Shanghai
Shanghai is one of the four municipalities under the direct administration of the central government of the People's Republic of China, the largest city in China by population, the second most populous city proper in the world, with a population of 24.18 million as of 2017. It is a transport hub, with the world's busiest container port. Located in the Yangtze River Delta, it sits on the south edge of the estuary of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the East China coast; the municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north and west, is bounded to the east by the East China Sea. As a major administrative and trading city, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to trade and recognition of its favourable port location and economic potential; the city was one of five treaty ports forced open to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War. The subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty of Whampoa allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession.
The city flourished as a centre of commerce between China and other parts of the world, became the primary financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. During the World War II, the city was the site of the major Battle of Shanghai. After the war, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries, the city's global influence declined. In the 1990s, the economic reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance and foreign investment to the city, it has since re-emerged as a hub for international finance. Shanghai has been described as the "showpiece" of the booming economy of mainland China; the two Chinese characters in the city's name are 上 and 海, together meaning "Upon-the-Sea". The earliest occurrence of this name dates from the 11th-century Song dynasty, at which time there was a river confluence and a town with this name in the area. There are disputes as to how the name should be understood, but Chinese historians have concluded that during the Tang dynasty Shanghai was on the sea.
Shanghai is abbreviated 沪 in Chinese, a contraction of 沪渎, a 4th- or 5th-century Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek when it was the main conduit into the ocean. This character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today. Another alternative name for Shanghai is Shēn or Shēnchéng, from Lord Chunshen, a 3rd-century BC nobleman and prime minister of the state of Chu, whose fief included modern Shanghai. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai use Shen in their names, such as Shanghai Shenhua F. C. and Shen Bao. Huating was another early name for Shanghai. In AD 751, during the mid-Tang dynasty, Huating County was established by the Governor of Wu Commandery Zhao Juzhen at modern-day Songjiang, the first county-level administration within modern-day Shanghai. Today, Huating appears as the name of a four-star hotel in the city; the city has various nicknames in English, including "Pearl of the Orient" and "Paris of the East". During the Spring and Autumn period, the Shanghai area belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu.
During the Warring States period, Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu, one of the Four Lords of the Warring States. He ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River, its former or poetic name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of "Shēn". Fishermen living in the Shanghai area created a fish tool called the hù, which lent its name to the outlet of Suzhou Creek north of the Old City and became a common nickname and abbreviation for the city. During the Tang and Song dynasties, Qinglong Town in modern Qingpu District was a major trading port. Established in 746, it developed into what contemporary sources called a "giant town of the Southeast", with thirteen temples and seven pagodas; the famous Song scholar and artist Mi Fu served as its mayor. The port had a thriving trade with provinces along the Yangtze River and the Chinese coast, as well as foreign countries such as Japan and Silla. By the end of the Song dynasty, the center of trading had moved downstream of the Wusong River to Shanghai, upgraded in status from a village to a market town in 1074, in 1172 a second sea wall was built to stabilize the ocean coastline, supplementing an earlier dike.
From the Yuan dynasty in 1292 until Shanghai became a municipality in 1927, central Shanghai was administered as a county under Songjiang Prefecture, whose seat was at the present-day Songjiang District. Two important events helped promote Shanghai's development in the Ming dynasty. A city wall was built for the first time in 1554 to protect the town from raids by Japanese pirates, it measured 10 metres high and 5 kilometres in circumference. During the Wanli reign, Shanghai received an important psychological boost from the erection of a City God Temple in 1602; this honour was reserved for prefectural capitals and not given to a mere county seat such as Shang
Chinese literature
The history of Chinese literature extends thousands of years, from the earliest recorded dynastic court archives to the mature vernacular fiction novels that arose during the Ming dynasty to entertain the masses of literate Chinese. The introduction of widespread woodblock printing during the Tang dynasty and the invention of movable type printing by Bi Sheng during the Song dynasty spread written knowledge throughout China. In more modern times, the author Lu Xun is considered the founder of baihua literature in China. Formation of the earliest layer of Chinese literature was influenced by oral traditions of different social and professional provenance: cult and lay musical practices, astronomy, exorcism. An attempt at tracing the genealogy of Chinese literature to religious spells and incantations was made by Liu Shipei. There is a wealth of early Chinese literature dating from the Hundred Schools of Thought that occurred during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty; the most important of these include the Classics of Confucianism, of Daoism, of Mohism, of Legalism, as well as works of military science and Chinese history.
