Nanning ( , Zhuang: Namzningz, meaning 'South
Prosperity') is the capital of Guangxi
autonomous region in
southern China
. It
is known as the "Green City" because of its abundance of lush
tropical foliage.
History
A county seat was first established at the site in AD 318; called
Jinxing, it also became the administrative seat of a
commandery. Nanning was once the
territory of the
Baiyue people and became the
capital of Jinxing Prefecture separated from Yulin Prefecture of
the
Eastern Jin Dynasty. It
was the first time for Nanning to be the seat of a county and a
prefecture, which marked the beginning of the founding of its
administrative division.
In 589 the commandery was suppressed, and the county was renamed
Xuanhua.
Under the Tang
dynasty (618–907) the prefecture of Yong (Yongzhou)
was established there; it was garrisoned to control the non-Chinese
districts in Guangxi and on the Yunnan
–Guizhou
provincial
border. In the mid-9th century the Tang and the Yunnan state
of
Nanzhao fought over it, and after 861 it
was briefly occupied by Nanzhao. It remained a frontier prefecture
throughout the
Song dynasty (960–1279),
being the scene of a rebellion led by
Nong
Zhigao in 1052 and thereafter a
garrison town.
In the
Yuan
Dynasty
in 1324, it was renamed as Nanning Lu (an
administrative division) from Yongzhou Lu meaning "May peace
maintain in the southern frontier", hence the name
Nanning. In its history, Nanning was famous for
business trade, which had had permanent business offices from other
areas in China since the
Song
Dynasty.
Under the
Ming
(1368–1644)
and Qing
(1644–1911)
dynasties, it was a superior prefecture, Nanning.
In the
Ming
Dynasty
Nanning developed into the commodity distributing
center of the Zuojiang River and the Youjiang River with the
reputation of "Little Nanjing".
Opened to foreign trade by the Chinese in 1907, it grew rapidly.
From 1912
to 1936 it was the provincial capital of Guangxi, replacing
Guilin
in 1914.
Early in the 20th century the city spilled over from the old walled
city into a southern suburban area. In the 1930s Nanning became the
centre of a "model provincial government" under the warlord
Li Zongren, and a spacious modern city
was laid out.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45),
Nanning was temporarily occupied in 1940 by the Japanese
.
It
subsequently became an important U.S.
air base supporting the Chinese armies in Guangxi,
but during 1944–45 it was again under Japanese
occupation.
In 1949 Nanning again became the provincial capital, first of
Guangxi
province and then (1958) of
the Zhuang autonomous region of Guangxi, which replaced it.
Until then
Nanning had essentially been a commercial center dependent on
Guangzhou
and on the Xi River
system. In the late 1930s a railway was begun,
joining Hengyang in southern Hunan
province
with Guilin, Liuzhou
, Nanning, and the Vietnam
border, while another was begun from Liuzhou to
Guiyang
in Guizhou.
The
construction of the Nanning section of this line was halted in 1940
by the Japanese advances, however, and was not completed until
1951, after which Nanning was directly linked with central China; completion of a branch line to
the port of Zhanjiang
(in Guangdong
) in 1957 gave it a direct outlet to the sea.
During the
French war in
Indochina (1946–54), Nanning was the chief support base in
China for the Vietnamese forces, and during the
Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s it
again became a staging post for the sending of supplies southward
to
North Vietnam. It was also an
important military supply center during the
Sino-Vietnam confrontation in
1979.
Formerly an essentially commercial and administrative center,
Nanning from 1949 experienced industrial growth. The city is
surrounded by a fertile agricultural region producing subtropical
fruits and
sugarcane; food processing,
flour
milling, sugar
refining, meatpacking, and leather manufacture are
important in the city. Nanning has been a center for printing and
paper manufacture, and it is also important in heavy
industry.
After the recognition of the
Zhuang
ethnic minority in 1958, Nanning became the chief center for the
training of Zhuang leaders.
Guangxi
University, a large medical school, and a school of agriculture
all date from the 1920s.
A
cavern at
Yiling, 19 km to the northwest, has a
1,100 m passage through picturesque
stalactites. In the 1970s colored lights were
installed and the cavern was developed as a tourist
attraction.
Nanning served as host for annual China-
ASEAN
EXPO (CASEAN EXPO) in 2005 and as the venue for the 2006 "World
Robotics Olympiad".
Foods
Nanning has not only food in
Guangxi cuisine
but also food of any dish or cuisine home and abroad. There are
traditional food cultures around every street in Nanning. The food
of Nanning shares the elite of
Cantonese
food and exoticness of that of Southeast Asia and is defined by
freshness, tenderness, tastiness and creaminess and nutrition,
flexible with seasons and rich in food material selection.
There are
cuisines of Guangdong, Sichuan
, Hunan and Jiangsu
and flavor of Japan, Thailand
and the West.
Rice noodles are very popular among the
people live in Nanning.
Laoyou rice
noodles is the most famous. There are many kinds of Rice
noodles offered by restaurants on the street, like
Guilin rice noodles and
Manual rice noodles.
Geography
Nanning
is located in the southern part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous
Region, 160 km from the border with Vietnam. It has an area of 22,293 square
kilometers.
The city is located on the north bank of the Yong River, the chief
southern tributary of the
Xi River,
and lies some 30 km below the confluence of the Yu and the Zuo
rivers.
The Yong River (which later becomes the Yu
River) affords a good route to Guangzhou and is navigable by shallow-draft junks and motor
launches, even though it is obstructed by rapids and
sandbanks.
