AHC: Planned capital called “Zhongjing” in Nationalist China

This is pretty specific but I had an idea in the context of a Nationalist win in China where the KMT builds a constructed capital for China and fittingly rename a centrally located city such as either Xi’an or Luoyang, which have both historically been capitals, to 中京 (Zhōngjīng - central capital). What are some realistic ways to make this happen? Is this something that the KMT would ever actually consider doing in all likelihood? What would the population of an alternate Chinese capital be? How much smaller would Beijing (probably back to being called Beiping ITTL) be without being the center of the Chinese bureaucracy?
 
Personally I think Beijing is always going to be the first choice for any chinese state formed relatively recently, but it's not necessarily a given.

I do think existent cities would be more likely to be chosen than constructing a new capital (my bets would be Nanjing or Shanghai), but if not it would probably be built in one of two places;

  • Either at the intersection of the Yellow and Wei rivers, around midway between Luoyang and Xi'an
  • Or upstream Yangtze river, past Wuhan, just before it gets too rugged to be realistic
These are situated on large, navigable rivers, and are further inland and defensible (especially if China still has a major war with Japan, and Beijing and major coastal cities are taken in the process).

As for population, I could see potentially around 8 million, mayyybe breaching 10 at a push. I still think Beijing would be larger, but you could get something very sizeable just given how much there is to pull from in China.

Then again, that's just my two-cents :)
 
Personally I think Beijing is always going to be the first choice for any chinese state formed relatively recently, but it's not necessarily a given.

I do think existent cities would be more likely to be chosen than constructing a new capital (my bets would be Nanjing or Shanghai), but if not it would probably be built in one of two places;

  • Either at the intersection of the Yellow and Wei rivers, around midway between Luoyang and Xi'an
  • Or upstream Yangtze river, past Wuhan, just before it gets too rugged to be realistic
These are situated on large, navigable rivers, and are further inland and defensible (especially if China still has a major war with Japan, and Beijing and major coastal cities are taken in the process).

As for population, I could see potentially around 8 million, mayyybe breaching 10 at a push. I still think Beijing would be larger, but you could get something very sizeable just given how much there is to pull from in China.

Then again, that's just my two-cents :)
The location you described between the two shanxis makes more sense than just renaming Xi'an. Thanks for entertaining the idea!
 
Personally I think Beijing is always going to be the first choice for any chinese state formed relatively recently, but it's not necessarily a given.

I do think existent cities would be more likely to be chosen than constructing a new capital (my bets would be Nanjing or Shanghai), but if not it would probably be built in one of two places;

  • Either at the intersection of the Yellow and Wei rivers, around midway between Luoyang and Xi'an
  • Or upstream Yangtze river, past Wuhan, just before it gets too rugged to be realistic
These are situated on large, navigable rivers, and are further inland and defensible (especially if China still has a major war with Japan, and Beijing and major coastal cities are taken in the process).

As for population, I could see potentially around 8 million, mayyybe breaching 10 at a push. I still think Beijing would be larger, but you could get something very sizeable just given how much there is to pull from in China.

Then again, that's just my two-cents :)
There was a lot of rumors in recent years about the possibility of building a new capital around Xiangyang actually.
 
Last edited:
Top