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Ganzhou

Prefecture-level city in Jiangxi, People's Republic of China

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郁孤台 Yugu Pavilion
Liangxiao · CC BY-SA 3.0

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History

Early settlement and administration

In 201 CE, Emperor Gaozu of Han established a county in the territory of modern Ganzhou. In 236 CE, during the Three Kingdoms period, the Luling Commandery was established in the area. In the early years, Han Chinese settlement and authority in the area was minimal and largely restricted to the Gan River basin. The river, a tributary of the Yangtze via Poyang Lake, provided a route of communication from the north as well as irrigation for rice farming.

Sui dynasty

In 589 CE, during the Sui dynasty, the Nankang Commandery was abolished, and the area was reorganized as Qianzhou. During the Song, immigration from the north bolstered the local population and drove local aboriginal tribes into admixing with the northerners. After the fall of the capital to the Jin in 1126 in the Jingkang Incident, immigration increased dramatically.

Song dynasty

In 1153, under the Southern Song, Qianzhou was abolished, and re-organized as Ganzhou, the same name as the present-day city.

Yuan dynasty

In 1277, under the Yuan dynasty, the area was reorganized as Ganzhou Circuit. Near the end of the Yuan dynasty, in 1365, Ganzhou Circuit was reorganized again as Ganzhou Fu, which it remained until 1912.

Qing dynasty

During the late 1800s Ganzhou was opened as one of the southern treaty ports and became a minor base for foreign companies.

Republic of China

In 1912, the Republic of China abolished the area's dynasty-era subdivisions, replacing them all with counties administered by the provincial government of Jiangxi. In 1914, the province of Jiangxi was divided into four circuits (Chinese: 道; pinyin: Dào), one of which being Gannan Circuit, which ruled the area of present-day Ganzhou. In 1926, Gannan Circuit was abolished, and its counties were again directly administered by the Jiangxi provincial government. In 1932, the province established Administrative Inspectorates, and the area of present-day Ganzhou was split between the 9th, 11th, 12th, and 13th Administrative Inspectorates. In subsequent years, the area would be reorganized to be divided between various Administrative Inspectorates.

Chinese Soviet Republic

Beginning in 1928, the Chinese Communist Party began operating in the area, and by June 1930, a local soviet had formed and began governing a number of counties in the region. In November 1931, the Chinese Soviet Republic was proclaimed in Yeping, in the then-county of Ruijin. During the subsequent years, Ganzhou was governed by the Jiangxi–Fujian Soviet. Beginning in February 1934, Communist Party forces in the area began to lose territory to Kuomintang forces (Fifth encirclement). From then until March 1935, the Soviet gradually lost territory with only five northeastern counties left in Ganzhou as of early October 1934 until it collapsed.

Gannan New Deal

Between 1939 and 1945, Chiang Ching-kuo, son of Chiang Kai-shek, was appointed by the Government of the Republic of China as commissioner of Ganzhou Prefecture (mountain South), then the name of the surrounding regions of Ganzhou. There he banned opium smoking, gambling and prostitution, studied governmental management, allowed for economic expansion and a change in social outlook. His efforts were hailed as a miracle in the political war in China, then coined as the "Gannan New Deal" (Chinese: 贛南新政). During his time in Gannan, from 1940 he implemented a "public information desk" where ordinary people could visit him if they had problems, and according to records, Chiang Ching-kuo received a total of 1,023 people during such sessions in 1942. In regards to the ban on prostitution and closing of brothels, Chiang implemented a policy where former prostitutes became employed in factories. Due to the large number of refugees in Ganzhou as a result from the ongoing war, thousands of orphans lived on the street; in June 1942, Chiang Ching-kuo formally established the Chinese Children's Village (Chinese: 中華兒童新村) in the outskirts of Ganzhou, with facilities such as a nursery, kindergarten, primary school, hospital and gymnasium.

People's Republic of China

On August 14, 1949, the People's Liberation Army established control of Gan County. In June 1951, Ganzhou Prefecture (simplified Chinese: 赣州专区; traditional Chinese: 贛州專區) was established.

In February 1999, Ganzhou was changed from a prefecture to a prefecture-level city.

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