.org)

Qing forces recaptured Tianjing on 19 July 1864. Soldiers of the Hunan, or Xiang, Army under Zeng Guoquan, brother of Zeng Guofan, entered after a mine destroyed approximately 200 feet of the city wall. They plundered palaces and treasuries and killed inhabitants identified with the rebels; fires burned for five days. Warfare, killing and displacement devastated the city and surrounding region, although postwar population figures in local gazetteers require caution because their registration units and coverage differed. Reconstruction included the restoration of Qing educational institutions: by December 1864, provincial civil-service examinations had resumed in Jiangning, and Zeng Guofan undertook the rebuilding of its official academy as part of regional recovery. (jstor.org)

Republican capital, 1912–1937

Following the 1911 revolution, Sun Yat-sen took office in Nanjing as provisional president of the Republic of China on 1 January 1912. The city housed the provisional government and senate, but its initial tenure as the republican capital lasted only a few months. Negotiations over the abdication of the Qing emperor transferred the presidency to Yuan Shikai, who was inaugurated in Beijing on 10 March 1912; the central government subsequently operated there rather than in Nanjing. The establishment of the republic nevertheless gave Nanjing a political association that the later Nationalist government invoked when restoring its capital status. (mofa.go.jp)

On 18 April 1927, Chiang Kai-shek established the Nationalist government in Nanjing, beginning the period conventionally called the “Nanjing decade.” Capital status also changed the city's administrative relationship with Jiangsu. A municipal administration was established on 24 April, and on 6 June Nanjing became a special municipality directly subordinate to the national government. In February 1929, the provincial capital of Jiangsu moved to Zhenjiang, separating provincial administration from the national capital's municipal apparatus. Ministries, national institutions and their employees consequently became important components of the city's development during 1927–1937. (nanjing.gov.cn)

The National Capital Reconstruction Commission issued its Capital Plan on 31 December 1929. Prepared with American architectural adviser Henry Killam Murphy, the programme combined functional zoning, transport improvements and infrastructure provision with a monumental conception of the capital. Its proposed government centre employed the axial arrangements and formal composition associated with Beaux-Arts planning, while Murphy advocated adapting Chinese architectural forms to modern buildings. The plan was broader than the construction actually completed: individual ministries and public facilities emerged without realization of the entire proposed government quarter. One major implemented intervention was Zhongshan Avenue, originally laid out from 1928 as a ceremonial route for transporting Sun's coffin from the river landing towards Purple Mountain. Its subsequent division into Zhongshan North Road, Zhongshan Road and Zhongshan East Road helped organize the modern street network. (chinaheritage.net)

The Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, designed by Lü Yanzhi, provided the principal commemorative focus. Construction began in January 1926, the main buildings were completed in spring 1929, and Sun was interred on 1 June that year. An ascending sequence of gateways, a stele pavilion and a sacrificial hall linked the approach to the burial chamber; white stone, reinforced concrete and blue glazed roof tiles combined traditional architectural references with modern construction. Other projects used less monumental treatments. The Foreign Ministry building, redesigned in 1932 by Zhao Shen, Tong Jun and Chen Zhi, incorporated simplified Chinese decorative elements into a modern office block. The National Assembly Hall, completed in 1936 to Xi Fuquan's design, combined an assembly venue with a theatre and used a simplified, modernist exterior. (zschina.nanjing.gov.cn)

National administration developed alongside these buildings. The Examination Yuan began operating in Nanjing on 6 January 1930, with subordinate bodies responsible for examinations and civil-service personnel administration; the government's first civil-service examination followed in 1931. Legal codification included the Criminal Code promulgated in March 1928 and effective that September, followed by the revised criminal and criminal-procedure codes effective on 1 July 1935. These institutions made the capital a centre for personnel selection, legal drafting and the organization of the national judiciary. (exam.gov.tw)

The expansion of higher education and research likewise reflected capital-building priorities. In 1927, nine public institutions were consolidated into National Fourth Sun Yat-sen University, renamed National Central University in May 1928. Its August 1928 organization comprised eight colleges and forty departments or teaching divisions, including law, engineering, medicine and agriculture. Academia Sinica, formally established on 9 June 1928 under Cai Yuanpei, located its main office in Nanjing and established an astronomical institute there; a natural-history museum followed in 1929. Wartime evacuation disrupted this concentration in 1937: National Central University relocated to Chongqing and resumed classes there in December, while national government agencies also left Nanjing. (dawww.nju.edu.cn)

