Eleven Chinese Cities from the Songhua River to Hainan

Start in the northeast at Changchun, capital and largest city of Jilin Province on the Songliao Plain. It was once the capital of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo and is now a center of automobile manufacturing and film production, with 9,066,906 people at the 2020 census.

Jilin City is the province's second-largest city and the only major Chinese city that shares its name with its province. The Songhua River surrounds much of it, which is why it is called the River City, and it co-hosted the Asian Winter Games in 2007.

Baoding lies in central Hebei about 150 kilometers southwest of Beijing. Its 2020 census population of 11,544,036 was about one-sixth of the province, though the resident population had fallen to about 9,046,200 by the end of 2024.

Zibo in central Shandong borders the provincial capital Jinan and was formed from several older towns, including Linzi, once the capital of the state of Qi. It grew into a center of the chemical, ceramics and glass industries.

Yantai, formerly Chefoo, sits on the Shandong Peninsula with access to both the Bohai and Yellow seas. It is the largest fishing seaport in Shandong, and the 2020 census counted 7,102,116 people in the city.

Hefei is the capital of Anhui and was historically a modest provincial capital. It has grown into a center of scientific research, with national laboratories and universities focused on physics and technology.

Wuxi lies in southern Jiangsu on Lake Tai in the southern Yangtze delta. It was one of the birthplaces of Chinese industry in the late nineteenth century and now draws visitors to the lake and the Lingshan Grand Buddha.

Wenzhou, formerly Yongjia, stands at the estuary of the Ou River on the Zhejiang coast. Its page records a strong tradition of private entrepreneurship and a large overseas diaspora of traders, built on footwear and small-goods industries run mostly by families.

Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi, lies between the Jiuling Mountains and Poyang Lake. It was the site of the 1927 Nanchang Uprising, regarded as the founding action of the People's Liberation Army and commemorated each year as Army Day.

Guilin in northeastern Guangxi stands on the west bank of the Li River. Its name means forest of sweet osmanthus, and it is known worldwide for karst scenery celebrated in a Song-dynasty saying that its scenery is the best in the world.

End on the island of Hainan at Haikou, the province's capital and most populous city. It lies at the mouth of the Nandu River, with its northern part on Haidian Island, and its four districts cover 2,280 square kilometers.