Kien-k'ang: Difference between revisions
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}}The '''Metropolitan City of Kien-k'ang''' (泰邑建康, ''qlats-qrep-kyen-k'ang'') or simply '''Kien-k'ang''' is the capital city of [[Themiclesia]], located in the country's west and straddling the banks of the River Kaung, about 150 km from its discharge. The city has a growing population of 11.24 million. The Metropolitan City, covering 7,642 km², is much larger than the historic walled city or the modern urban area expanding from it, occupying as much as a third of the [[Exchequer Province]] and includes rural districts and satellite cities. The urban area of Kien-k'ang covers about 450 km² and is the home of about 4 million denizens. The city is governed by the elected Metropolitan Board of Aldermen and City Council, which are its executive and legislative authorities respectively. | }}The '''Metropolitan City of Kien-k'ang''' (泰邑建康, ''qlats-qrep-kyen-k'ang'') or simply '''Kien-k'ang''' is the capital city of [[Themiclesia]], located in the country's west and straddling the banks of the River Kaung, about 150 km from its discharge. The city has a growing population of 11.24 million. The Metropolitan City, covering 7,642 km², is much larger than the historic walled city or the modern urban area expanding from it, occupying as much as a third of the [[Exchequer Province]] and includes rural districts and satellite cities. The urban area of Kien-k'ang covers about 450 km² and is the home of about 4 million denizens. The city is governed by the elected Metropolitan Board of Aldermen and City Council, which are its executive and legislative authorities respectively. | ||
Kien-k'ang is considered a {{wp|world city}} with respect to its prominence in the global economy and as a centre for | Kien-k'ang is considered a {{wp|world city}} with respect to its prominence in the global economy and as a centre for trade, culture, education, and technology. Kien-k'ang's economy is now dominated by the tertiary sector. Domestically, it is the seat of the central government, and it is the dominant city in Themiclesia as to its population and economic output. The global and Hemithean headquarters of numerous international enterprises are also found in Kien-k'ang. | ||
The city is a hub of Themiclesia's much-used [[Rail transport in Themiclesia|conventional]] and [[Themiclesian High Speed Rail|high-speed]] | The city is a hub of Themiclesia's much-used [[Rail transport in Themiclesia|conventional]] and [[Themiclesian High Speed Rail|high-speed]] railway systems, which connect it to both domestic and foreign destinations as far as [[Suurlarko]], [[Camia]], [[Solevant]], [[Menghe]], and [[Dayashina]]. Within the city, there is [[Kien-k'ang Rapid Transit|rapid transit]], the [[Inner Region Regional Railway|commuter railway]], [[Trams in Kien-k'ang|tram]], and [[Metropolitan Omnibus|bus]] services, which converge at [[Twa-ts'uk-men Station]]. Flights to and from Kien-k'ang are served by two airports, the urban [[Tibh Airport]] and more remote [[Kei Airport]]. | ||
Kien-k'ang is the site of both aboriginal settlements in the Neolothic period and of early [[Meng]] settlements in Themiclesia, dating to the 6th century BCE. In the 4th and 3rd centuries, it profited greatly, situated on the trade route to [[Menghe]], and became the dominant city of the Themiclesian south, | Kien-k'ang is the site of both aboriginal settlements in the Neolothic period and of early [[Meng]] settlements in Themiclesia, dating to the 6th century BCE. In the 4th and 3rd centuries, it profited greatly, situated on the trade route to [[Menghe]], and became the dominant city of the Themiclesian south, whence emerged an empire that governed Themiclesia-proper. The city was historically an entrepot between the Subcontinent, Meridia, and the Hemithean interior, which has left copious marks on the city's cultural, musical, artistic, architectural, academic, and political fabric. The annual [[Procession of Envoys]] into the royal palace is part of this heritage. | ||