Japanese occupation and the Nanjing Massacre, 1937–1945

Japanese forces captured Nanjing on 13 December 1937 during the Second Sino-Japanese War, following their advance from Shanghai. The fall of the Nationalist capital was followed by the Nanjing Massacre, also known in older English-language accounts as the Rape of Nanking. During the ensuing weeks, Japanese troops killed civilians and disarmed Chinese soldiers, committed widespread rape, and looted and burned buildings. Soldiers searched for Chinese military personnel among the civilian population, while families outside the refuge area were also attacked. The most concentrated violence is commonly described as lasting six weeks, although atrocities continued into early 1938. These killings were distinct from casualties sustained in the battle for the city. (news.yale.edu)

Foreign residents established the Nanjing Safety Zone before the capture to shelter noncombatants. Its International Committee, chaired by German businessman John Rabe, organized refugee accommodation in an area containing the University of Nanking, Ginling College and other institutional buildings. Approximately 200,000 civilians crowded into the zone, which offered shelter but did not prevent Japanese soldiers from entering and committing abuses. Committee members documented incidents and protested to Japanese representatives: its secretary, Lewis S. C. Smythe, wrote sixty-nine letters to the Japanese embassy between 14 December 1937 and 19 February 1938. American missionary John Magee used a 16-mm camera to record wounded survivors and refugee conditions, producing an important contemporary visual record. (news.yale.edu)

The massacre is documented through survivor testimony, foreign residents’ diaries and correspondence, photographs and film, Japanese military records, and Chinese investigative and judicial material. Estimates of the number killed differ partly because researchers use different geographical boundaries and time periods, and distinguish combat deaths from executions in different ways. David Askew’s review of the scholarship describes estimates of 100,000–200,000 among Japanese historians using a broad geographical definition of Nanjing. The Nanjing tribunal’s 1947 judgment placed the number above 300,000. Neither figure represents a complete register of individually identified victims; destruction, mass graves and incomplete documentation complicate precise enumeration. (apjjf.org)

Nanjing remained under Japanese occupation after the initial atrocities. On 30 March 1940, Wang Jingwei established a Japanese-sponsored National Government in the city, presenting it as a rival to Chiang Kai-shek’s government in Chongqing. Its establishment followed negotiations in which Wang accepted Japanese conditions concerning the stationing of troops and other matters. Occupation continued until Japan’s defeat at the end of the Second World War in 1945. On 9 September 1945, Nanjing hosted the surrender ceremony for the China theatre: Chinese commander He Yingqin accepted the surrender of forces commanded by General Yasuji Okamura at the Central Military Academy. (jacar.go.jp)

Postwar proceedings in Nanjing investigated individual responsibility for the atrocities. The city’s war-crimes tribunal was established on 15 February 1946, with Shi Meiyu as its presiding judge. Its investigation assembled witness statements, photographs, film, burial records and other evidence, and included examinations of burial sites. Lieutenant General Tani Hisao, commander of the Japanese Sixth Division during the capture, was tried in February and March 1947, sentenced to death on 10 March, and executed in Nanjing on 26 April. (dsb.nanjing.gov.cn)

The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall opened on 15 August 1985 at Jiangdongmen, a massacre and burial site, preserving historical materials and excavated human remains. Archival preservation also extends beyond the city: Yale University Library holds papers and visual records from foreign witnesses, while the USC Shoah Foundation partnered with the memorial hall in 2012 to record survivors’ life histories; interviews continued through 2017. In 2015, UNESCO inscribed the “Documents of Nanjing Massacre” collection on its Memory of the World Register. (19371213.com.cn)

Socialist period, 1949–1978

The People’s Liberation Army occupied Nanjing on 23 April 1949 during the Chinese Civil War, several months before the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October. A municipal military control commission was established on 28 April, followed by the municipal people’s government on 10 May, with Liu Bocheng as mayor. Nanjing initially retained centrally administered municipal status. Following the decision to reconstitute Jiangsu province, the provincial people’s government began operating on 1 January 1953, with Nanjing as its capital. The former national capital thus became the headquarters of a provincial administration rather than the seat of the central government. (dsb.nanjing.gov.cn)

Economic restructuring combined state-directed investment with the conversion of private industry and commerce into socialist forms of ownership. During the First Five-Year Plan, covering 1953–1957, municipal planning coordinated production, construction, transport, public utilities and labour allocation. The city’s official historical account records capital-construction investment of 312.02 million yuan, the expansion or modernization of 47 enterprises, and the establishment of more than 90 small enterprises and seven chemical enterprises. Metalworking received 47.5 percent of industrial investment and chemicals 26.2 percent. During his February 1953 visit, Mao Zedong called for Nanjing to become a “production city,” expressing the policy of expanding manufacturing beyond the city’s earlier administrative functions. (dsb.nanjing.gov.cn)

