Nanjing (nänˈjĭngˈ) [key] or Nanking nănˈkĭngˈ [southern
capital], city (1994 est. pop. 2,224,200), capital of Jiangsu
prov., E central China, in a bend of the Chang (Yangtze) River.
It has served at times in the past as capital of China. The
second largest city in the region (after Shanghai), Nanjing is
at the intersection of three major railroad lines. Industry,
which once centered around "nankeen" cloth (unbleached cotton
goods), was vigorously developed under the Communist government.
The city now has an integrated iron-steel complex, an oil
refinery, food-processing establishments, and hundreds of plants
making chemicals, textiles, cement, fertilizers, machinery,
weapons, electronic equipment, optical instruments, photographic
equipment, and trucks. Nanjing has long been celebrated as a
literary and political center. It was the capital of China from
the 3d to 6th cent. A.D. and again from 1368 to 1421. The Treaty
of Nanjing, signed in 1842 at the end of the Opium War, opened
China to foreign trade. Durin