History
A county seat was first established at the site in AD 318; called Jinxing, it also became the administrative seat of a commandery. Nanning was once the territory of the Baiyue people and became the capital of Jinxing Prefecture separated from Yulin Prefecture of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. It was the first time for Nanning to be the seat of a county and a prefecture, which marked the beginning of the founding of its administrative division.

In 589 the commandery was suppressed, and the county was renamed Xuanhua. Under the Tang dynasty (618¨C907) the prefecture of Yong (Yongzhou) was established there; it was garrisoned to control the non-Chinese districts in Guangxi and on the Yunnan¨CGuizhou provincial border. In the mid-9th century the Tang and the Yunnan state of Nanzhao fought over it, and after 861 it was briefly occupied by Nanzhao. It remained a frontier prefecture throughout the Song dynasty (960¨C1279), being the scene of a rebellion led by Nong Zhigao in 1052 and thereafter a garrison town.

In the Yuan Dynasty in 1324, it was renamed as Nanning Lu (an administrative division) from Yongzhou Lu meaning "May peace maintain in the southern frontier", hence the name Nanning. In its history, Nanning was famous for business trade, which had had permanent business offices from other areas in China since the Song Dynasty.

Under the Ming (1368¨C1644) and Qing (1644¨C1911) dynasties, it was a superior prefecture, Nanning. In the Ming Dynasty Nanning developed into the commodity distributing center of the Zuojiang River and the Youjiang River with the reputation of "Little Nanjing".

Opened to foreign trade by the Chinese in 1907, it grew rapidly. From 1912 to 1936 it was the provincial capital of Guangxi, replacing Guilin in 1914.

Early in the 20th century the city spilled over from the old walled city into a southern suburban area. In the 1930s Nanning became the centre of a "model provincial government" under the warlord Li Zongren, and a spacious modern city was laid out. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937¨C45), Nanning was temporarily occupied in 1940 by the Japanese. It subsequently became an important U.S. air base supporting the Chinese armies in Guangxi, but during 1944¨C45 it was again under Japanese occupation.

In 1949 Nanning again became the provincial capital, first of Guangxi province and then (1958) of the Zhuang autonomous region of Guangxi, which replaced it. Until then Nanning had essentially been a commercial center dependent on Guangzhou and on the Xi River system. In the late 1930s a railway was begun, joining Hengyang in southern Hunan province with Guilin, Liuzhou, Nanning, and the Vietnam border, while another was begun from Liuzhou to Guiyang in Guizhou. The construction of the Nanning section of this line was halted in 1940 by the Japanese advances, however, and was not completed until 1951, after which Nanning was directly linked with central China; completion of a branch line to the port of Zhanjiang (in Guangdong) in 1957 gave it a direct outlet to the sea. During the French war in Indochina (1946¨C54), Nanning was the chief support base in China for the Vietnamese forces, and during the Vietnam War in the 1960s and early 1970s it again became a staging post for the sending of supplies southward to North Vietnam. It was also an important military supply center during the Sino-Vietnam confrontation in 1979.

Formerly an essentially commercial and administrative center, Nanning from 1949 experienced industrial growth. The city is surrounded by a fertile agricultural region producing subtropical fruits and sugarcane; food processing, flour milling, sugar refining, meatpacking, and leather manufacture are important in the city. Nanning has been a center for printing and paper manufacture, and it is also important in heavy industry.

After the recognition of the Zhuang ethnic minority in 1958, Nanning became the chief center for the training of Zhuang leaders. Guangxi University, a large medical school, and a school of agriculture all date from the 1920s.

A cavern at Yiling, 19 km to the northwest, has a 1,100 m passage through picturesque stalactites. In the 1970s colored lights were installed and the cavern was developed as a tourist attraction.

Nanning served as host for annual China-ASEAN EXPO (CASEAN EXPO) in 2005 and as the venue for the 2006 "World Robotics Olympiad".

Geography
Nanning is located in the southern part of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, 160 km from the border with Vietnam. It has an area of 22,293 square kilometers.

The city is located on the north bank of the Yong River, the chief southern tributary of the Xi River, and lies some 30 km below the confluence of the Yu and the Zuo rivers. The Yong River (which later becomes the Yu River) affords a good route to Guangzhou and is navigable by shallow-draft junks and motor launches, even though it is obstructed by rapids and sandbanks.

Nanning is situated in a hilly basin with elevations between 70 and 500 m above sea-level. Qingxiu Mountain dominates the southern part of town.

Nanning's climate is sub-tropical and monsoonal and it is sometimes warm in winters as well as summers. Average temperature is 21.7¡ãC. It is often windy or breezy and very rainy, with more than 1300 mm of precipitation annually. It is also frost-free for all but 3 or 4 days a year and never snows.

Climate
Nanning has a humid subtropical climate according to the K?ppen climate classification. Summers are hot and humid with 33¡ãC average highs in July and August. Winters are humid and chilly with 10¡ãC average lows in January. The annual precipitation averages 1372mm.