New factories extended the industrial base into the suburbs and across the Yangtze River. Nanjing Iron and Steel Works was founded in 1958 at Dachang on the north bank; its second blast furnace entered production in July 1959. Preparations for the Nanjing refinery also began in April 1958, establishing another component of the suburban heavy-industrial complex. Machinery production included vehicles: the Nanjing automobile works produced its first 2.5-tonne NJ130 light truck in March 1958, following an assignment to adapt the Soviet GAZ-51 design. The vehicle received the brand name Yuejin, meaning “leap forward,” and the works was renamed Nanjing Automobile Manufacturing Factory that June. These projects added steelmaking, petroleum processing and vehicle manufacture to the city’s industrial structure. (yht.nanjing.gov.cn)

The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge was the period’s most prominent infrastructure project. Major construction began on 18 January 1960; its railway deck opened on 30 September 1968 and its road deck on 29 December. The combined road-and-rail crossing connected the two banks and replaced the railway-ferry interruption at Nanjing. Construction required deep-water foundations and the domestic development of suitable high-strength bridge steel. Official accounts presented the bridge as a demonstration of engineering self-reliance, giving it a symbolic role alongside its transport function. (yht.nanjing.gov.cn)

Political campaigns disrupted academic life and cultural preservation. At Nanjing University, the Cultural Revolution brought the dismissal of president Kuang Yaming in June 1966, suspension of classes and subsequent factional violence; clashes in October 1967 injured participants and damaged university property. Cultural losses included the burning, on 26 August 1966, of books remaining at the home of heritage scholar Zhu Xie, although he had already donated the collection to Nanjing Library. Damage to historic fabric also predated the Cultural Revolution: after fatal wall collapses during the 1954 rains, municipal authorities authorized extensive demolition of sections of the old city wall. (historymuseum.nju.edu.cn) Recovery in higher education became tangible in 1977–1978 through the restoration of examination-based admission and graduate recruitment. In April 1978, Nanjing University established an office to review political cases and implement rehabilitation measures for staff who had been wrongly treated. (historymuseum.nju.edu.cn)

Reform era and industrial economy

China’s reform and opening-up programme after 1978 provided the framework for Nanjing’s expansion into foreign-invested manufacturing and technology-intensive industries. A specific institutional change came on 18 March 1988, when the State Council included Nanjing in an enlarged coastal economic opening zone. Development zones subsequently concentrated industrial facilities, investment promotion and business services in designated areas. The Nanjing Economic and Technological Development Zone, established on 18 September 1992, initially organized its activities around industry, bonded warehousing, financial and commercial services, and the nearby port. Jiangning’s development zone was also founded in 1992 and received national-level status in 2010. These zones became important locations for manufacturing investment and specialized industrial clusters. (stats.gov.cn)

The industrial economy combines petrochemicals and established manufacturing with electronics, integrated circuits, pharmaceuticals and advanced equipment. The Nanjing development zone specializes in optoelectronic displays, high-end equipment and biomedicine, while Jiangning’s principal industries include smart-grid equipment, intelligent vehicles and information technology. A major example of foreign direct investment is BASF-YPC, the equal-share joint venture between BASF and Sinopec. Its integrated petrochemical complex began commercial operation in June 2005, following an initial joint investment of US$2.9 billion. The first phase comprised ten process plants centred on a steam cracker with annual ethylene capacity of 600,000 tonnes. Its integrated production system connects upstream and downstream processes to reduce raw-material, energy and logistics costs, illustrating how foreign investment expanded an existing petrochemical base rather than replacing it. (ccpit.nanjing.gov.cn)

Official statistics put Nanjing’s 2025 gross domestic product at CN¥1.942878 trillion, with growth of 5.2% calculated at constant prices. Primary, secondary and tertiary industries contributed CN¥33.850 billion, CN¥587.307 billion and CN¥1.321721 trillion respectively. The yuan total is the appropriate reference figure: a dollar conversion additionally depends on the exchange rate and conversion date, and should not be confused with constant-price economic growth. Services grew by 6.0% and contributed four percentage points to overall GDP growth. Information transmission, software and information-technology services recorded value-added growth of 7.3%, while finance grew by 9.4%, demonstrating the importance of service activities alongside manufacturing. (tjj.nanjing.gov.cn)

Industrial restructuring is also visible in production and investment data. In 2025, value added at industrial enterprises with annual main-business revenue of at least CN¥20 million increased by 5.8%. High-technology industries accounted for 55.2% of these enterprises’ industrial output value. Production of new-energy vehicles, integrated circuits and industrial robots rose by 99.0%, 28.2% and 35.4% respectively. Industrial investment increased by 12.1%, although total fixed-asset investment declined by 4.9%; excluding property-development investment, fixed-asset investment grew by 2.4%. These differing measures distinguish industrial expansion from the performance of the wider investment economy. (tjj.nanjing.gov.cn)

