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Jiujiang 九江
Prefecture-level city
九江市
Location of Jiujiang City jurisdiction in Jiangxi
Country	People's Republic of China
Province	Jiangxi
Area
• Prefecture-level city	18,823 km (7,268 sq mi)
• Urban	598 km (231 sq mi)
• Metro	598 km (231 sq mi)
Population
• Prefecture-level city	4,728,763
• Density	250/km (650/sq mi)
• Urban	545,616
• Urban density	910/km (2,400/sq mi)
• Metro	545,616
• Metro density	910/km (2,400/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+8 (China Standard)
Website	jiujiang.gov.cn

Jiujiang (Chinese: 九江; pinyin: Jiǔjiāng), formerly transliterated Kiukiang or Kew Keang, is a prefecture-level city located on the southern shores of the Yangtze River in northwest Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. It is the second-largest prefecture-level city in Jiangxi province, after the provincial capital Nanchang. Jiujiang literally means "nine rivers".

Its population is 4,728,763 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 545,616 in the built up area made of 2 urban districts (Xunyang and Lushan).

Administrative divisions

• County-level city:

• Ruichang

• Counties:

• Wuning County
• Jiujiang County
• Xiushui County
• Yongxiu County
• De'an County
• Xingzi County
• Duchang County
• Hukou County
• Pengze County

• Districts:

• Xunyang District (浔阳)
• Lushan District

• Others

• Bureau

• Lushan Cultural Sites Administrative Bureau

• Development regions:

• Jiujiang Open Development Region, Gongqing Open Development Region

There are 235 towns and 11 sub-district offices.

History

The city suffered only slight damage in the 2005 Ruichang earthquake, but there were several deaths reported in outlying areas.

In ancient times it was told that nine rivers converged near where Jiujiang sprang up to become Jiangxi’s main water port today. During the Xia through the Shang Dynasties Jiujiang was a capital of several states. In the Spring & Autumn Period (770-476 BCE) Jiujiang bordered between the states of Wu (downstream, to the east) and Chu (upstream, to the west). Tao Yuanming (365-429 CE) a famous Chinese philosopher lived at the base of Lushan. He was once appointed magistrate of nearby Pengze County and after 83 days resigned due to the politics involved in administering justice. He retreated back to his village to pen an essay called Peach Flower Garden. In 757 Li Po (701-762 CE) was implicated in An Lushan’s rebellion and imprisoned at Jiujiang. Bai Juyi (772-846 CE) wrote a poem called "Lute Song", which is about his sadness and isolation of forced exile as a middle rank official to reside in such a small town. In the 13th century Zhu Xi was a Confucian philosopher who practiced at the White Deer Grotto Academy, on Lushan’s eastern flanks.

Jiujiang has also been known as Jiangzhou and Xunyang in former times. During the Qin Dynasty (265-420 CE) it was known as Sin Yang, the Liang dynasty (502-557 CE) it was called Jiang Zhou. The Sui Dynasty saw its name as Jiujiang and the Song Dynasty (960-1127) called it Ting Jiang. The Ming dynasty (1368–1644), gave it Jiujiang which has retained its name to this day. It was a Taiping stronghold for five years (1850–64) after they devastated the town to only leave one street with buildings intact.

A member of Lord Elgin’s committee arriving in 1858 to survey Chinese ports for treaty status noted: “We found it to the last degree deplorable. A single dilapidated street, composed only of a few mean shops, was all that existed of this once thriving populous city. The remainder of the vast area composed within its massive walls 9-10 kilometers in circumference, contained nothing but ruins, weeds and kitchen gardens. After becoming an open treaty port in 1862, it was exporting Jiangxi’s vast rice crop. In 1904, more than 160,000 kilos of opium were moved through its customs house.

It became one of the three centers of the tea trade in China along with Hankou and Fuzhou. The Russians had two brick tea producing factories, but ceased operations after 1917. The British surrendered their concession in 1927 after being robbed and its Chinese workers mutineered their posts to the marauding crowds. An economic recession had set in over the decades as Indian and Chelonian teas made for greater competition. A military advance was being staged upriver in Wuhan by the Guomindang in 1927 and all the remaining expatriate community fled on British and American warships towards safer waters of Shanghai, to never return.

Jiujiang languished as a port and much of its export trade was siphoned off with the connecting Nanchang to coastal rail lines built in 1936-37. Until 1949 Jiujiang had very little industry except for local handicrafts. Manufacturing is Jiujiang’s backbone today with auto, machinery, petrochemical, shipbuilding and textiles as its cornerstones. After the completion of the Yangtze River Bridge in 1992 and the Beijing to Kowloon (Hong Kong) - Wuhan to Shanghai rail system laid, a convenient ground corridor was provided and a regional airport now serves most of China’s capital cities.

Demography

The city administers a total population of approximately 4,500,000, of whom approximately 650,000 are urban. The population density is 235 per km². Han Chinese make up 99.8% of the population, but registered residents include representatives of 25 minority nationalities, including six with a local population of more than 100: Hui, Miao, Zhuang, Tujia, and She.

Unlike the Gan dialects typical of Jiangxi, the local speech of Jiujiang is a variety of Mandarin.

Climate

Industry

Primary industries include

• Petrochemical refinement
• Agricultural chemical production
• Import/export (through river port)

Transport

Rail

Jiujiang is served by the Beijing-Kowloon, Tongling–Jiujiang, Hefei–Jiujiang and Wuhan–Jiujiang Railways.

Air

Jiujiang Lushan Airport (JIU)

Yangtze River

The Yangtze River is used heavily for shipping. There is currently one bridge, the Jiujiang Bridge, that carries road and rail over the river. A second bridge, the Jiujiang Fuyin Expressway Bridge, is under construction that will carry traffic on the G70 Fuzhou–Yinchuan Expressway.

Colleges and universities

• Jiujiang Financial and Economic College: A small picturesque college located right by the lake and next to Walmart, this college is well situated within the city.

• Jiujiang University: Located farther out from the city center, it is most easily reached by the 101 bus from the center. If you are one of the 15 or so native English speaking foreigners in the city, it is a good idea to go to Freedom Bar, located across from the university's main entrance on the second floor of the shopping mall, to meet fellow foreigners, most of whom are English teachers.

Tourism

Picturesque Mount Lushan, located in the south of the urban center, is listed as a world heritage site.

Stone Bell Hill

Just downriver from Jiujiang is Hukou where the Yangtze River and waters of Boyang Lake converge with an abrupt color change. People have been coming here for centuries to listen to the stone-bell sound resonating from the cliffs overlooking this spot. A few theories are provided why this rare geographical phenomenon happens Li Dao Yuan writes from the Northern Wei period (386-534), is due to the hill having a bell-shaped appearance and hollow inside, thus providing the sound when struck or water lapping within the limestone nooks and fissures around its base, as famous litterateur from the same time Su Shui discovered. Su Dong Po also did three trips around its perimeter, before settling on this last explanation for its unique sound also. Many Chinese literati's have left more than twenty calligraphy masterpieces carved upon its rocks, with some dating back to the Tang dynasty (618-907 CE).

南山公园 (Nanshan Gongyuan) Nanshan Park Completed in early 2013, this brand new pagoda and surrounding park are a relaxing get away from the center of the city. The pagoda itself should be open rather soon (as of March 2013 residents are not permitted to enter the pagoda), and the park itself is covered in flora and lights up the Jiujiang sky at night.

• Nanshan Park

External links

• Official website (Chinese)
• 九江信息港 Jiujiang China Telecom Portal
• Jiujiang Traffic Police Information Portal

References

• Cities in Jiangxi