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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 (2,500 sq mi) and a total recorded population of 9,314,685 as of 2020. Nevertheless, its built-up (or metro) area encompassing 9 Nanjing urban Districts (all but Lishui and Gaochun not conurbated yet) and Huashan and Yushan Districts and Dangtu County in Maanshan City, largely being agglomerated, was home to 9,648,136 inhabitants. In a very few years, Jurong District in Zhenjiang and Jiujiang, Jinghu and Yijiang Districts in Wuhu will also be conurbated leading to a tri-city built-up area of 11,910,201 inhabitants.

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. Nanjing has been ranked seventh in the evaluation of “Cities with Strongest Comprehensive Strength” issued by the National Statistics Bureau, and second in the evaluation of cities with most sustainable development potential in the Yangtze River Delta. It has also been awarded the title of 2008 Habitat Scroll of Honor of China, Special UN-Habitat Scroll of Honor Award, and National Civilized City. Nanjing is also considered a Beta (global second-tier) city classification, together with Chongqing, Hangzhou, and Tianjin by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network, and ranked as one of the world’s top 100 cities in the Global Financial Centres Index.

Nanjing has many highly-ranked educational institutions with the number of universities listed in 147 National Key Universities ranking third (after Beijing and Shanghai), Nanjing University, which has a long history and is among the world’s top 20 universities ranked by Nature Index. The ratio of college students to the total population ranks No.1 among large cities nationwide. Nanjing has the eighth-largest scientific research output of any city in the world. It has been regarded among the world’s top fourth scientific research centers in chemistry (behind Beijing, Shanghai, and Tokyo), according to the Nature Index.

Nanjing, one of the nation’s most important cities for over a thousand years, is recognized as one of the Four Great Ancient Capitals of China. It has been one of the world’s largest cities, enjoying peace and prosperity despite wars and disasters. Nanjing served as the capital of Eastern Wu (229–280), one of the three major states in the Three Kingdoms period; the Eastern Jin and each of the Southern dynasties (Liu Song, Southern Qi, Liang, and Chen), which successively ruled southern China from 317 to 589; the Southern Tang (937–75), one of the Ten Kingdoms; the Ming dynasty when, for the first time, all of China was ruled from the city (1368–1421); and the Republic of China under the nationalist Kuomintang (1927–37, 1946–49) prior to its flight to Taiwan by Chiang Kai-shek during the Chinese Civil War The city also served as the seat of the rebel Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (1853–64) and the Japanese puppet regime of Wang Jingwei (1940–45) during the Second Sino-Japanese War. It suffered severe atrocities in both conflicts, such as the Nanjing massacre.

Nanjing has served as the capital city of Jiangsu province since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China. It has many important heritage sites, including the Presidential Palace and Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. Nanjing is famous for human historical landscapes, mountains, and waters such as Fuzimiao, Ming Palace, Chaotian Palace, Porcelain Tower, Drum Tower, Stone City, City Wall, Qinhuai River, Xuanwu Lake and Purple Mountain. Key cultural facilities include Nanjing Library, Nanjing Museum and Jiangsu Art Museum. Wikipedia

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An image from Nanjing, China

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Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve is an American national park that conserves an area of large sand dunes up to 750 feet (230 m) tall on the eastern edge of the San Luis Valley, and an adjacent national preserve in the Sangre de Cristo Range, in south-central Colorado, United States. The park was originally designated Great Sand Dunes National Monument on March 17, 1932, by President Herbert Hoover. The original boundaries protected an area of 35,528 acres (55.5 sq mi; 143.8 km²). A boundary change and redesignation as a national park and preserve was authorized on November 22, 2000, and then established on September 24, 2004. The park encompasses 107,342 acres (167.7 sq mi; 434.4 km²) while the preserve protects an additional 41,686 acres (65.1 sq mi; 168.7 km²) for a total of 149,028 acres (232.9 sq mi; 603.1 km²). The recreational visitor total was 527,546 in 2019.

The park contains the tallest sand dunes in North America. The dunes cover an area of about 30 sq mi (78 km²) and are estimated to contain over 1.2 cubic miles (5 billion cubic meters) of sand. Sediments from the surrounding mountains filled the valley over geologic time periods. After lakes within the valley receded, exposed sand was blown by the predominant southwest winds toward the Sangre de Cristos, eventually forming the dunefield over an estimated tens of thousands of years. The four primary components of the Great Sand Dunes system are the mountain watershed, the dunefield, the sand sheet, and the sabkha. Ecosystems within the mountain watershed include alpine tundra, subalpine forests, montane woodlands, and riparian zones.

Evidence of human habitation in the San Luis Valley dates back about 11,000 years. The first historic peoples to inhabit the area were the Southern Ute Tribe; Apaches and Navajo also have cultural connections in the area. In the late 17th century, Diego de Vargas, a Spanish governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, became the first European on record to enter the San Luis Valley. Juan Bautista de Anza, Zebulon Pike, John C. Frémont, and John Gunnison all traveled through and explored parts of the region in the 18th and 19th centuries. The explorers were soon followed by settlers who ranched, farmed, and mined in the valley starting in the late 19th century. The park was first established as a national monument in 1932 to protect it from gold mining and the potential of a concrete manufacturing business.

Visitors must walk across the wide and shallow Medano Creek to reach the dunes in spring and summer. The creek typically has a peak flow from late May to early June. From July to April, it is usually no more than a few inches deep, if there is any water at all. Hiking is permitted throughout the dunes with the warning that the sand surface temperature may reach 150 °F (66 °C) in summer. Sandboarding and sandsledding are popular activities, both done on specially designed equipment that can be rented just outside the park entrance or in Alamosa. Visitors with street-legal four-wheel drive vehicles may continue past the end of the park’s main road to Medano Pass on 22 miles (35 km) of unpaved road, crossing the stream bed of Medano Creek nine times and traversing 4 miles (6.4 km) of deep sand. Hunting is permitted in the preserve in the autumn but prohibited within national park boundaries at all times. The preserve encompasses nearly all of the mountainous areas north and east of the dunefield, up to the ridgeline of the Sangre de Cristos.

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An image from Great Sand Dunes National Park Colorado

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