Municipal work reports set prospective benchmarks rather than reporting only completed results. The 2025 programme targeted GDP growth of approximately 5% and total research and development expenditure equivalent to 4% of GDP. The 2026 report set a GDP-growth target above 5% and retail-sales growth of approximately 4.5%. Its foreign-trade programme sought to add more than 300 enterprises with actual trading activity and more than 50 independent cross-border e-commerce websites. Implementation measures included expanding overseas warehousing, supporting green and high-technology exports, and developing exports of biopharmaceutical research, software and cultural services. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Urban structure and planning

Xinjiekou forms the principal commercial centre of the older city, at the intersection of Zhongshan Road, Zhongshan South Road, Hanzhong Road and Zhongshan East Road. Its concentration of department stores, shopping complexes, hotels and office towers overlaps the boundaries of Gulou, Xuanwu and Qinhuai districts. A June 2024 account reported 107 business buildings and nearly 2,000 commercial establishments in the area. Hexi New Town provides a second major centre southwest of the historic core, combining financial offices, residential neighbourhoods, exhibition facilities and public institutions. The municipal financial-development plan for 2021–2025 designated Nanjing Financial City in Hexi as its central cluster, with the Xinjiekou financial-business district and Jiangbei’s new financial centre as complementary concentrations. This arrangement distributes commercial functions among several centres rather than concentrating them entirely within the old city. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Hexi’s development has depended on coordinated land development and public investment. Municipal arrangements established in 2003 placed land-transfer revenue and specified development fees under the new-town construction authority, allowing these funds to support roads, public facilities and other development costs. The construction programme used the Olympic Sports Centre and the 2005 National Games as anchors for a new urban subcentre combining employment, housing, commerce and recreation. Subsequent detailed planning has addressed neighbourhood services as well as large projects: a 2023 municipal response identified 11 residential community-centre sites and 12 smaller neighbourhood-centre sites in southern Hexi, with respective service radii of 500–600 metres and 200–300 metres. These provisions embed everyday facilities within the expanding residential and business districts. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Expansion across the Yangtze River received a major planning framework when the State Council approved Jiangbei New Area on 27 June 2015. Its original planned area covered 788 square kilometres, including parts of Pukou and Liuhe and Baguazhou in Qixia. The designation encompasses existing settlements and industrial zones as well as new development land; it does not describe a single continuously built-up district. Jiangbei’s planning has combined industrial redevelopment with financial, research and residential functions. The municipal territorial spatial plan for 2021–2035 further places development on both riverbanks within a citywide framework, coordinating land-use controls with transport, municipal services and protected open spaces. (nanjing.gov.cn)

High-rise clusters mark these newer centres and parts of the established urban core. The Skyscraper Center database lists 82 completed buildings at least 150 metres tall, including eight reaching 300 metres. Zifeng Tower, completed in 2010 at an architectural height of 450 metres, remains the tallest completed building in the city. Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the mixed-use tower stands near Gulou rather than in Hexi. Its placement preserves east–west viewing corridors along Beijing East Road and relates the complex to the nearby historic drum and bell towers. The distinction between completed buildings and proposed or unfinished projects is important when describing Nanjing’s skyline. (skyscrapercenter.com)

Conservation policy constrains redevelopment within the historic city. The protection framework presented in 2023 covers four historical urban areas and 11 historic neighbourhoods, preserving street alignments inherited from successive periods rather than treating the road network as exclusively Ming-era. It also protects the Republican-period boulevard structure centred on Zhongshan North Road, Zhongshan Road and Zhongshan East Road. Planning controls prescribe lower buildings near the Ming walls and around the old city’s perimeter, protect nine important landscape-view corridors, and identify historic lanes that are not to be widened. In Qinhuai, Xiaoxihu’s small-scale renewal uses a five-party coordination platform involving government departments, community planners, neighbourhood organisations, residents and project implementers. Conservation is coupled with commercial reuse: a historic building at 35 Daban Lane has been converted into a boutique hotel, while another at 15 Xiaosongtao Lane has become a neighbourhood centre. These projects employ repair, negotiated adaptation and new uses rather than uniform clearance and reconstruction. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Transport and infrastructure

The Nanjing Metro began operating on 3 September 2005 with Line 1 and subsequently developed into a network combining urban routes with longer suburban corridors. Municipal statistics recorded 1.134 billion metro passenger journeys in 2025, illustrating its importance for everyday travel. On 29 September 2026, the opening of Line 6 brought the network to 15 operating lines and approximately 611 km, according to the municipal announcement. The new line connects Nanjing South railway station with Qixia Mountain through the eastern urban districts. Through-running between Line 6 and airport Line S1 allows passengers to continue to Lukou Airport without changing trains at Nanjing South; 30 bus routes were introduced or adjusted around Line 6 stations to provide connecting services. (dfz.nanjing.gov.cn)

