Perspective

Time

In much the same way as English speakers say “The Renaissance” or “The Middle Ages” to denote an era and the events associated with it, Chinese people use the names of dynasties to comprehend the history of their country. We’ve all heard terms like The Ming Dynasty or The Tang Dynasty – usually with respect to exquisite vases and plates – but probably like me in not knowing the time periods they referred to. I adapted this next table from the one Michael Tsin created for Columbia University. This categorization takes some time to get used to but is the standard frame of reference. Given the times and distances involved, it’s no surprise this way of organizing history has little to do with the Western one.

	People’s_Republic of China	1949~present	Economic emergence. Communist government. Catastrophes such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution.
	Republic Period	1912~1949	Weak central government following the collapse of dynastic system in 1911-12. Western influence during the New Culture Movement. Nationalist attempts to control the entire country thwarted by domestic revolts and Japanese occupation (1937-45).
	Qing Dynasty	1644~1912	Continued economic development led to prosperity and large population increase. Addition of new territories causes political strain.
	Ming Dynasty	1368~1644	Foundations of the political culture. An inward-looking state with an emphasis on agrarian base. Growing commercial sector coupled with important changes in the economy and social relations in the latter part of the dynasty. Flowering of arts.

	Yuan Dynasty	1279~1368	Founded the Mongols as part of their conquest of much of the then-known world. Rich culture of drama.
	Northern_Song Dynasty Southern Song Dynasty	960~1127 1127~1279	Economic growth and social change; maritime trade; urban expansion and technological innovation. Rise of political and social order based on Neo-Confucianism.
	Tang Dynasty	618~906	Cosmopolitan time of cultural flowering. The height of Buddhist influence until its repression around 845. Active territorial expansion until defeat by the Arabs at Talas in 751.

	Sui Dynasty	581~618	China reunified.
	Six Dynasties Period	220~589	Empire fragmented with north dominated by invaders from the bordering steppes and south ruled by successive “Chinese” dynasties. Spread of Buddhism.
	Western/Former_Han_Dynasty Eastern/Later Han Dynasty	25~220 206_BCE	Modified and consolidated the foundation of the imperial order. Confucianism established as orthodoxy and open civil service examinations introduced.
	Qin Dynasty	221~206_BCE	Unitary state with centralized administration and standardized writing script, weights and measures. Known for its harsh rule.
	Eastern Zhou Dynasty Western Zhou Dynasty	771-256 BCE 1046-256_BCE	The Zhou royal house’s hierarchical political and social system based on ancestral cults. The time of Confucius 551-479 BCE.

Shang Dynasty

1600~1050 BCE

	Xia_(Sia)_Dynasty	2100~1600 BCE	The first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors (a group of mythological rules in ancient northern China circa 3162 BCE to 2070 BCE.)
	Neolithic Cultures

Place

Cities in China are grouped into tiers that give a rough indication of their size and level of development. It’s not an official classification or even a uniform one. Four of the six largest cities are self-governing municipalities and not part of any province. The information is mostly from here and the population data is for 2020/2021 (W) for China and from here for the last column for well-known cities of comparable size. Population statistics from even two different sources are notoriously variable and I present them only as approximations.

	Tier One Cities	Shanghai (Municipality)	上海	N/A	27,795,702	Delhi
		Beijing (Municipality)	北京	N/A	21,893,095	Dhaka
		Guangzhou	广州	Guangdong	16,492,590	Karachi
		Shenzen	深圳	Guangdong	14,678,000	Manila

The four Tier 1 cities are usually the only ones persons outside of China have heard of. They’re all huge with populations of 15 to 25 million.