Note that, except for the books of poems and songs, most of this literature is philosophical and didactic. However, these texts maintained their significance through both their prose style; the Confucian works in particular have been of key importance to Chinese culture and history, as a set of works known as the Four Books and Five Classics were, in the 12th century AD, chosen as the basis for the Imperial examination for any government post. These nine books therefore became the center of the educational system, they have been grouped into two categories: the Five Classics commented and edited by Confucius, the Four Books. The Five Classics are: Classic of Changes, a divination manual; the Four Books are: the Analects of Confucius, a book of pithy sayings attributed to Confucius and recorded by his disciples. Other important philosophical works include the Mohist Mozi, which taught "inclusive love" as both an ethical and social principle, Hanfeizi, one of the central Legalist texts. Important Daoist classics include the Dao De Jing, the Zhuangzi, the Liezi.
Authors combined Daoism with Confucianism and Legalism, such as Liu An, whose Huainanzi added to the fields of geography and topography. Among the classics of military science, The Art of War by Sun Tzu was the first to outline guidelines for effective international diplomacy, it was the first in a tradition of Chinese military treatises, such as the Jingling Zongyao and the Huolongjing. The Chinese kept consistent and accurate court records after the year 841 BC, with the beginning of the Gonghe Regency of the Western Zhou Dynasty; the earliest known narrative history of China was the Zuo Zhuan, compiled no than 389 BC, attributed to the blind 5th-century BC historian Zuo Qiuming. The Book of Documents is thought to have been compiled as far back as the 6th century BC, was compiled by the 4th century BC, the latest date for the writing of the Guodian Chu Slips unearthed in a Hubei tomb in 1993; the Book of Documents included early information on geography in the Yu Gong chapter. The Bamboo Annals found in 281 AD in the tomb of the King of Wei, interred in 296 BC, provide another example.
Another early text was the political strategy book of the Zhan Guo Ce, compiled between the 3rd and 1st centuries BC, with partial amounts of the text found amongst the 2nd century BC tomb site at Mawangdui. The oldest extant dictionary in China is the Erya, dated to the 3rd century BC, anonymously written but with commentary by the historian Guo Pu. Other early dictionaries include the Fangyan by the Shuowen Jiezi by Xu Shen. One of the largest was the Kangxi Dictionary compiled by 1716 under the auspices of the Kangxi Emperor. Although court records and other independent records existed beforehand, the definitive work in early Chinese historical writing was the Shiji, or Records of the Grand Historian written by Han Dynasty court historian Sima Qian; this groundbreaking text laid the foundation for Chinese historiography and the many official Chinese historical texts compiled for each dynasty thereafter. Sima Qian is compared to the Greek Herodotus in scope and method, because he covered Chinese history from the mythical Xia Dynasty until the contemporary reign of Emperor Wu of Han while retaining an objective and non-biased standpoint.
This was difficult for the official dynastic historians, who used historical works to justify the reign of the current dynasty. He influenced the written works
County Westmeath
County Westmeath is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Midlands Region, it formed part of the historic Kingdom of Meath. It was named Mide. Westmeath County Council is the administrative body for the county, the county town is Mullingar. At the 2016 census, the population of the county was 88,770. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the territory of the Gaelic Kingdom of Meath formed the basis for the Anglo-Norman Lordship of Meath granted by King Henry II of England to Hugh de Lacy in 1172. Following the failure of de Lacy's male heirs in 1241, the Lordship was split between two great-granddaughters. One moiety, a central eastern portion, was awarded to Maud as the liberty of Trim; the liberty and royal county were merged in 1461. While the east of the county was in the English Pale, the west was Gaelicised in the fourteenth century and outside the control of the sheriff of Meath. In 1543, during the Tudor re-conquest of Ireland, the Parliament of Ireland passed an act dividing the county into two, the eastern portion retaining the name Meath and the western portion called Westmeath.
