BeijingBeijing (beɪˈdʒɪŋ ; ; AUDBeijing pronunciation.oggbei3.jing1), alternatively romanized as Peking (piːˈkɪŋ ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. With over 21 million residents, Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city as well as China's second largest city after Shanghai. It is located in Northern China, and is governed as a municipality under the direct administration of the State Council with 16 urban, suburban, and rural districts.
SuzhouSuzhou (suːˈdʒoʊ; ; Suzhounese: sou1 tseu1 səu˦ tsøʏ˦, Mandarin: su1.zhou1), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the most populous city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade and commerce. Administratively, Suzhou is a prefecture-level city with a population of 6,715,559 in the city proper, and a total resident population of 12,748,262 as of the 2020 census in its administrative area.
Self-Strengthening MovementThe Self-Strengthening Movement, also known as the Westernization or Western Affairs Movement (1861–1895), was a period of radical institutional reforms initiated in China during the late Qing dynasty following the military disasters of the Opium Wars. The British and French burning of the Old Summer Palace in 1860 as Taiping rebel armies marched north, forced the imperial court to acknowledge the crisis. Prince Gong was made regent, Grand Councilor, and head of the newly formed Zongli Yamen (a de facto foreign affairs ministry).
WuxiWuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou, and one of the central cities in the Yangtze River Delta. It is the ancient founding capital of the state of Wu and the . As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 7,462,135 inhabitants. Wuxi is a historically and culturally prominent city, and has been a thriving economic center since ancient times as a production as an export hub of rice, silk and textiles.
ChangzhouChangzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu, China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling, and Jinling. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Zhenjiang to the northwest, Wuxi to the east, and the province of Zhejiang to the south. Changzhou is located in the highly developed Yangtze Delta region of China extending from Shanghai going northwest. The population of the Changzhou Municipality was 5,278,121 at the 2020 census.
Chinese operaTraditional Chinese opera (), or Xiqu, is a form of musical theatre in China with roots going back to the early periods in China. It is an amalgamation of various art forms that existed in ancient China, and evolved gradually over more than a thousand years, reaching its mature form in the 13th century, during the Song dynasty (960–1279). Early forms of Chinese theater are simple, but over time various art forms such as music, song and dance, martial arts, acrobatics, costume and make-up art, as well as literary art forms were incorporated to form traditional Chinese opera.
NingboNingbo (; Ningbo dialect: gnin2 poq7 ɲìɲ.póʔ, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: AUDNing2bo1.oggning2-bo1), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises six urban districts, two satellite county-level cities, and two rural counties, including several islands in Hangzhou Bay and the East China Sea. Ningbo is the southern economic center of the Yangtze Delta megalopolis, and is also the core city and center of the Ningbo Metropolitan Area.
Romance of the Three KingdomsRomance of the Three Kingdoms () is a 14th-century historical novel attributed to Luo Guanzhong. It is set in the turbulent years towards the end of the Han dynasty and the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, starting in 184 AD and ending with the reunification of the land in 280 by the Western Jin. The novel is based primarily on the Records of the Three Kingdoms (三國志), written by Chen Shou. The story – part historical and part fictional – romanticises and dramatises the lives of feudal lords and their retainers, who tried to supplant the dwindling Han dynasty or restore it.
Jingkang incidentThe Jingkang Incident (), also known as the Humiliation of Jingkang () and the Disorders of the Jingkang Period (), was an episode of invasions and war crimes that took place in 1127 during the Jin–Song Wars when the forces of the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty besieged and sacked the imperial palaces in Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng), the capital of the Han-led Northern Song dynasty. The Jin forces captured the Northern Song ruler, Emperor Qinzong, along with his father, the retired Emperor Huizong, and many members of the imperial family of Emperor Taizong's bloodline and officials of the Song imperial court.
XuzhouXuzhou (徐州), also known as Pengcheng (彭城) in ancient times, is a major city in northwestern Jiangsu province, China. The city, with a recorded population of 9,083,790 at the 2020 census (3,135,660 of which lived in the built-up area made of Quanshan, Gulou, Yunlong and Tongshan urban Districts and Jiawang District not being conurbated), is a national complex transport hub and an important gateway city in East China. Xuzhou is a central city of Huaihai Economic Zone and Xuzhou metropolitan area.
