Nanjing

American  

[nahn-jing] / ˈnɑnˈdʒɪŋ /

(Older Spelling) Nanking or Nanching

noun

Pinyin.

1. a port in and the capital of Jiangsu province, in eastern China, on the Chang Jiang: a former capital of China.

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Nanjing British  

/ ˈnænˈtʃɪŋ, ˈnænˈkɪŋ, ˈnænˈdʒɪŋ /

noun

1. a port in E central China, capital of Jiangsu province, on the Yangtze River: capital of the Chinese empire and a literary centre from the 14th to 17th centuries; capital of Nationalist China (1928–37); site of a massacre of about 300 000 civilians by the invading Japanese army in 1937; university (1928). Pop: 2 806 000 (2005 est)

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Nanjing Cultural  

1. City in eastern China on the Yangtze River, northeast of Shanghai; an industrial and transportation center.

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Discover More

During the Second Sino-Japanese War in the 1930s, Nanjing was the scene of a Japanese massacre (the Rape of Nanking) and became the seat of a puppet regime established by the Japanese.

China's imperial capital on several occasions, it was made capital of the Republic of China by Sun Yat-sen in 1912 after the Chinese Revolution, by Nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek from 1928 to 1937, and again from 1946 to 1949.

Example Sentences

An international student from Nanjing, China, Wang hopes to bring her technical skills back to the fashion world at home, as athletic wear increasingly dominates street style in China.

From Los Angeles Times • May 11, 2026

Working with researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Xiao began testing different possibilities.

From Science Daily • Apr. 15, 2026

Cheng will be in China for six days, visiting Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing where she hopes to meet Xi.

From Barron's • Apr. 7, 2026

She is expected to meet Xi later in her six-day trip which will span Shanghai, Nanjing and Beijing.

From BBC • Apr. 7, 2026

Nanjing Road was lined with big stores, and always bustled with activity.

From "Red Scarf Girl: A Memoir of the Cultural Revolution" by Ji-li Jiang