Nanjing, alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China, a sub-provincial city, a megacity and the second largest city in the East China region. With 11 districts, Nanjing, which is located in southwestern Jiangsu, has an administrative area of 6,600 km² and a total population of 9,314,685 as of 2020.
Situated in the Yangtze River Delta region, Nanjing has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having served as the capital of various Chinese dynasties, kingdoms and republican governments dating from the 3rd century to 1949, and has thus long been a major center of culture, education, research, politics, economy, transport networks and tourism, being the home to one of the world's largest inland ports. The city is also one of the fifteen sub-provincial cities in the People's Republic of China's administrative structure, enjoying jurisdictional and economic autonomy only slightly less than that of a province.