The city is home to numerous primary and secondary schools, which offer compulsory education to children living in the city. The city has private schools and a smaller number of tertiary institutions, including 5 of Themiclesia's 15 chartered universities, of which 12 which are considered top global institutions. It is also a centre for medical care, with multiple recognized general and research hospitals within its ambit. The historic core of the city is the [[Citadel (Kien-k'ang)|Citadel]] (成), which hosts royal palaces and government departments. The urbanized area around the Citadel was enclosed by palisades since [[Themiclesian Antiquity|Antiquity]] but were only walled after the 1385 Menghean siege. Much new development takes place outside the walled city. The [[Kien-k'ang Financial Centre]], the world's tallest building for nine years, is located in the South Fring district. | The city is home to numerous primary and secondary schools, which offer compulsory education to children living in the city. The city has private schools and a smaller number of tertiary institutions, including 5 of Themiclesia's 15 chartered universities, of which 12 which are considered top global institutions. It is also a centre for medical care, with multiple recognized general and research hospitals within its ambit. The historic core of the city is the [[Citadel (Kien-k'ang)|Citadel]] (成), which hosts royal palaces and government departments. The urbanized area around the Citadel was enclosed by palisades since [[Themiclesian Antiquity|Antiquity]] but were only walled after the 1385 Menghean siege. Much new development takes place outside the walled city. The [[Kien-k'ang Financial Centre]], the world's tallest building for nine years, is located in the South Fring district. | ||
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==Name== | ==Name== | ||
Kien-k'ang was originally the name of the | {{see also|Great Kien-k'ang}} | ||
Kien-k'ang was originally the name of the Royal Citadel situated next to the city of Tsinh (晉邑, ''tsinh-qrep''); however, as ''Tsinh'' evolved to mean the political body controlled from that city, the name of the citadel came to denote the city itself. | |||
==Geography== | ==Geography== | ||
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Parts of the Ditch of Pren, located 31 km away from central Kien-k'ang, have been identified as the defensive works that surrounded a small settlement of about 1,000 people. The ditch was constructed around 550 BCE and seems to have accompanied an expansion of the settlement by craftsmen working the lapis lazuli ores that were not mined in Kien-k'ang's vicinity but transported over 500 km away. | Parts of the Ditch of Pren, located 31 km away from central Kien-k'ang, have been identified as the defensive works that surrounded a small settlement of about 1,000 people. The ditch was constructed around 550 BCE and seems to have accompanied an expansion of the settlement by craftsmen working the lapis lazuli ores that were not mined in Kien-k'ang's vicinity but transported over 500 km away. | ||
===Post-war=== | |||
In the post-war period, Kien-k'ang's territories were extended into the Exchequer Province three times, in 1948, 1952, and 1971. With the addition of the Superior Woods, West Woods, Fortress, and Hallian Mission precincts in 1857, Kien-k'ang administrative area stood at 51.2 km², divided into 30 districts, though by the early 20th century the actual built-up area extended quite far exceeded the city's borders, often along corridors served by public transit. Thus, in 1948, the cities of Sungh and Der were annexed to the municipality, since any countryside separating them from Kien-k'ang had long disappeared. This separation was vexing as businesses often needed multiple licenses and inspections. Thus, the two cities became six new districts of Kien-k'ang, whose territories stood at 75.4 km². | |||
A different plan proceeded in 1952 when six cities and five adjoining counties were annexed to the municipality, following reforms creating the Metropolitan Executive Authority (邑大府), managing matters better suited to a more general geography like public transit, road work, education, housing, licensing, and urban planning; other matters were left to extant local authorities. As the central government promised not to relocate slum and tenament residents to a different city, where they might go out of work, the Kien-k'ang Council complained throughout the 30s and 40s there simply was no available land for resettlement. A considerable part of Kien-k'ang was owned by the Crown and leased to prestigious residents, which precluded their redevelopment for resettlement. | |||
On the other hand, as private vehicles became more common and rural roads improved, many citizens migrated to satellite cities and newly-developed communities outside of the traditional boundaries of the city. The Kien-k'ang Council was equally concerned about lost revenues if these citizens were to move into the Province, even though much of their productive work occurred in the city. The 1952 expansion of the city enable resettlements of either character to occur "within the same city". After the expansion, the city's geographic size increased by about ten times and stood at 767 km². To protect the city against "pilfering by rural interests", the newly-annexed areas were not rezoned in harmony with Kien-k'ang, with the result that the old city was represented in the Council by population units, and the suburbs, still deemed rural, represented by geographic parcels irrespective of population. | |||