Nanning is situated in a hilly basin with elevations between 70 and
500 m above sea-level.
Qingxiu
Mountain dominates the southern part of town.
Nanning's climate is
sub-tropical
and
monsoonal and it is sometimes warm in
winters as well as summers. Average temperature is 21.7°C. It is
often windy or breezy and very rainy, with more than 1300 mm
of
precipitation
annually. It is also
frost-free for all but 3
or 4 days a year and never snows.
Climate
Nanning has a
humid
subtropical climate according to the
Köppen climate
classification. Summers are hot and humid with 33°C average
highs in July and August. Winters are humid and chilly with 10°C
average lows in January. The annual precipitation averages 1372mm
(Source:
WorldClimate).
|
Month |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
| Avg high °C |
17 |
18 |
21 |
26 |
30 |
32 |
33 |
32 |
31 |
28 |
24 |
20 |
| Avg
low temperature °C |
10 |
11 |
15 |
19 |
23 |
25 |
25 |
25 |
24 |
20 |
15 |
11 |
|
Source: WorldClimate |
Flora and fauna
Nanning's
tropical climate gives it
an amazing amount of
biodiversity.
There are many species of animals and more than 3,000 species of
plants. Its city flower is the Jaba flower, an evergreen shrub, and
its city tree is
almond tree which is
regarded as the backbone tree used for greening and landscaping
throughout the city.
Administrative divisions
Nanning has jurisdiction over 6
districts, 6
counties, and 6 development
zones.
Districts:
Counties:
Development Zones:
Cityscape
Nanning
is home of the 21st tallest building in the People's Republic of
China, the Diwang International Commerce
Center
(276 meters), it is currently the tallest building
in Guangxi and southwestern China (excluding Chongqing
). The second tallest building in Nanning is
the
World Trade Commerce
City standing at 218 meters. The city currently has seven
buildings taller than 100 meters, built or under
construction.Nanning has many parks with tropical lush green
landscape, it is one of the "greenest" cities in China, and it's
known as "Green City"(绿城). Nanning's downtown skyline is rapidly
changing and the city is becoming an important hub in China.
Economy
2007 GDP was 106.3 billion RMB, which was a 17.1% growth over the
previous year. The GDP per capita was ¥15,685 (US$2,147), ranking
no. 116 among 659 Chinese cities. Foreign exports in 2007 were 10
billion USD. Foreign fixed asset investment was 34.3 billion RMB.
Nanning has 6 development zones and industrial parks, 3 of which
accounted for 6 billion RMB of Nanning's GDP, more than 8% of
Nanning's total.
Mineral resources include gold, iron, manganese, aluminum, quartz,
silver, indium, coal, marble, and granite. One third of China's
different types of mineral resources are found in Nanning.
Industrial zones
- Guilin High-tech Industrial Development Zone
- Nanning Economic & Technological Development Area
Transportation
Air
Rail
In
November 2008, construction began for a high-speed rail line to link Nanning with
Guangzhou City that will cut travel time between the two
cities from 13 hrs to 3 hrs. The line is set to be
577 km long, of which 61% will be in
Guangxi, and allow trains to run up to
200 km/hr. It will be completed in an estimated 54 months and
cost about 41 billion yuan(about 6 billion U.S. dollars), according
to the
Ministry
of Railways.
The goal is to better integrate Pan-Pearl River
Delta
and southeast China
to members of the ASEAN [49399].
Highways
Demographics
As of 2006 , the total population of Nanning was 6.48 million,
among which 2.45 million were urban residents after the adjustment
of administrative divisions.Nanning is a city where Zhuang ethnic
group live in compact communities, and also the only city in all
the autonomous regions in China features a southern flavor,
together with open coastal areas. Thirty-five
ethnic groups live in compact
communities in Nanning, including people of
Zhuang,
Han,
Yao, Hui,
Miao, Dong, and Man minorities. There is little
serious ethnic tension because most of these urbanised ethnic
minorities are indistinguishable from China's majority Han ethnic
group.
Culture
Nanning is the center of science and technology, education, culture
and health in Guangxi Province. There are altogether 54 scientific
research institutes subordinate to districts. 10 colleges and 50
trade schools are training specialty personnel of all kinds for
society. Now there are 62 mass cultural organizations, 13
performing groups, 8 cinemas, 285 projecting units, over 70 karaoke
halls and over 1000 newsstands. Bookshops and cultural markets can
be found everywhere.
Tourism
Nanning
is the jumping off point for scenic Guilin, with its
world famous hill-scape, northern and western Guangxi and its minority villages, and the border
with Vietnam in the south.
In 1998 alone, the city received 26,260 overseas tourists, earning
foreign exchange totaling US$7.0663 million, some 5.01 percent of
the city's total income. An addition of 6.89 million domestic
visitors brought RMB 3.23 billion yuan into the city, some 19.95
percent of the total. Such achievements made Nanning the second
place in the whole region in that year.
The major tourist attractions in Nanning are as following:
Colleges and universities
Note: Institutions without full-time bachelor programs are not
listed.
International relations
Twin towns — Sister cities
Nanning is
twinned with:
- Bundaberg
, Queensland
, Australia
(1998)
- Provo, Utah
, United
States (2000)
- Klagenfurt am Wörthersee
, Austria
(2001)
- Amphoe Mueang Khon Kaen
, Khon Kaen Province
, Thailand (2001)
- Davao
City
, Philippines
(2006)
- Ipoh
, Malaysia
- Yangon
, Myanmar
(2009)[49400]
References
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