page_title: Nanjing
section_title: Qing dynasty and Taiping Rebellion
hierarchical_section_title: Nanjing / History / Qing dynasty and Taiping Rebellion
context_page_description: Nanjing, alternatively romanized as Nanking and Nankin, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China and the second largest city in the East China region, with 11 districts, an administrative area of 6,600 km² and a total population of 8,505,500 as of 2019.
  Situated in the Yangtze River Delta region, Nanjing has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having served as the capital of various Chinese dynasties, kingdoms and republican governments dating from the 3rd century to 1949, and has thus long been a major center of culture, education, research, politics, economy, transport networks and tourism, being the home to one of the world's largest inland ports. The city is also one of the fifteen sub-provincial cities in the People's Republic of China's administrative structure, enjoying jurisdictional and economic autonomy only slightly less than that of a province. Nanjing has been ranked seventh in the evaluation of "Cities with Strongest Comprehensive Strength" issued by the National Statistics Bureau, and second in the evaluation of cities with most sustainable development potential in the Yangtze River Delta.
context_section_description: Under the Qing dynasty (1644–1911), the Nanjing area was known as Jiangning and served as the seat of government for the Viceroy of Liangjiang. It was the site of a Qing Army garrison. It had been visited by the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors a number of times on their tours of the southern provinces. Nanjing was threatened to be invaded by British troops during the close of the First Opium War, which was ended by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. As the capital of the brief-lived rebel Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the mid-19th century, Nanjing was known as Tianjing (天京; '"Heavenly Capital" or "Capital of Heaven"'). The rebellion destroyed most of the former Ming imperial buildings in the city, including the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing.
  Both the Qing viceroy and the Taiping king resided in buildings that would later be known as the Presidential Palace. When Qing forces led by Zeng Guofan retook the city in 1864, a massive slaughter occurred in the city with over 100,000 estimated to have committed suicide or fought to the death. Since the Taiping Rebellion began, Qing forces allowed no rebels speaking its dialect to surrender. This systematic mass murder of civilians occurred in Nanjing.
  The New York Methodist Mission Society's Superintendent, Virgil Hart arrived in Nanking in 1881. After some time, he eventually thwarted its officials by buying a piece of property near the South Gate and Confucius Temple; to build the city's first Methodist Church, western hospital (Blackstone Methodist Hospital) and Boys' School. The hospital would later be unified with the Drum Tower Hospital and the Boys' School would be expanded by later Missionaries to become the University of Nanking and Medical School. The old Mission property would become the No. 13 Middle School, the city's oldest/continuous school grounds in the city.
caption: Mochou Lake
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