This management system concentrated budgets in the city-centre. In 1967, for example, Kien-k'ang was able to manage the simultaneous constructions of three rapid transit lines, a quadruple-track underground commuter railway, and the underground sections of a high-speed railway, after the city was fully restored to its pre-war shape by about 1957. On the other hand, concern for infrastructure in resettlement communities was limited, and some remote areas did not have modern sewage well into the 70s. Some developers built outdoor privies, promising (not always fulfilled) to retrofit or connect indoor toilets after the sewage main reaches the vicinity. Knowing that urban property values were to rise, all classes sought to "cling on" to the city-centre if they had any property and avoid being "washed out". | |||
It has been suggested that urban properties appreciated more than eight times as much as suburban properties have between 1950 and 2000. In this view, suburban homes were failures as investments, as they demanded consistent maintenance and yet failed to appreciate in value. Its owner was, moreover, often forced to maintain a motor vehicle, with associated taxes, fines, and expenses, where public transit did not reach; in contrast, urban life was more feasible without a vehicle. Because new suburbs were constantly being developed, suburban homes could never become desirable in the same way as a decent urban property, which is limited in supply by geographic and cultural factors (such as proximity to the commercial centre and the palaces). | |||
In the same period, urban properties improved in value not only on account of improving amenities but also the elimination of "undesirable" factors, such as polluting factories and slums. As slum residents often accepted subsidized houses in the suburbs, their urban properties were cheaply purchased, consolidated, re-developed into town houses, and sold for a premium, often by developers on good terms with the Council. The former slum residents were then left with properties associated with increased living expenses, reduced productivity, and which did not appreciate. In 1981, the imposition of the [[Kien-k'ang congestion charge]] was characterized as "pay to go out, pay again to come in" by the poet Ki-mryi. The anthropologist Drew Blair's ''Urban Replacement'' describes the way in which the inner city of Kien-k'ang has largely defied {{wp|urban decay}}. To him, "the typical house is seven figures; eight figures is only common; nine figures will barely raise one eyebrow these days." | |||
Margaret Tup, a land historian, writes that Kien-k'ang appears to be unique in that most of the metropolitan city is a poverty trap. Only in select locations does real estate appreciate when inflation is taken into account, and that potential is accordingly reflected in prices. In the early 21st century, she estimates a "reasonably rewarding" investment (considering alternatives in stocks and commodities) cannot be made under the threshold of $3.5 million, while homes under $1.5 million are "at risk of depreciation under policies expanding the housing supply". Restrictions on the availability of credit, while curbing the sharpest rises in average property values, have created a "barrier to the small investor to enter the market and reserved it to the people who do not aboslutely require credit". | |||
She notes that, in the suburbs, the house itself represents a considerable part of the value of the property, such that "if the house is destroyed by fire, the property would be worth almost nothing." If the house remains extant, it still naturally depreciates as it becomes technologically outdated, or its architecture unfashionable, etc. In contrast, in the city, the house itself is usually a tiny fraction of the value of the property, as "it is the land that is valuable, and land cannot become technologically outdated. The fashion of the land moves at the speed of molasses compared to the fashion of the house." Moreover, old urban properties are often valued for their historicity. Thus, proportionally speaking, an investment into a suburban property is one where a great portion is in a naturally-depreciating asset (the house), and the reaminder in a non-appreciating one (the land). | |||
Suburban houses, in new developments, more often advertise the "potential" that public transit or commercial development may serve it at some future time. While such claims are usually not unfounded, they are often priced into the development and may not always materalize. In comparison, the transit and commercial infrastructure in the city is already built and thus no longer a source of risk. This is "consonant with our observation that urban properties are almost free of hazards and risks, compared to suburban ones". | |||
