Nanchang, city (1994 est. pop. 1,168,700), capital of Jiangxi prov., China, on the Gan River, near the southern end of Poyang Lake. A major transportation center, it has a port, rail links to Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Hunan, and an airport. It is a large economic and industrial center with machine shops, food-processing establishments, textile and paper mills, and plants making chemicals, tractors, cement, tires, and pharmaceuticals. An old walled city, Nanchang dates from the Sung dynasty (12th cent.), but it received its present name in the Ming dynasty. Nanchang is considered the birthplace of the People's Liberation Army. There, in 1927, a force of 30,000 Communist troops, led by Zhu De, rose against the Kuomintang government and briefly established the first soviet republic in China. Occupied by the Japanese (1939-45) in World War II, Nanchang was reoccupied by the Nationalists in 1945 but fell to the Communists in 1949. An agricultural institute and a medical college are in the city. It is also called Nanjing.

or Nan-ch'ang

City (pop., 2003 est.: 1,419,813), capital of Jiangxi province, southeastern China. An old walled city on the right bank of the Gan River, it was founded in 201 BC. In AD 959 it became the capital of the Southern Tang dynasty. At the end of the Mongol period it was a battleground between the founder of the Ming dynasty and local warlords. In the early 16th century a rebellion was launched against the Ming regime. Nanchang suffered severely during the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64). In 1927 it was the site of revolutionary activities of the Chinese Communist Party. Since 1949 it has become industrialized; its products include textiles, milled rice, and automotive parts.

Learn more about Nanchang with a free trial on Britannica.com.