Nanning - History

History

A county seat called Jinxing was first established at the site in AD 318. This became the administrative seat of a commandery. Nanning was once the territory of the Baiyue people and became the capital of Jinxing Prefecture which was separated from Yulin Prefecture of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

In 589 the Jinxing commandery was dissolved, and the county was renamed Xuanhua. Under the Tang dynasty (618–907) the prefecture of Yong (邕州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 Nanning Lu (an administrative division) of Yongzhou Lu meaning "May peace maintain in the southern frontier", hence the name Nanning. Historically, Nanning was famous for trade, and 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. 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, Nanning grew rapidly. From 1912 to 1936 it was the provincial capital of Guangxi, replacing Guilin.

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 renamed Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. 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 serves as host for the annual China-ASEAN EXPO (CASEAN EXPO) which began in 2005 and was the venue for the 2006 "World Robotics Olympiad".