Ganzhou

History

In 201, Emperor Gaozu of Han established a county in the territory of modern Ganzhou. In those early years, Han Chinese settlement and authority in the area was minimal and largely restricted to the Gan River basin. The river, a tributary of the Yangtze via Poyang Lake, provided a route of communication from the north as well as irrigation for rice farming.

During the Sui dynasty, the county administration was promoted to prefecture status and the area called Qianzhou (虔州). During the Song, immigration from the north bolstered the local population and drove local aboriginal tribes further into the hills. After the fall of the capital to the Jin in 1126 in the Jingkang Incident, immigration increased dramatically.

The province's name was officially changed to Ganzhou during the Southern Song (1127–1279).

During the late 1800s Ganzhou was opened as one of the southern treaty ports and became a minor base for foreign companies. Between 1929 and 1934, Ganzhou formed a part of the Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet, one of the bases of the Communist Party of China. Due to its proximity to the Red capital Ruijin, Ganzhou was subject to a number of Kuomintang encirclement campaigns.

Between 1939 and 1945, Chiang Ching-kuo was appointed by the Government of the Republic of China as commissioner of Gannan Prefecture (贛南), then the name of the surrounding regions of Ganzhou. There he banned smoking, gambling and prostitution, studied governmental management, allowed for economic expansion and a change in social outlook. His efforts were hailed as a miracle in the political war in China, then coined as the "Gannan New Deal" (贛南新政). During his time in Gannan, from 1940 he implemented a "public information desk" where ordinary people could visit him if they had problems, and according to records, Chiang Ching-kuo received a total of 1,023 people during such sessions in 1942. In regards to the ban on prostitution and closing of brothels, Chiang implemented a policy where former prostitutes became employed in factories. Due to the large number of refugees in Ganzhou as a result from the ongoing war, thousands of orphans lived on the street; in June 1942, Chiang Ching-kuo formally established the Chinese Children's Village (中華兒童新村) in the outskirts of Ganzhou, with facilities such as a nursery, kindergarten, primary school, hospital and gymnasium.

Administration

Ganzhou has jurisdiction over 3 districts, 1 county-level city and 14 counties:

District:

County-level cities:

Counties:

Geography

Ganzhou is a large city covering the southern third of Jiangxi, with an area of 39,400 square kilometres (15,200 sq mi). More than 70% of its administrative area is forested, and over 83% is also mountainous. Several of the major tributaries of the Gan River, Ganzhou's namesake, join at a confluence in the center of the city. Bordering prefecture-level cities are:

Fujian:

Guangdong:

Hunan:

Jiangxi:

Climate

Ganzhou has a humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa) affected by the East Asian monsoon, with long, humid, very hot summers and cool and drier winters with occasional cold snaps, featuring some of the highest summertime temperatures nationally outside of the Turpan Depression in Xinjiang. The monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from 8.2 °C (46.8 °F) in January to 29.4 °C (84.9 °F) in July, with an annual average of 19.42 °C (67.0 °F). The average annual precipitation is 1,460 mm (57 in). With monthly percent possible sunshine ranging from 20% in March to 62% in July, the city receives 1,778 hours of bright sunshine annually. Winter begins somewhat sunny and dry but becomes progressively wetter and cloudier; spring begins especially gloomy, and from March to June each of the months averages more than 180 mm (7.1 in) of rainfall. After the heavy rains subside in June, summer is especially sunny. Autumn is warm and relatively dry.

Demographics

According to the official website, there are 8,361,440 people living within prefecture limits. More than 99% are Han Chinese, and 71,200 people belong to 41 minority ethnical groups (mainly She, Hui and Yao). Ganzhou also contains the largest Hakka community in Jiangxi, with a significant population that speaks Hakka Chinese.

Tourism

Ganzhou is known as the "Orange Capital of the World" as well as the "Tungsten Capital of the World". The world's largest mechanical clock is located in Ganzhou called the Harmony Clock Tower, which was manufactured by UK-based clockmakers Smith of Derby Group. Though encircled by mountain scenery, other notable attractions in Jiangxi are Jingdezhen, Nanchang and Lushan among others. Some of the places of interest in Ganzhou include:

Zhanggong has a city wall dating to the Song Dynasty, as well as a number of pavilions and temples from the Ming and Qing. Altogether there are some 17 National Cultural Relic Protection Units in Ganzhou and 48 Provincial-level Cultural Relic Protection Units.

Press

Ganzhou Daily covers news about Ganzhou.

Roads and highways

Railway

The Beijing-Jiulong Railway goes through Ganzhou from north to south, and it meets the Ganzhou–Longyan Railway (Ganlong line) at East Ganzhou Railway Station in Zhanggong District.

Major railway stations in Ganzhou are:

Air

The new Ganzhou Huangjin Airport, located in Nankang, was opened on March 26, 2008. Its name inherited from the old Huangjin Airport in Huangjin Town, Zhanggong District, which was closed since it was too close to the expanding Ganzhou urban area. It has domestic routes to Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanchang, Xiamen, Nanjing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Chongqing and Beijing.

Notable residents

Nobel Laureate Gao Xingjian (Nobel Prize for literature in 2000) was born in Ganzhou.

Sister cities