==Government and administration== | ==Government and administration== | ||
===Subdivisions=== | ===Subdivisions=== | ||
{{main|Districts of Kien-k'ang}} | {{main|Districts of Kien-k'ang}} | ||
The Metropolitan City of Kien-k'ang covers 9, | The Metropolitan City of Kien-k'ang covers 9,027 km² and is geographically located in the southwest of the Exchequer-Province (左內史). It is the economically-dominant city within that province, the city's population and territory accounting for 85% and 31%, respectively, of the provincial total. | ||
The | The Metropolitan City (as of 2020) consists of the metropolitan territory (幾, ''ker'') and 13 boroughs (邑, ''qrep''); it is divided into 85 districts (鄉, ''qang'') and then 3,580 civil parishes (里, ''req''). The metropolitan territory comprehends 47 districts under the direct authority of the Metropolitan Council, while the boroughs have their own magistracies with local authority relating to matters of schools, transport, sanitation, and {{wp|land-use planning}}. The district offices are mere administrative divisions and are not separately elected. The most basic level of local government is carried out by civil parish staff members, where functions like voter enumeration are performed at the household level. | ||
The extent of the Metropolitan City was expanded several times in recent history, the more recent being in | The extent of the Metropolitan City was expanded several times in recent history, the more recent being in 1952 and 1971 when most of its modern territory was incorporated to the city from the Exchequer Province. For most of the city's existence and up to 1857, its magistracy controlled a stable but much smaller territory of 28.1 km² that now still is its primary urban core, called [[Great Kien-k'ang]] (建大邦), which was defined by wooden pallisades and a surrounding ditch. The outer city walls of Kien-k'ang do not define the borders of Great Kien-k'ang, as often held. This historic part of the city is divided into 21 districts and 65 civil parishes. | ||
In 1857, the [[Superior Woods]], once under | In 1857, the [[Superior Woods]], West Woods, Hallian Mission, Tlang-qrum Castle, and the East Prison, once under separate administrations, were joined under the civil magistracy of Kien-k'ang. This occurred because royal industries were waning in importance in the Superior Woods, where land was increasingly devoted to real estate development to generate income for the Crown, which wished to retain only the role as a landlord rather than a provider of public services. The annexation of the Superior Woods created a trend of placing far-flung (by contemporary standards) territories to the city's administration. The Kien-k'ang Council was created as a statutory entity with the support of the central government to redress the city's strained resources to administer an expanding territory. | ||
The | The district of the [[Justice of Appeal (Kien-k'ang district)|Justice of Appeal]] (廷㷉, ''ling-’uts''), which encompassed the 3.7 km² of territory in the Citadel, was abolished in 1953 and joined to the city. The separate magistracy existed to exclude the seat of the central government from the local administration, but this arrangement became meaningless because . The central government possessed many buildings beyond this area, and its miniscule jurisdiction and skewed economic profile (consisting almost entirely of government buildings and only a handful of houses) was fiscally unsustainable as a separate local authority. | ||
The Magistracy of the Exchequer (中廷) is | The Magistracy of the Exchequer (中廷) is an exclave at 0.45 km² located southeast of the Citadel and belongs not to the City but to the Exchequer-Province. It houses but a single property—the historic Exchequer palaces—where many central government departments are concentrated. Unlike the jurisdiction of the Justice of Appeal, this area is devoid of current inhabitants. It is subject to an agreement with the City to provide police, fire, and medical services when required, for a convenience fee due to the City. There has been debate on the formal transfer of this territory to the City for some decades, but no action has been taken. | ||
{| class="wikitable sortable" | {| class="wikitable sortable" | ||
