Nanning History

The region now known as Nanning has been inhabited since the Neolithic Age, when ancient people farmed, fished and hunted in the area. The region received official recognition during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, when it was named the capital of the Jinxing Prefecture, after having been a territory of the Baiyue people.

In the past two thousand years, the region has been given several different names. In the Tang Dynasty, it was called Yongzhou, usually shortened to Yong, later named Nanning Lu, which translates as ''May Peace Keep in the Southern Frontier''. Then it was named as a trading town, and became an outpost of many businesses across China: this function seems to have begun sometime in the Song Dynasty. It became an important trading port during the Ming Dynasty, due to its place along the Zuojiang River & the Youjiang River, eventually becoming a foreign trade port in 1907.

Nanning has many times held off against invaders, as a consequence of which it has been given the nickname ''Heroic City''. Su Jian led a resistance in the Song Dynasty against invading forces from Vietnam (known at that time as the Jiaozhi Kingdom). In the Qing Dynasty, the people resisted incursions by the French, and the town played an important role in the anti-imperialist May 4th Movement (1919), the Northern Expedition (1926-28), the Baise Uprising (1929) and the Longzhou Uprising (1930).