Westmeath is the 20th largest of Ireland's 32 counties by area and the 22nd largest in terms of population. It is the sixth largest of Leinster’s 12 counties in size and eighth largest in terms of population; the Hill of Uisneach in the barony of Moycashel is sometimes regarded as the notional geographical centre of Ireland although the actual geographic centre of Ireland lies in neighbouring County Roscommon. The summit of Mullaghmeen is the highest point in County Westmeath. At just 258 metres this makes it the lowest county top in Ireland; the head office of Westmeath County Council is located in Mullingar. There are 20 councillors; the three electoral areas of Westmeath are Mullingar-Coole and Mullingar-Kilbeggan. The Local Government Act 1898, provided the framework for the establishment of County Councils throughout Ireland; the first meeting of Westmeath County Council was held on 22 April 1899. Westmeath's population growth has been stronger than the national average. After the Great Famine, the population of Westmeath declined dramatically.
It stabilised in the middle of the 20th century, has continued to grow. Westmeath's proximity to Dublin, with good motorway facilities and frequent rail service, has made commuting popular. County Westmeath's population fell in the century following the Great Famine, with many leaving for better opportunities in America; the largest town in the county is Athlone, followed by the County town Mullingar. Westmeath is the largest county by population in the Irish Midlands. Important commercial and marketing centres include Moate, Kinnegad, Delvin, Rochfortbridge and Castlepollard. According to the 2011 census, 51.9% of Westmeath households have at least one Irish speaker. Westmeath is one of the few counties in Ireland where some census records from 1841 are still available; some of the records of that census have been digitised and maintained by the National Archives of Ireland. As of the 2016 census, Westmeath had a population of 88,770, consisting of 44,082 males and 44,668 females; the Central Statistics Office said that despite the overall increase in population, rural population had still fallen.
Development occurred around the major market centres of Mullingar and Kinnegad. Athlone developed due to its military significance, its strategic location on the main Dublin–Galway route across the River Shannon. Mullingar gained considerable advantage from the development of the Royal Canal; the canal facilitated cheap transport of produce to Dublin and Europe. Athlone and Mullingar expanded further with the coming of the Midland Great Western Railway network in the nineteenth century. Tourism in Westmeath is based on its many water amenities; the county lakes include Lough Derravaragh, Lough Ennell, Lough Owel, Lough Lene, Lough Sheelin and Lough Ree. Both the Grand Canal, the Royal Canal flow through Westmeath, the River Shannon has a modern inland harbour in Athlone. In 2017 the largest employment sectors within Westmeath were: Two major "Greenway" projects are intended to improve cycling facilities; the Athone - Mullingar section of the Dublin – Galway Greenway, along the old railway corridor between Athlone and Mullingar, was constructed in 2015.
The Royal Canal Greenway takes tourists from the county boundary to Mullingar, on towards Longford. Those wishing to use the Dublin-Galway Greenway can transfer from the Royal Canal route to the old rail corridor onwards towards Athlone; the development of industry in Westmeath has been based on food processing and consumer products. Whiskey is distilled in Kilbeggan and tobacco is processed in Mullingar; the county has an extensive dairy trade. In recent times, the manufacturer Alkermes has located in Athlone; the eastern part of the county is home to commuters, many of whom work at the technology parks on the western side of Dublin. Mullingar is renowned for the high quality of its veal. Weaned cattle from the west of the Shannon are fattened for market on the lush grasslands of Meath and Westmeath; the cattle are used to maintain grassland to help sustain wildlife in the areas fringing the Bog of Allen. Westmeath is home to many stud farms; the plains of Westmeath, covered in calcium-rich marl, co
Zhenjiang
Zhenjiang romanized as Chinkiang, is a prefecture-level city in Jiangsu Province, China. It lies on the southern bank of the Yangtze River near its intersection with the Grand Canal, it is between Nanjing and Changzhou. Zhenjiang was the provincial capital of Jiangsu and remains as an important transportation hub; the town is best known in China and abroad for its fragrant black vinegar, a staple of Chinese cooking. Prior to the adoption of Hanyu Pinyin, the city's name was romanized as Chin-keang-foo, Chen-kiang-fu, or Chinkiang. Former names include Runzhou. A part of Zhenjiang was the possession of Ce, created the Marquess of Yi in the early Western Zhou; the region was renamed Zhufang and Guyang, supposedly. After it was captured by the First Emperor of the Qin in 221 BC, it became a county seat and was given the name Dantu. A Chinese legend holds that the site's fengshui was so advantageous that the First Emperor ordered 3000 prisoners to dig a tunnel through one of Zhenjiang's hills to dissipate its qi.
