Jiujiang, formerly transliterated Kiukiang and Kew-Keang, is a prefecture-level city located on the southern shores of the Yangtze River in northwest Jiangxi Province in the People's Republic of China.

Its population was 4,600,276 inhabitants at the 2020 census, 1,164,268 of whom resided in the built-up area (metro) made up of three urban districts (aka Xunyang, Lianxi, and Chaisang).

[6] In 2022, the State Council of China granted Jiujiang the title of Famed National Historical and Cultural City for its rich history and multiculture background in the Republican era.

In ancient times it was told that nine rivers converged near where Jiujiang sprang up to become Jiangxi's main water port today.

[citation needed] In the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 BCE) Jiujiang bordered between the states of Wu (downstream, to the east) and Chu (upstream, to the west).

Tao Yuanming (365–429 CE), a famous Chinese philosopher, recluse and poet, lived at the base of Mount Lu.

He was once appointed magistrate of nearby Pengze County and after 83 days resigned owing to the politics involved in administering justice.

Bai Juyi (772–846 CE) wrote a poem called "Lute Song", which is about his sadness and isolation of forced exile as a middle rank official to reside in such a small and remote town.

In the 13th century Zhu Xi was a Confucian philosopher who practiced at the White Deer Grotto Academy, on Mount Lu's eastern flanks.

A member of Lord Elgin's committee arriving in 1858 to survey Chinese ports for treaty status noted: "We found it to the last degree deplorable."

The remainder of the vast area composed within its massive walls 9–10 kilometers in circumference, contained nothing but ruins, weeds and kitchen gardens.

The New York Methodist Mission Society's superintendent, Virgil C. Hart, arrived in Kiukiang in 1866 and bought a piece of property just east of the city wall.

A military advance was being staged upriver in Wuhan by the Kuomintang in 1927 and all the remaining expatriate community fled on British and American warships towards safer waters of Shanghai, to never return.

[citation needed] Jiujiang languished as a port and much of its export trade was siphoned off with the connecting of Nanchang to coastal rail lines built in 1936–37.

At the beginning of the eleventh year of Xianfeng (1861), the British counsellor, Harry Parkes, went to the new port on the Yangtse River by naval vessel according to the treaty to investigate the situation and select the site of concession to be opened.

[12] In the early 20th century, Kuling on top of Mount Lu became the summer resort for international residents because of its beautiful geological landscape and nice climate.

After the completion of the Yangtze River Bridge in 1992 and the Beijing to Kowloon (Hong Kong) and Wuhan to Shanghai rail systems laid, a convenient ground corridor was provided and a regional airport now serves most of China's capital cities.