Welcome to Nanchang!
Nanchang (南昌 Nánchāng) is the capital of Jiangxi Province and is the cultural, economic, and scientific center of Jiangxi. The city has deep ties to Chinese communist history, known as Heroes' City because it was here that the "first shots of the revolution were heard", it's where the communist uprising of 1 August 1927 began. This is why "BaYi" (8-1, August 1st) is throughout the city, including the central square with its monument. That spirit lives on in the people, who are considered loud and perhaps even aggressive -- even by Chinese standards.
The city is largely split (both in geography and in social class) by the Gan river (Ganjiang). Compare the old, cultural, and claustrophobic main city of Nanchang (east of the Gan River) with the new, shiny, almost cultureless city of Honggutan, to the west of the river (where many ex-pats live). It is connected by a few bridges, the BaYi and Nanchang bridges being the most used. The BaYi Bridge joins the old city on the east bank of the river with the new city on the west. The bridge is 'honored' with the communist name "BaYi" (Mao's revolution) but at the same time having Deng Xiaoping's "black and white cats" of capitalistic communism adorning the old bridge to the new, developed area of Honggutan. The city, like most Chinese cities, is dealing with the new wave of Chinese wealth, and old traditions are quickly eroding in favor of Maseratis and tall 5-star hotels along the river. Perhaps in a few places in China is the divide between old customs and new wealth as apparent as in divided Nanchang.
Nanchang (Chinese: 南昌, pinyin: Nánchāng) is the capital of Jiangxi Province, People's Republic of China. As of November 2017, the total population in Nanchang City was 5,246,600, while the built-up (or metro) area made of 6 urban districts plus Nanchang county is home to more than 4,300,000 inhabitants. Located in the north-central part of the province and in the hinterland of Poyang Lake Plain, it is bounded on the west by the Jiuling Mountains, and on the east by Poyang Lake. Because of its strategic location connecting the prosperous East and South China, it has become a major railway hub in Southern China in recent decades.
As the Nanchang Uprising in 1927 is distinctively recognized by the ruling Communist Party as "firing the first gunshot against the evil Nationalists", the current government has therefore named the city since 1949 "the City of Heroes", "the place where the People's Liberation Army was born", and the most widely known "place where the military banner of the People's Liberation Army was first raised". Nanchang is also a major city, appearing among the top 200 cities in the world by scientific research outputs, as tracked by the Nature Index and home to Nanchang University, the key national university of “Project 211” in the city.