It became a prefectural seat during the middle of the 3rd century BC. The Sui took the city in AD 581 and made it an important garrison on the lower Yangtze, the source of its present name. In 595, it was made a commandery seat, its importance grew with the construction of the Grand Canal, after which it served as the chief collection and transit center for the grain tax paid by the farmers of the Yangtze delta. The city flourished from the 10th to 13th centuries, when it produced fine silks and silverware for the Song emperors; the 11th-century scientist and statesman Shen Kuo composed his 1088 Dream Pool Essays during his retirement in a garden estate on the outskirts of the city. It was taken by the Mongolians during their 1275 campaign against the Song capital at Hangzhou. Under the Yuan, some Nestorian Christians were reported living in the city; the city fell to Xu Da on 17 March 1356. The Southern Ming placed the town under Zheng Zhifeng, brother of Zheng Zhilong and favorite uncle of Koxinga, although he was fooled into wasting most of his ammunition against a feint and abandoned the city to the Qing on 1 June 1645.
Under the Qing, Zhenjiang was a city of half a million surrounded by a circuit of brick city walls up to 35 feet high. It was captured by the British on 21 July 1842 during the First Opium War and after a fierce resistance, leaving the path open to Nanjing and prompting a concessionary treaty to avoid its loss. A decade massive floods of the Yellow River altered its course north of Shandong and closed the northern path of the Grand Canal. Soon after, the town was sacked by the Taiping rebels in 1853, it was recaptured by the Qing in 1858 and opened as a treaty port in 1861. Into the 1870s, Chaozhou merchants used their connections in Zhenjiang to make it a regional distribution center for opium purchased from the foreign merchants in Shanghai; the population was estimated at 168,000 in 1904. The southern part of the Grand Canal was obstructed in the early 20th century, although by that point the city was connected by rail to Shanghai and Nanjing; the Nationalist government revoked British concession at Zhenjiang in 1929.
From 1928 to 1949, while Nanjing served as the capital of the Republic of China, Zhenjiang served as the provincial capital for Jiangsu. During World War II, the city fell to Japan's Shanghai Expeditionary Army in the morning of 8 December 1937, shortly before the capture of Nanjing, but local resistance to the Japanese is still celebrated among the Chinese; when the Communists won the Chinese Civil War and relocated the capital to Beijing, Nanjing resumed its role as Jiangsu's capital. Zhenjiang is still one of China's busiest ports for domestic commerce, serving as a hub for trade among Jiangsu and Shanghai; the trade consists of grain, cotton and lumber. The other main industries are in the field of food processing and paper pulp manufacturing; the prefecture-level city of Zhenjiang administers 6 county-level divisions, including three districts and three county-level cities. These are further divided into 77 township-level divisions, including 66 towns, 1 township and 10subdistricts; as in Nanjing, Zhenjiang's old Wu dialects have been supplanted by a dialect of Eastern Mandarin.
It is incomprehensible to the residents of neighboring Changzhou, whose dialect remains a form of Taihu Wu. Zhenjiang is most famous for its fragrant black vinegar. Chinese legend traces it to Heita, the son of the supposed inventor of alcoholic beverages. Having forgotten about a vat of wine for 21 days, he found it had spoiled but now possessed a pleasant sour taste that could be used to compliment foods; the present recipe is said to date back 1400 years, with its major modern manufacturer—the Jiangsu Hengshun Vinegar Industry Co.—dating to 1840. Other local specialties include crab cream bun, Chinkiang pork, pickled vegetables. Households in Zhenjiang would prepare for the new year by eating a red-bean dish and avoiding rice. One bowl of beans was left on the table to feed the home's flies, from the belief that they would avoid disturbing the family during the new year festivities. A natural spring in a park on the edge of Zhenjiang has been famed since the Tang as the best in Jiangsu for making tea.
