Hemmed in by hills, NANCHANG (Southern Prosperity) sits on Jiangxi's major river, the Gan Jiang , some 70km south of where it flows into Poyang Hu. Built on trade, today Nanchang has the rail link with Shanghai and Changsha to thank for its character; unfortunately, this mostly reflects its steel and chemical industries and an overbearing, incomplete reconstruction since the 1950s. An initially grey and noisy place afflicted by the usual stifling summer temperatures, first impressions are slightly moderated by the handful of older monuments gradually being resurrected, and the sheer enthusiasm with which locals have grasped free-market principles, crowding every alley with stalls.
Provincial capital or not, Nanchang saw little action until the twentieth century, when the city was occupied by the Guomindang army in December 1926. At the time, the military was still an amalgam of Nationalist and Communist forces, but when Chiang Kaishek broke his marriage of convenience with the Communists the following year, any left-wing elements were expelled from the Party. On August 1, 1927, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De , two Communist GMD officers, mutinied in Nanchang and took control of the city with thirty thousand troops. Though they were soon forced to flee into Jiangxi's mountainous south, the day is celebrated as the foundation of the People's Liberation Army , and the red PLA flag still bears the Chinese characters "8" and "1" ( bayi) for the month and day - as do several of Nanchang's streets and public spaces.
The City
Despite a few antiques rising from the rubble, history has made Nanchang something of a modern period piece, its architecture mostly reflecting the Civil War years and later Soviet-inspired industrialization. Much of this, such as the overbearing Exhibition Hall and the finer Jiangxi Binguan, is concentrated around Renmin Square , an enormous open space impressive mainly for its size. At the southern end is the white August 1 Monument , and also the Provincial Museum , a messy-looking, soon-to-be-restored building housing a large collection of Jingdezhen ceramics. Nanchang's bustling shopping districts are due west of Renmin Square along Ruzi Lu and Zhongshan Lu , but to continue a tour of the city, head up Bayi Dadao and then left down Minde Lu. Not far along and set back off the street is Youmin Si , a Buddhist temple dating back to 503 AD, which (perhaps because of the city's revolutionary associations) Nanchang's Red Guards seem to have been especially diligent in wrecking during the 1960s. Restorations are nearly complete, however, and include a striking, ten-metre-high standing Buddha statue , which rises out of a lotus flower towards a cupola decorated with a coiled golden dragon. Opposite the temple, Bayi Park , while not ravishingly attractive, does at least offer some greenery and water after the dusty tones of the city streets.
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