City (pop., 2003 est.: 2,966,000), capital of Jiangsu province, east-central China. Located on the southeastern bank of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) northwest of Shanghai, the site has been inhabited for thousands of years. The present city was founded in 1368 by the Ming dynasty, which had its capital there (1368–1421).
It was taken by the British in the Opium Wars of 1842 and was largely destroyed in 1864 after having served (since 1853) as the capital of the Taiping revolutionaries. Nanjing was opened as a treaty port in 1899 and was the Nationalist capital from 1928 to 1937; it was then taken by the Japanese, and it was the site of the Nanjing Massacre in the Sino-Japanese War of 1937–45. It was taken by communist forces in 1949 and became the provincial capital in 1952. Nanjing is a port city and a major industrial and communications centre with a number of universities and colleges. Nearby monuments include mausoleums of Sun Yat-sen and a Ming emperor.
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