It is now marketed as the "First Spring under Heaven". The hilly scenery in Zhenjiang's southern suburbs was considered beautiful enough to be the theme of many landscapes by Chinese painters; the 15th-century Japanese ink-wash maste
Hai River
The Hai River known as the Peiho, Pei He or Pei Ho, is a Chinese river connecting Beijing to Tianjin and the Bohai Sea. The Hai River at Tianjin is formed by the confluence of five rivers, the Southern Canal, Ziya River, Daqing River, Yongding River, the Northern Canal; the southern and northern canals are parts of the Grand Canal. The Southern Canal is joined by the Wei River at Linqing; the Northern Canal joins with the Bai He at Tongzhou. The Northern Canal is the only waterway from the sea to Beijing. Therefore, early Westerners called the Hai He the Bai He. At Tianjin, through the Grand Canal, the Hai connects with the Yangtze rivers; the construction of the Grand Canal altered the rivers of the Hai He basin. The Wei, Ziya Yongding and Bai Rivers flowed separately to the sea; the Grand Canal cut through the lower reaches of these rivers and fused them into one outlet to the sea, in the form of the current Hai He. Hai He is 1,329 kilometres long measured from the longest tributary. However, the Hai He is only around 70 kilometres from Tianjin to its estuary.
Its basin has an area of 319,000 km2. Its annual flow is one-thirtieth that of the Yangtze River. In 1863 seagoing ships could reach the head of navigation at Tongzhou, but the crooked river was difficult for large vessels. During the Boxer Rebellion, Imperial Chinese forces deployed a weapon called "electric mines" on June 15, at the Baihe river before the Battle of Dagu Forts, to prevent the western Eight-Nation Alliance from sending ships to attack; this was reported by American military intelligence in the United States. War Dept. by the United States. Adjutant-General's Office. Military Information Division. Like the Yellow River, the Hai is exceedingly muddy because of the powdery soil through which it flows; the silt carried by the water deposits in the lower reaches. The waters from the five major tributaries only have one shallow outlet to the sea, which makes such floods stronger; because China's capital and the third largest city, both lie in the Hai He Basin, Hai He floods cause a significant loss.
To alleviate flooding, reservoirs have been built and artificial channels dug to divert excess water directly into the sea. For example, the Chaobai River is diverted to the Chaobai Xin River and no longer joins with the Northern Canal. Due to industrial and urban development in the Hai He Basin, the volume of water flow has decreased. Many smaller tributaries and some of the major tributaries are dry for most of the year. With reduced water flow, water pollution worsens; the water shortage in the Hai He basin is expected to be alleviated by the South-North Water Transfer Project. Geography of China Taku Forts This article incorporates text from Publication, Issue 33 Document, by United States. Adjutant-General's Office. Military Information Division, a publication from 1901 now in the public domain in the United States; this article incorporates text from Reports on military operations in South China. July, 1901, by United States. Adjutant-General's Office. Military Information Division, Stephen L'H.
Slocum, Carl Reichmann, Adna Romanga Chaffee, a publication from 1901 now in the public domain in the United States. This article incorporates text from Reports on military operations in South Africa and China, by Stephan L'H. Slocum, Carl Reichmann, Adna Romanza Chaffee, United States. Adjutant-General's Office. Military Information Division, a publication from 1901 now in the public domain in the United States. Domagalski, J. L. et al.. Comparative water-quality assessment of the Hai He River basin in the People's Republic of China and three similar basins in the United States. Reston, VA: U. S. Department of the Interior, U. S. Geological Survey
Yangtze
The Yangtze or Yangzi, 6,300 km long, is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world. The river is the longest in the world to flow within one country, it drains one-fifth of the land area of China, its river basin is home to nearly one-third of the country's population. The Yangtze is the sixth-largest river by discharge volume in the world; the English name Yangtze derives from the Chinese name Yángzǐ Jiāng, which refers to the lowest 435 km of the river between Nanjing and Shanghai. The whole river is known in China as Cháng Jiāng. In more recent modern texts, it is spelled as the Yangzi, in align with its modern pinyin; the Yangtze plays a large role in the history and economy of China. The prosperous Yangtze River Delta generates as much as 20% of the PRC's GDP; the Yangtze River flows through a wide array of ecosystems and is habitat to several endemic and endangered species including the Chinese alligator, the narrow-ridged finless porpoise, the Chinese paddlefish, the Yangtze River dolphin or baiji, the Yangtze sturgeon.
