Nanjing

Nanjing sits on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River in China’s Jiangsu province, occupying roughly 6,600 square kilometres in the province’s southwest corner. Its eleven districts support a population of 9.42 million (2021). As a sub-provincial city, Nanjing wields administrative autonomy almost equal to a province. It has earned domestic and international recognition—among them a Special UN Habitat Scroll of Honor—and appears as a Beta–level global city in the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, as well as within the world’s top 100 financial centres.

The city’s human presence traces back millennia, yet its prominence rose in the third century, when it first served as capital under Eastern Wu (229–280). Successive southern regimes—the Eastern Jin and four Southern dynasties, the Southern Tang—also governed from its walls. In 1368 the Ming dynasty established China’s capital at Nanjing, administering the entire realm from this site until 1421. Centuries later, the Republic of China government under the Kuomintang chose the city as its seat (1927–37; 1946–49). Nanjing also became the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1853–64) and, under Japanese occupation (1940–45), formed the centre of a puppet regime led by Wang Jingwei. The period of late 1937 to early 1938 saw atrocity when invading forces perpetrated mass killings, an episode whose gravity continues to shape the city’s collective memory. After 1949, the city briefly reported directly to national authorities before assuming its present role as provincial capital in 1952.

The surrounding landscape blends river, ridge and lake. The Yangtze courses for ninety-three kilometres within Nanjing’s limits, skirting the west and north. East, south and northeast, the Ningzheng Ridge provides a backdrop to rain-softened slopes and forested spurs. At the city’s heart, the Qinhuai River threads through urban districts toward the Yangtze; its banks bear the remains of an imperial city wall and the reconstructed Confucian Temple precinct. Xuanwu and Mochou lakes lie like twin basins amid the city, together accounting for much of the eleven per cent water coverage. Hydrologically, nearly all rivers here belong to the Yangtze system, save for minor northern streams that feed the Huai River basin. The Grand Canal skirts the city east of its centre, linking the Yangtze to the Huai.

Seasonal shifts follow a monsoonal pattern. Summers grow hot and humid, with prevailing southeast winds; an average July temperature of 28.4 °C once peaked at 43.0 °C in 1934. Winter turns cool and damp, with northeasterly breezes; January averages 3.1 °C, while a cold snap in 1955 brought −14.0 °C. Annual precipitation averages 1,144 mm, distributed over some 113 days. A mid-June to late-July interval known as the “plum rain” coincides with the plum blossom season, when inland moisture yields frequent yet moderate showers.

Education and research rank among Nanjing’s foremost attributes. The city hosts sixty-eight higher-learning institutions, including thirteen double-first-class universities, of which Nanjing University appears among the top twenty worldwide in the Nature Index. Within large cities nationwide, it has the highest ratio of students to total population. Research output ranks fifth globally; as of 2024, the city holds second place for earth and environmental sciences and third for chemistry and physical sciences on the Nature Index.

Economically, services account for approximately sixty per cent of gross domestic product. Finance, culture and tourism stand as leading service sectors. Information technology, green energy, smart power grids and intelligent equipment manufacturing form the industrial core. Domestic private firms such as Suning Commerce and Simcere Pharmaceutical operate alongside state-owned enterprises like Panda Electronics and Jinling Petrochemical. Multinational corporations—Siemens, Volkswagen, Sharp—maintain offices or research facilities here. Huawei, ZTE and Lenovo conduct key R&D on local campuses. In 2013 the city’s GDP reached RMB 801 billion, with per capita GDP of RMB 98,174. By 2021 its output rose to RMB 16,355.32 billion.

Transport infrastructure reflects Nanjing’s historic role as a riverine and overland hub. The Port of Nanjing, China’s largest inland port, processed 192 million tonnes of cargo in 2012. Its 98-kilometre riverfront hosts sixty-four berths, sixteen able to handle vessels over 10,000 tons. A 12.5-metre channel permits direct visits by 50,000-tonne ocean vessels. On land, the city links to more than sixty national and provincial highways, among them the G25 (Changchun–Shenzhen) and G42 (Shanghai–Chengdu) expressways. Railways radiate from Nanjing Station and Nanjing South Station, the latter the largest high-speed rail terminus in Asia, serving the Beijing–Shanghai line and branches toward Wuhan, Chengdu and Xi’an. The metro network spans 449 kilometres across twelve lines and 208 stations, with a seventeen-line system slated for completion by 2030. Bus routes exceed 370, while taxis, ride-hailing services and two tram lines complement urban transit.

Heritage sites abound. The Presidential Palace displays layers of republican governance. On Purple Mountain lie Sun Yat-sen’s tomb and the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, its stone guardian figures arrayed along a winding spirit way. Remnants of the Ming Palace, the medieval City Wall, Chaotian Palace and the Porcelain Tower evoke dynastic grandeur. Along the Qinhuai, the Fuzimiao quarter recalls Qing-era commerce and scholarship. Key repositories of art and history include the Nanjing Museum—home to 400,000 items of imperial porcelain—and specialized institutions such as the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, the China Modern History Museum in the Presidential Palace and the Taiping Kingdom History Museum.

Cultural life draws from millennia of scholarly and religious exchange. Nanjing fostered Buddhist sects during the Southern dynasties and later served as a centre for scripture engraving, an art now inscribed on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list. Taoist lineages trace through local temples. Matteo Ricci introduced Catholicism here over four centuries ago; the Shigu Road Church stands as diocesan seat. Islam flourished in concert with overland trade: the city remains a focal point for Chinese Muslim scholarship and practice. Four faiths—Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity and Islam—each maintain active communities, their temples and shrines dispersed throughout urban and suburban districts.

Night-time economy and leisure reflect both tradition and modernity. Historically centered at Fuzimiao on the Qinhuai, evening markets and riverside boat rides offered convivial gathering. In recent decades, commercial streets and shopping malls in Xinjiekou and around Baijia Lake have extended hours, while districts such as “1912” host diverse dining and entertainment venues. University precincts around Nanjing University and Normal University foster student cafés and live music spaces.

Nanjing’s story combines layers of past and present: its rivers and ridges, walls and waterways, institutions of learning and ports of trade, remain in steady dialogue. The city’s scale and temperament reflect both its legacy as a seat of power and its evolving role as a centre of research, culture and commerce. Its character emerges in measured rhythms, whether in the arc of history recorded on museum walls, the cadence of monsoon rains, or the synchrony of trains departing under neon-lit platforms. In every district, the contours of time remain visible—etched in stone, sited by water, or carried forward by the ideas of those who arrive, train-bound, at its gateways.