Jessica Liu

G8

Chinese City Project - Nanjing, China

Located near the Yangtze River, Nanjing has been a national hub of transportation, education, culture, research, and tourism. Rich with a long history and beautiful landscape, it has much to offer to a visiting traveller.

Throughout history, Nanjing served as a capital for ten dynasties and was founded nearly 2,600 years ago in a small village called Tangyi. The city is surrounded by the Purple Mountains, a popular tourist spot, which helped preserve its traditional culture for many years. It became the birthplace of much prosperity and at one point was considered the largest city in the world and the centre of world civilization, similar to Rome and was even named one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. Many historical relics still remain around the city such as the Ming Dynasty Wall which is one of the longest city walls in the world.

Today Nanjing is home to more than 8 million people and was ranked fourth by Forbes magazine for “2008 Top 100 Business Cities in Mainland China. It also has convenient railway, air, and highway transportation such as the bullet train. In fact, a typical 10-hour drive from Beijing to Nanjing can be done in just 3-4 hours on a bullet train. The city also has a large population of college students as there are 50 universities, 75 research institutions, and 800 national engineering centres. It ranks first in the number of postgraduate students per capita. Nanjing University even ranks as one of the best top tier universities in China.

Many locals enjoy eating duck. Duck has become such a staple food that records of it date all the way back to 1,400 years ago. One popular dish is the Nanjing Salted Duck, which is also said to be the origin of the Peking duck. It is prepared in boiling water with an array of spices such as Sichuan peppercorns, cinnamon, and star anise. This famous dish is so revered that food science journalists have published articles on the art of preparing Nanjing Salted Duck. Radishes are also a very common staple food as there is a long history of growing radishes, especially during the spring when they taste sweet.

Nanjing is also home to the Porcelain Tower which is a very renowned Buddhist temple. It was built during the Ming dynasty as a place of worship, and pilgrimage, and meant to honour the emperor’s parents at the time but was destroyed in the 19th century during a rebellion. Today a modern life-size replica stands in its place. It’s also considered one of the 7 wonders of the medieval ages.

For a city with such a long history, Nanjing is a place with rich culture and interesting quirks.

Sources:

https://kidskonnect.com/places/nanjing/

https://www.gonanjingchina.com/things-to-do-nanjing-china/food-nanjing-travel

https://www.gonanjingchina.com/explore-nanjing-china/nanjing-travel-overviews/basic-facts-of-nanjing