For thousands of years, the river has been used for water, sanitation, industry, boundary-marking and war. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world. In recent years, the river has suffered from industrial pollution, plastic pollution, agricultural run-off and loss of wetland and lakes, which exacerbates seasonal flooding; some sections of the river are now protected as nature reserves. A stretch of the upstream Yangtze flowing through deep gorges in western Yunnan is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In mid-2014, the Chinese government announced it was building a multi-tier transport network, comprising railways and airports, to create a new economic belt alongside the river; because the source of the Yangtze was not ascertained until modern times, the Chinese have given different names to lower and upstream sections of the river."Yangtze" was the name of Chang Jiang for the lower part from Nanjing to the river mouth at Shanghai.
However, due to the fact that Christian missionaries carried out their activities in this area and were familiar with the name of this part of Chang Jiang, "Yangtze river" was used to refer to the whole Chang Jiang in the English language. In modern Chinese, Yangtze is still used to refer to the lower part of Chang Jiang from Nanjing to the river mouth. Yangtze never stands for the whole Chang Jiang. Chang Jiang is the modern Chinese name for the lower 2,884 km of the Yangtze from its confluence with the Min River at Yibin in Sichuan province to the river mouth at Shanghai. Chang Jiang means the "Long River." In Old Chinese, this stretch of the Yangtze was called Jiang/Kiang 江, a character of phono-semantic compound origin, combining the water radical 氵 with the homophone 工. Krong was a word in the Austroasiatic language of local peoples such as the Yue. Similar to *krong in Proto-Vietnamese and krung in Mon, all meaning "river", it is related to modern Vietnamese sông and Khmer kôngkea. By the Han dynasty, Jiang had come to mean any river in Chinese, this river was distinguished as the "Great River" 大江.
The epithet 長, means "long", was first formally applied to the river during the Six Dynasties period. Various sections of Chang Jiang have local names. From Yibin to Yichang, the river through Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality is known as the Chuan Jiang or "Sichuan River." In Hubei Province, the river is called the Jing Jiang or the "Jing River" after Jingzhou. In Anhui Province, the river takes on the local name Wan Jiang after the shorthand name for Anhui, wǎn, and Yangzi Jiang or the "Yangzi River", from which the English name Yangtze is derived, is the local name for the Lower Yangtze in the region of Yangzhou. The name comes from an ancient ferry crossing called Yangzi or Yangzijin. Europeans who arrived in the Yangtze River Delta region applied this local name to the Å river; the dividing site between upstream and midstream is considered to be at Yichang and that between midstream and downstream at Hukou. The Jinsha River is the name for 2,308 km of the Yangtze from Yibin upstream to the confluence with the Batang River near Yushu in Qinghai Province.
From antiquity until the Ming Dynasty, this stretch of the river was believed to be a tributary of the Yangtze while the Min River was thought to be the main course of the river above Yibin. In the Yu Gong, written in the fifth century BCE, this section is called the Hei Shui 黑水 or the "Black Water." The name "Jinsha" originates in the Song dynasty when the river attracted large numbers of gold prospectors. Gold prospecting along the Jinsha continued to this day. Prior to the Song dynasty, other names were used including, for example Lújiāng from the Three Kingdoms period; the Tongtian River describes the 813 km section from Yushu up to the confluence with the Dangqu River. The name comes from a fabled river in the Journey to the West. In antiquity, it was called the Yak River. In Mongolian, this section is known as the Murui-ussu. and sometimes confused with the nearby Baishui. The Tuotuo River is the official headstream of the Yangtze, a
Tianjin
Tianjin romanized as Tientsin, is a coastal metropolis in northern China and one of the nine national central cities of the People's Republic of China, with a total population of 15,621,200 as of 2016 estimation. Its built-up area, made up of 12 central districts, was home to 12,491,300 inhabitants in 2016 and is the world's 29th-largest agglomeration and 11th-most populous city proper, it is governed as one of the four municipalities under the direct administration of central government of the PRC and is thus under direct administration of the central government. Tianjin borders Hebei Province and Beijing Municipality, bounded to the east by the Bohai Gulf portion of the Yellow Sea. Part of the Bohai Economic Rim, it is the largest coastal city in northern China. In terms of urban population, Tianjin is the fourth largest in China, after Shanghai and Guangzhou. In terms of administrative area population, Tianjin ranks fifth in Mainland China; the walled city of Tianjin was built in 1404. As a treaty port since 1860, Tianjin has been a major gateway to Beijing.