Nanjing South railway station, opened on 28 June 2011, is a principal high-speed railway interchange. Its intersecting routes include the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway, the Shanghai–Wuhan–Chengdu corridor, and the lines toward Hangzhou and Anqing, connecting Nanjing with both the Yangtze River Delta and inland cities. Vertical circulation between railway facilities and connecting transport was incorporated into the station’s design to facilitate transfers. Nanjing station and Nanjing South form the established twin centres of the city’s passenger railway system, with metro connections linking both to urban destinations. Across the municipality, railway passenger departures reached 89.385 million in 2025; this figure counts journeys originating at stations rather than individual travellers. (yht.nanjing.gov.cn)

Lukou International Airport provides the city’s principal air gateway. Airport Line S1, operating since 2014, connects its terminals with Nanjing South and also serves commuting movements from southern suburban settlements. The airport handled approximately 31.378 million passenger movements and 476,700 tonnes of cargo and mail in 2025. Its third-phase expansion, identified in the municipal government’s August 2026 infrastructure programme, envisages a third runway, Terminal 3, an international cargo area and maintenance facilities; these are planned additions rather than facilities already in service. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Crossings of the Yangtze River accommodate distinct road, railway and metro flows. The original Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge opened its railway deck on 30 September 1968 and its road deck on 29 December that year. The Dashengguan railway bridge carries the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed railway and the Shanghai–Wuhan–Chengdu corridor alongside two metro tracks. Road traffic has additional routes through the Yingtian Avenue tunnel, opened in May 2010, the Dinghuaimen tunnel, opened in January 2016, and the Jiangxinzhou bridge, opened in December 2020. Metro Lines 10 and 3 added tunnel crossings in 2014 and 2015 respectively, while Line S3 began crossing on the railway bridge in 2017. (dag.nanjing.gov.cn)

The Port of Nanjing functions as a river–sea transfer hub for containers, petroleum products, bulk commodities and vehicle shipments. The 12.5-metre-deep navigation channel below Nanjing permits seagoing vessels to reach its terminals, while river services distribute cargo upstream. Longtan’s container facilities combine water transport with road access and a dedicated railway connection, enabling transfers between ships and inland freight trains. Shipping links include direct regional services to East Asian ports and feeder services transferring international cargo through Shanghai and Ningbo. Municipal port container throughput reached approximately 4.013 million twenty-foot equivalent units in 2025. (dag.nanjing.gov.cn)

Education, science and research

Nanjing’s higher-education institutions include comprehensive research universities and specialist centres for engineering, agriculture and water resources. Nanjing University traces its institutional lineage to Sanjiang Normal School, established in 1902. The nationwide university reorganization of 1952 gave it a predominantly arts-and-sciences structure, incorporating the corresponding faculties of the University of Nanking, also known as Jinling University. Southeast University shares part of this earlier institutional history: Nanjing Institute of Technology was established in 1952 around Nanjing University’s engineering faculty, with departments from other institutions, and adopted its present name in 1988. Southeast University is a national key university directly administered by China’s Ministry of Education, with engineering as its principal disciplinary emphasis. (nju.edu.cn)

The specialist universities likewise reflect the redistribution of academic departments in the early People’s Republic. Nanjing Agricultural College, the predecessor of Nanjing Agricultural University, was formed in 1952 from the agricultural faculties of Nanjing University and Jinling University, together with departments from Zhejiang University. Hohai University traces its origins to Hohai Civil Engineering School, founded in 1915. In 1952, water-conservancy, hydrology and related departments from several universities were assembled into the East China Technical University of Water Resources; it took the name Hohai University in 1985. Its teaching and research connect hydraulic engineering with river-system modelling, dam safety and the long-term operation of water infrastructure. (english.njau.edu.cn)

The Purple Mountain Observatory is a major institution in the development of modern Chinese astronomy. Its predecessor, Academia Sinica’s Institute of Astronomy, was founded in Nanjing in 1928; the observatory itself entered operation in 1934, initially equipped with a 60-centimetre reflecting telescope. The institute became the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1950. Its staff, facilities and organizational initiatives contributed to the subsequent establishment of astronomical institutions in Kunming, Shanghai and Beijing. Its research encompasses radio and space astronomy, astrophysics and celestial mechanics, extending its work beyond the original mountain-top observing facilities. (english.pmo.cas.cn)

Municipal policy treats research and development as a measurable investment priority. The government work report delivered on January 12, 2025, set a target for total societal R&D expenditure to reach 4% of GDP that year—a planned ratio rather than a reported outcome. The municipal science-and-technology statistical handbook recorded approximately 192,900 R&D personnel in 2023. Industrial enterprises above the designated statistical size reported R&D expenditure of CN¥34.53 billion, while independent research-and-development institutions reported total expenditure of CN¥8.20 billion. These are separate institutional categories, not a complete measure of citywide spending. The same handbook recorded 31 national-level key laboratories in 2023. (nanjing.gov.cn)