	Tier Two Cities	Chongqing (Municipality)	重庆	N/A	16,382,000
		Tianjin (Municipality)	天津	N/A	13,866,009	Rio de Janeiro
		Chengdu	成都	Sichuan	11,241,000	Bogota
		Wuhan	武汉	Hubei	10,892,900	Bangkok
		Nanjing	南京	Jiangsu	9,314,685	London
		Xi’an	西安	Shaanxi	8,989,000	Ho Chi Min City
		Dongguan	东莞	Guangdong	8,342,500	New York City
		Hangzhou	杭州	Zhejiang	7,603,27	Riyadh
		Shenyang	沈阳	Liaoning	7,195,000
		Qingdao	青岛	Shandong	5,764,384	Barcelona
		Zhengzhou	郑州	Henan	5,286,549	=
		Changsha	长沙	Hunan	4,555,788	Kabul
		Ningbo	宁波	Zhejiang	4,479,635
		Suzhou	苏州	Jiangsu	4,330,000	Rome
		Wuxi	无锡	Jiangsu	3,256,000	Kuwait City

The Tier 2 Cities are also known as New Tier 1 Cities and generally have populations of between 5 and 15 million. They range from the comfortable to the huge. Nanjing was the former capital where 300,000 were killed in the Japanese army Nanjing Massacre of December 12, 1936. Wuhan we know as the city where the coronavirus was first identified. Chongqing was the seat of the Chinese government during the Japanese occupation. Tianjin is the former German concession and has many solid Germanic buildings. Xi’an is an ancient several-times capital of China, best known worldwide for the Terracotta Army. The province of Sichuan has a particularly rich food culture now gaining in popularity around the world.

	Tier Three Cities	Quanzhou	泉州	Fujian	8,782,285
		Foshan	佛山	Guangdong	7,313,711
		Harbin	哈尔滨	Heilongjiang	6,360,991	Toronto
		Dalian	大连	Liaoning	5,587,814	Barcelona
		Xiamen	厦门	Fujian	4,617,251
		Taiyuan	太原	Shanxi	4,529,141	St. Petersburg
		Kunming	昆明	Yunnan	4,422,686	Kabul
		Zhongshan	中山	Guangdong	4,418,060	Rome
		Changchun	长春	Jilin	4,408,154
		Urumqi	乌鲁木齐	Xinjiang	4,335,017
		Hefei	合肥	Anhui	4,216,940
		Shijiazhuang	石家庄	Hebei	4,098,243
		Nanning	南宁	Guangxi	3,837,978	Los Angeles
		Fuzhou	福州	Fujian	3,671,192
		Wenzhou	温州	Zhejiang	3,604,446
		Changzhou	常州	Jiangsu	3,601,079
		Nanchang	南昌	Jiangxi	3,576,547
		Guiyang	贵阳	Guizhou	3,299,724
		Lanzhou	兰州	Gansu	3,067,141
		Weifang	潍坊	Shandong	2,636,154	Vancouver
		Xuzhou	徐州	Jiangsu	2,623,066	Osaka
		Shaoxing	绍兴	Zhejiang2	2,521,964
		Yantai	烟台	Shandong	2,511,053
		Huizhou	惠州	Guangdong	2,509,243
		Nantong	南通	Jiangsu	2,261,382	Houston
		Baoding	保定	Hebei	1,976,000	Vienna
		Taizhou	台州	Zhejiang	1,607,108	San Antonoio
		Jiaxing	济南	Zhejiang	1,518,654	Philadelphia
		Jinhua	金华	Zhejiang	1,463,990	San Jose

Tier 3 Cities have populations between 1.5 and 9 million but the average is probably about 3 or 4 mil. There are also 90 Tier 4 cities spread across 20 provinces and another 123 Tier 5 cities in 23 different provinces. Some classifications also identify Tier 6 cities. The tier classification is basically an indicator of level of development and doesn’t necessarily correspond with population. For example, an underground metro network is usually an indicator of a Tier 2 city. Of the Tier 3 cities, Wenzhou (pop. 3.6 mil.) is the 34th largest city in China and where I live and work. Nantong (pop. 2.3 mil.) is the 44th largest city in China and the subject of next week’s post.

There’s always much to say about the large cities because they’ve developed through some fortuitous combination of geography and history that made them nodes of transportation and trade that, over time, have left them with an abundance of the history and artifacts of development. Such cities probably couldn’t have been anything else but large cities. Nantong has always prospered because of its proximity to Shanghai but has stayed small at 2.6 mil. and distinct, separated as it is by the Yangtze River that passes between them vast and profound like an ocean.