During the Boxer Rebellion the city was the seat of the Tianjin Provisional Government. Under the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China, Tianjin became one of the largest cities in the region. At that time, numerous European-style buildings and mansions were constructed in concessions, many of which are well-preserved today. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Tianjin suffered a depression due to the policy of the central government and Tangshan earthquake, but recovered from 1990s. Nowadays Tianjin is a dual-core city, with its main urban area located along the Hai River, which connects to the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers via the Grand Canal; as of the end of 2010, around 285 Fortune 500 companies have set up base in Binhai. Since 2010, Tianjin's Yujiapu Financial District has become known as China's Manhattan. Tianjin is the pinyin romanization of the Chinese characters 天津, which mean "Heavenly Ford" or "Ford of Heaven"; the origin of the name is obscure. One folk etymology is that it was an homage to the patriotic Chu poet Qu Yuan, whose "Li Sao" includes the verse "...departing from the Ford of Heaven at dawn...".
Another is that it honors a former name of the Girl, a Chinese constellation recorded under the name Tianjin in the Astronomical Record section of the Book of Sui. A third is; the most common are that it was bestowed by the Yongle Emperor of the Ming, who crossed Tianjin's Gu River on his way south to overthrow his nephew the Jianwen Emperor. The land where Tianjin is located today was created in ancient times by sedimentation of various rivers entering the sea at Bohai Gulf, including the Yellow River, which entered the open sea in this area at one point; the opening of the Grand Canal during the Sui dynasty prompted the development of Tianjin into a trading center. During the Qing dynasty Tianjin was promoted to a prefecture or Zhou in 1725 with Tianjin County established under the prefecture in 1731, it was upgraded to an urban prefecture or Fu before becoming a relay station under the command of the Viceroy of Zhili. In 1856, Chinese soldiers boarded The Arrow, a Chinese-owned ship registered in Hong Kong flying the British flag and suspected of piracy, of being engaged in the opium trade.
They imprisoned them. In response, the British and French sent gunboats under the command of Admiral Sir Michael Seymour to capture the Taku forts near Tianjin in May 1858. At the end of the first part of the Second Opium War in June of the same year, the British and French prevailed, the Treaty of Tientsin were signed, which opened Tianjin to foreign trade; the treaties were ratified by the Xianfeng Emperor in 1860, Tianjin was formally opened to Great Britain and France, thus to the outside world. Between 1895 and 1900, Britain and France were joined by Japan and Russia, by countries without Chinese concessions such as Austria-Hungary and Belgium, in establishing self-contained concessions in Tianjin, each with its own prisons, schools and hospitals; these nations left many architectural reminders of their rule, notably churches and thousands of villas. The presence of foreign influence in Tianjin was not always peaceful. In June 1870, the orphanage held by the Wanghailou Church, in Tianjin, built by French Roman Catholic missionaries, was accused of the kidnapping and brainwashing of Chinese children.
On June 21, the magistrate of Tianjin County initiated a showdown at the church that developed into violent clashes between the church's Christian supporters and non-Christian Tianjin residents. The furious protestors burned down Wanghailou Church and the nearby French consulate and killed eighteen foreigners including ten French nuns, the French consul, merchants. France and six other Western nations complained to the Qing government, forced to pay compensation for the incident. In 1885 Li Hongzhang founded the Tianjin Military Academy for Chinese army officers, with German advisers, as part of his military reforms; the move was supported by Anhui Army commander Zhou Shengchuan. The academy was to serve Anhui Green Standard Army officers. Various practical military and science subjects were taught at the academy; the instructors were Germa
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Wade, Sir Thomas Francis". Encyclopædia Britannica. 28 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
