Nanjing (Nanking) has several times been the capital city of China, most recently from the late 1920s to the mid 40s when the Nationalists under the command of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek were in the ascendancy. But following their 1949 defeat in the Chinese civil war, Chiang fled to Taiwan and the victorious Communists removed the national capital to Beijing. These days Nanjing is a pleasant, green city of 8 million, the capital of affluent Jiangsu province.
Few universities in China would be as pleasant as leafy Nanjing University, and it was here where my second class was held. Along with thousands of locals, many foreign students study and live here. But we were here for just one week, and when my class finished on Sunday, we travelled north out of the city and over the Yangtze River to Nanjing Pearl Lake, a natural beauty spot popular with families on a weekend outing.
All across the city Nanjing is reaching for the sky. It already has a lot of high-rise but there are plenty more new apartment blocks and office towers on the way.
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