University–industry connections operate through technology-transfer offices, project exhibitions, technical contracts and business incubators. At the June 2024 China International Technology Fair in Shanghai, Nanjing University presented seven projects spanning artificial intelligence, environmental technology and advanced materials. Examples included Zhang Tian’s intelligent testing technology for visual-interaction applications and Deng Zhengtao’s quantum-dot optical-film project, both presented to professional audiences and investors. The city’s 2025 programme proposed support for ten proof-of-concept centres, twenty pilot-scale testing platforms and thirty public technical-service platforms, addressing the stages between laboratory results and industrial production. Nanjing’s broader incubation network comprised 253 technology-business incubators hosting 7,805 enterprises in 2023; these figures cover the municipal network rather than university spin-offs alone. (nju.edu.cn)

Population, language and society

Nanjing’s municipal census bulletin recorded 9,314,685 permanent residents at midnight on 1 November 2020, an increase of 16.38% over 2010. Of these, 8,085,241, or 86.80%, lived in statistically classified urban areas; 1,229,444 lived in rural areas. These figures cover the entire municipality rather than only its continuously built-up centre. Jiangning was the most populous district, with 1,926,117 residents, followed by Pukou with 1,171,603. (tjj.nanjing.gov.cn)

Annual statistics subsequently placed the population at 9.577 million at the end of 2024 and 9.6385 million at the end of 2025. The 2025 bulletin reported 8.4337 million urban residents and an urbanization rate of 87.5%. Natural population increase was small: the birth rate was 5.39 per thousand, the death rate 5.04 per thousand, and the natural growth rate 0.35 per thousand. In 2024 the corresponding natural growth rate had been 1.04 per thousand. Thus, the reported annual population increase should not be equated with the excess of births over deaths. (tjj.nanjing.gov.cn)

Internal migration is a substantial component of the city’s population. The 2020 census counted 2,651,812 people in its “floating population” category, including 1,348,465 arriving from outside Jiangsu and 1,303,347 moving within the province. This category increased by 38.65% between 2010 and 2020. It identifies residents living away from their household-registration locality for at least six months, excluding moves within the municipality’s districts; it is therefore not synonymous with migrant workers alone. In Pukou, 389,603 of the district’s 1,171,603 residents—approximately one-third—fell into this category, including 188,006 from other provinces. (tjj.nanjing.gov.cn)

The 2020 age and household figures also show changes in social composition. People aged 60 and over accounted for 18.98% of residents, up 5.23 percentage points from 2010. Average family-household size declined from 2.77 to 2.48 people over the same decade. (tjj.nanjing.gov.cn)

The traditional urban dialect, Nanjingese, belongs to Jianghuai Mandarin, but the municipality is not linguistically uniform. Wu varieties are spoken in Gaochun and parts of Lishui, where field research identifies a transition zone between Wu and Jianghuai Mandarin. Standard Mandarin coexists with local speech and influences its pronunciation. Research by Nanjing University linguist Gu Qian documents this process across older, middle-aged, young-adult and child speakers. A 2014 study examined 119 commonly used words and found age-related differences in dental and retroflex consonants; younger speakers more frequently adopted distinctions associated with Standard Mandarin. A 2015 study traced changes in Nanjingese’s checked, or entering-tone, syllables, showing that borrowed pronunciations could replace consonants and vowels before altering the tone. These findings describe uneven, feature-by-feature language change rather than a uniform replacement of local speech. (wxy.sdnu.edu.cn)

Cultural heritage, arts and cuisine

The Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is part of the UNESCO World Heritage property Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, to which it was added in 2003. Construction began in 1381; its ceremonial approach, stone figures and integration with the surrounding landscape established a model for later imperial burial complexes. The Sacred Avenue combines carved animals and human figures with an approach adapted to the terrain rather than a single straight axis. The surviving Ming city walls constitute another major architectural inheritance: the municipal foreign affairs office records approximately 25.1 kilometres remaining from the capital-city enclosure’s original 35.3 kilometres. Beside Zhonghua Gate, the Nanjing City Wall Museum presents construction materials and archaeological objects alongside digital models explaining the fortifications. (whc.unesco.org)

The Confucius Temple, or Fuzimiao, on the northern bank of the Qinhuai River was founded in 1034 and reconstructed most recently in 1985. Its arrangement places the temple before the school, expressing the institutional connection between Confucian worship and learning; the principal buildings include Dacheng Hall and the associated academy structures. The surrounding Qinhuai cultural district combines this educational heritage with food shops, riverboats and seasonal festivities. The Qinhuai Lantern Festival brings illuminated displays and traditional lantern-making into the temple precinct and neighbouring streets during the first lunar month. It belongs to China’s national intangible cultural heritage inventory, distinct from UNESCO’s international lists. Contemporary displays retain handmade lantern techniques while also incorporating programmable lighting and performance. (kmbhxh.cn)

