Topic: Nanjing and Beijing
Thesis statement: Both as the famous ancient capitals of China, Nanjing and Beijing are playing completely different roles. Nanjing is playing the feminine part while Beijing the masculine.
Points of comparison/contrast:
Point 1: Historically speaking, dynasties in Nanjing often had a shorter life than that in Beijing.
Point 2: Culturally speaking, Nanjing is more like a lady while Beijing is more like a powerful man.
Point 3: Differences in values. Nanjing people live a more peaceful life than Beijing people.
Conclusion: As a Nanjinger who has lived in that city for nearly 20 years, I’m proud of the local culture.

Nanjing and Beijing

Among the thousands of cities in China, there are two most symbolic political cities, Nanjing and Beijing. In the past 1 thousand years in China’s history, nearly all the political struggles concerned these two cities. The two cites, the southern capital and the northern capital, also bring us the long-existing differences between the southern China and the northern China.
Nanjing is the capital city for nearly 10 dynasties in ancient China. It’s most prosperous period of time was in the 4th~6th centuries and the 14th century. But, maybe it’s the inevitability or a coincidence or just a joke played by god, all those 10 dynasties had short lives, most of them defeated by their northern enemies. Meanwhile, Beijing has a better fortune. It’s the capital of several powerful and strong dynasties, such as Yuan, Ming and Qing. It is fortunate to witness the glory of China in its most prosperous and powerful era.
Neither of the 2 cities were the geographical center of China. South of Beijing lays the North China Plain, which is the central area of the Chinese culture, the serious China. South of Nanjing is a more colorful area, which contains various dialects and cultures. This is the energetic China. When the serious China wanted to trespass the energetic China and get control of it, conflicts came. Nanjing had always been the center of the conflicts. Over the 1000 years, Beijing had been the nightmare of Nanjing, while Nanjing had been a troublesome problem for Beijing. Yuan was replaced by Ming in Nanjing. But later, Zhu Di, the 3rd emperor, moved the capital to Beijing by a Military coup against his nephew. When the Man people took control of Beijing and founded Qing dynasty, offspring of Ming’s royal families founded another regime in Nanjing which was eventually eliminated by Qing. In late 19th century, peasant uprising took place and Taiping was founded in Nanjing which beat a heavy blow on the Qing dynasty. Nanjing was courageous in its struggle against Beijing; the only thing it lacked was the brute strength. It’s common for the southern people.
Both as ancient capitals of China, Nanjing has a completely different culture from Beijing. Compared with Beijing, It is more like a lady who has gone through a great many vicissitudes. Nanjing is famous for its beautiful scenery. Emperors were so absorbed in the beautifulness that they nearly forgot what they should do with their own country. While Beijing was developing its military strength, Nanjing focused more on the development of economy and culture which seemed useless when facing brute strength. For this reason, Nanjing seemed to be inferior. Beijingers are always fond of their political traditions, their long history of being the center of the country, while Nanjingers are just sighing for their long-lost glory. Both cities were old, like two people in their 40s. Beijing is a man, who is still energetic as before. Nanjing is a lady, who is getting frail day by day.
Being the capital for so long, Beijing is too political. You can find traces of politics in almost everywhere of people’s life in Beijing. Beijingers are fond of talking about politics, caring about politics, taking part in politics. They are fond of public life. Meanwhile, Nanjingers share a different value. Nanjing is not a city much close to politics. Nanjingers care more about their own life just like a dedicate house wife caring about domestic matters. What happened in the central government has nothing attractive for them until it concerns their own interest. This also reflects the value difference between the serious China and the energetic China. Southern people care more about their own interest while northerners care more about the whole society.
This may illustrate why Nanjingers always live a peaceful and leisurely life. Life is never busy there. Meanwhile, Beijingers have too much burden for themselves. They are always worrying about anything but everything. They are always busy, leading a fast pace of life.
As a Nanjinger who has lived in my city for almost 20 years, I still prefer life in my own city. I’m proud of the culture in Nanjing while I will view the profound culture in Beijing in a different perspective.