Nanjing Yunjin brocade craftsmanship was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009. Its production depends on two craftspeople operating the upper and lower parts of a large wooden loom in coordination. Materials can include silk, gold thread and peacock-feather yarn. More than one hundred procedures encompass loom construction, pattern drafting, preparation of pattern-control cards, dressing the loom and weaving. Formerly used for imperial robes, the technique also produces textiles for contemporary clothing and decorative objects. Its preservation concerns the coordinated skills and transmitted knowledge of the weavers, not simply the conservation of finished fabrics. (ich.unesco.org)

Nanjing also preserves woodblock-printing traditions associated with Buddhist scripture production. The Jinling Engraved Scripture Press is one of the institutions represented in the Chinese engraved block-printing technique inscribed by UNESCO in 2009, alongside practitioners in Yangzhou and Dege. The craft involves selecting wood, preparing blocks, transferring designs, engraving, proofing, printing and binding. Characters and images are cut into wooden surfaces, which are inked to produce successive impressions on paper. This practice connects local craftsmanship with the reproduction and circulation of Buddhist texts. Other recognised local crafts include paper-cutting, velvet weaving and ronghua, decorative flowers fashioned from silk fibres. (archive.unesco-ichcap.org)

Salted duck is a characteristic local dish, generally served cold and prepared with seasonings such as ginger, pepper, rice wine and star anise. Its traditional production sequence includes salt curing, brining, drying and gentle cooking. Duck-blood vermicelli soup uses coagulated duck blood and offal, including liver and gizzard, with vermicelli and garnishes. Food craftsmanship is explicitly included in local heritage administration: Nanjing’s inventory lists the preparation of pressed and salted duck, Liuchangxing pastries and noodles, Lüliuju vegetarian dishes and Yuhua tea. These designations protect named preparation techniques and their transmission, while the food shops around Fuzimiao connect local cuisine with the commercial and festive life of the Qinhuai district. (wb.nanjing.gov.cn)

Environment, flood control and water management

Flood management combines embankments and river-channel works with sluices, pumping stations and temporary storage in lakes and reservoirs. Floods can result from the combined effects of upstream Yangtze discharge, local rainfall and tidal conditions: in 2020, the Nanjing river gauge reached 10.39 metres, exceeding the previous record of 10.22 metres set in 1954. Reservoir releases were restricted to reduce pressure on the urban Qinhuai River, while Xuanwu Lake was lowered before heavy rainfall to create storage capacity. During the 2024 flood season, coordinated operation of the Qinhuai New River and Hongshanyao sluices discharged approximately 220 million cubic metres of Qinhuai and Chuhe floodwater into the Yangtze. Advance lowering of reservoirs created about 10.1 million cubic metres of additional storage. (njsy.nanjing.gov.cn)

Waterway restoration addresses sewage discharges, defective drainage networks, polluted sediments and inadequate circulation. In 2024, Qinhuai District reported stormwater–sewage separation works in 25 neighbourhood areas and alterations to eight intercepted outfalls intended to reduce wet-weather sewage overflows. Xuanwu Lake’s restoration programme combines control of incoming water quality with supplementary water transfers and maintenance of aquatic vegetation. A performance assessment of its 2024 programme recorded 114,800 square metres of submerged-plant maintenance and 540,500 square metres of emergent-plant maintenance; the submerged-vegetation zones met China’s Class III surface-water standard. These local results did not represent the entire lake: monitoring for the first half of 2024 classified Xuanwu Lake overall as Class IV, with total phosphorus the principal limiting pollutant. Across the municipality, all 42 nationally or provincially assessed surface-water sections met the “good or excellent” category in 2024, while the Yangtze’s Nanjing reach met Class II. (nanjing.gov.cn)

The city’s sponge-city programme integrates stormwater retention and treatment into urban planning through permeable paving, rain gardens, sunken green spaces and green roofs. By the end of 2023, approximately 38% of Nanjing’s built-up area met municipal sponge-city requirements. At the Jiangxinzhou campus of Jinling High School, opened in September 2023, these measures included a 2,000-square-metre roof garden. In Qixia District, the Yinchun Road drainage retrofit occupies 41,000 square metres and uses eight connected rainwater wetlands for temporary storage. The 2024–2026 urban-renewal action plan additionally specified 18 source-control projects and incorporation of sponge measures into the refurbishment of 60 older residential communities. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Riverine ecological restoration also seeks to recover natural shorelines and habitats rather than simply add landscaped green space. At Xinji洲, resident relocation beginning in November 2000 made space for wetland recovery; subsequent works breached enclosure embankments and restored natural river-island processes. Municipal figures published in January 2024 recorded more than 35,000 hectares of protected wetlands and cumulative restoration of approximately 1,487 hectares. Measures elsewhere along the river have included removal of aquaculture enclosures, vegetation recovery and restoration of riparian ecological buffers, supporting both shoreline protection and biodiversity. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Air-pollution policy operates within the Yangtze River Delta’s joint warning and emergency-response arrangements. Nanjing’s August 2024 implementation plan targeted nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds through industrial controls, boiler and kiln improvements, cleaner freight transport and coordinated regional responses to pollution episodes. In 2024, the municipal environment authority reported an annual mean PM2.5 concentration of 28.3 micrograms per cubic metre and good or excellent air quality on 85.8% of days. Energy-transition measures specified in 2024 policy included restrictions on new coal consumption, retirement of outdated coal-fired capacity, distributed rooftop solar development and orderly substitution of natural gas for coal and oil. These were policy directions rather than evidence that fossil fuels had ceased to dominate industrial energy use. (sthjj.nanjing.gov.cn)

International ties and events

Nanjing’s sister-city network includes relationships established with St. Louis in the United States on 2 November 1979, Florence in Italy on 22 February 1980, Eindhoven in the Netherlands on 9 October 1985, and Daejeon in South Korea on 14 November 1994. These agreements provide an institutional basis for municipal exchanges rather than constituting commercial treaties. The St. Louis–Nanjing Sister Cities Committee organizes visits encompassing business, education and cultural exchange, with separate areas of activity for government relations, educational technology, sports and trade. Cooperation also takes the form of business matchmaking: a September 2024 meeting in Nanjing brought together 41 enterprises, research institutions, chambers of commerce and universities from ten European countries, covering fields including software, advanced manufacturing and low-carbon technologies. (tjj.nanjing.gov.cn)

The second Summer Youth Olympic Games, held from 16 to 28 August 2014, brought approximately 3,800 athletes from 204 national delegations to Nanjing, with competition in 28 sports. Alongside competition, the Culture and Education Programme organized activities intended to encourage interaction among young participants from different countries. The opening ceremony was attended by Chinese president Xi Jinping, United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon and International Olympic Committee honorary president Jacques Rogge. Nanjing subsequently hosted the World Athletics Indoor Championships on 21–23 March 2025 at Nanjing’s Cube in Jiangbei New District—the first edition of that championship held in China—with 26 medal events divided equally between women and men. (mat1.gtimg.com)

International exhibitions connect the city’s industrial sectors with customers, suppliers and technology providers. The 2023 China (Nanjing) International Software Product and Information Service Trade Fair was scheduled for 20–23 August, combining product displays, launches, commercial negotiations, recruitment and project matchmaking. Its programme addressed industrial software, artificial intelligence, information security and other digital technologies. In the first half of 2024, Nanjing’s trade-promotion authorities reported the successful staging of the World Semiconductor Conference and Nanjing International Semiconductor Expo, an international energy-storage conference and exhibition, and the Beijing–Nanjing international urban-rail exhibition. These events were organized around designated industrial clusters rather than solely around general consumer trade. (nanjing.gov.cn)

Corporate investment links Nanjing to international production and global value chains. Germany’s BASF and Sinopec began commercial production at their equally owned Nanjing integrated chemical complex in 2005. North American connections include Ford’s Research and Engineering Center, established in 2007; in November 2017, Ford opened a CN¥680 million vehicle-testing facility supporting development for China and the Asia-Pacific region. East Asian electronics investment includes TSMC’s wholly owned Nanjing subsidiary, which operated a 12-inch wafer fabrication plant in 2018. At the municipal level, the 2024 statistical bulletin recorded goods trade of CN¥545.92 billion, comprising CN¥346.27 billion in exports and CN¥199.65 billion in imports, and US$2.833 billion in actually utilized foreign investment. These figures distinguish cross-border goods flows from inward investment. (basf.com)

Regional coordination is formalized through the Nanjing metropolitan area development plan, issued jointly by Jiangsu and Anhui on 22 March 2021 after approval by the National Development and Reform Commission. Within the wider Yangtze River Delta integration framework, the plan provides for coordinated transport, industrial specialization, innovation platforms and market integration across provincial boundaries. One specified mechanism is “research and development in Nanjing, production in surrounding areas,” supported by enterprise research centres and shared industrial-innovation facilities. It also encourages jointly established overseas innovation centres and laboratories, linking cooperation among neighbouring cities with international technology networks. (ndrc.gov.cn)

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157. 2024年上半年重点工作推进情况ccpit.nanjing.gov.cn
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