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|+ ''w.i.'' = within walls, ''w.o.'' = without walls | |+ ''w.i.'' = within walls, ''w.o.'' = without walls | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 廷㷉 || Justice of Appeal || 3.7 || 13,872 || 3,749 || | | 廷㷉 || [[Justice of Appeal (Kien-k'ang district)|Justice of Appeal]] || 3.7 || 13,872 || 3,749 || 14 || rowspan="47"|Metropolitan|| w.i., Sqin-lang Palace, Middle Palace, etc. | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 東郊內 || East Fringe Inside|| 2.1 || 12,860 || 6,124 || 3 || w.i., surrounds the Exchequer Justiceship | | 東郊內 || East Fringe Inside|| 2.1 || 12,860 || 6,124 || 3 || w.i., surrounds the Exchequer Justiceship | ||
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| 三行 || Srum-gang || 1.5 || 18,293 || 12,195 || 4 || w.i. | | 三行 || Srum-gang || 1.5 || 18,293 || 12,195 || 4 || w.i. | ||
|- | |- | ||
| | | 天宗下 || Qlin-tsung-graq || 2.6 || 38,290 || 14,727 || 10 || w.i. | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 嚮行 || | | 嚮行 || Qang-gang || 2.1 || 28,290 || 13,471 || 7|| w.i. | ||
|- | |- | ||
| 南畿 || South District|| 1.5 || 38,495 || 25,663 || 6 || w.o. | | 南畿 || South District|| 1.5 || 38,495 || 25,663 || 6 || w.o. | ||
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===Government=== | ===Government=== | ||
The modern government of the Metropolitan City of Kien-k'ang consists of two arms, the Metropolitan Council (鄕斅, ''sqang-sgruk'') and the Metropolitan Board of Aldermen (邑長老, ''qrep-trang′-kru''); the former is responsible for deliberating over Metropolitan ordinances and appropriations, while the latter is focused on their implementation and are responsible to the former. The relationship between the two organizations may be described as that between legislative and executive branches, though both have certain legislative and executive functions. | |||
The Magistrate of Kien-k'ang (建康令, ''kyan-k'ang-ringh'') is the nominal head of the Metropolitan City and is appointed by the central government as its representative to the city, but this officer no longer has executive responsibility within the city. The Justice of Kien-k'ang (建康㷉, ''kyan-k'ang-′uts'') is the ceremonial head of the inferior courts of Kien-k'ang with jurisdiction over family, probate, and traffic laws and the ceremonial commander of Kien-k'ang militia units in peacetime. This official is appointed by the central government on the recommendation of the Secretary of State for Home Affairs. | |||
==Economy== | ==Economy== | ||
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===Regional railway=== | ===Regional railway=== | ||
{{main|Inner Region Regional Railway}} | {{main|Inner Region Regional Railway}} | ||
Commuters' need to travel to and from the city have underlaid the | Commuters' need to travel to and from the city and the cost-prohibitive construction of city-centre highways have underlaid the nascence of the Inner Region Regional Railway (IRRR) in 1968 as a distinct railway system, whose tracks were served by branch line trains run by the two main-line operators. The IRRR offers semi-frequent services, with 10 minute headways or better at peak hours, with good capacity, at distances longer than the KRT's most remote services. Its most distant stop is in Sin, 140 km from Kien-k'ang's centre. | ||
The IRRR's tracks, which diverge in the countryside and generally run at-grade, merge in the city-centre into three corridors, which are tunnelled and {{wp|quadruple-track railway|quadruple-track}}. Two tracks share one tunnel. By the 1950s it was clear that the concentration of transit services at a single, central station created dangerous crowds, and so the IRRR has multiple urban stations where passengers may dissipate through other modes of transit. To accommodate existing lines of the KRT, IRRR stations in the city are built even deeper, often at 35 – 45 m underground. The deepest point of the network is found where corridors 1 and 2 intersect under [[Twa-ts'uk-men Station]], where the newer corridor 2 descends to 53.2 m at the top of rails. In turn, such depths required high-speed escalators and travelators to make access practical. | |||
The second and third corridors (finished 1981 and 1994 respectively) have their tracks crossed-over before entering the tunnels, forming several {{wp|cross-platform interchange|cross-platform interchanges}} in the underground stations of the IRRR. These were consciously installed so that the IRRR could be better availed as an alternative, express service for the rapid transit network, which had fairly close-spaced stops (by modern standards) and thus a lower average speed. | |||
===Omnibus=== | ===Omnibus=== | ||
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==Culture== | ==Culture== | ||
===City walls and moat=== | ===City walls and moat=== | ||
The Citadel's city walls are the most ancient, parts thereof dating to the | The Citadel's city walls (成) are the most ancient, parts thereof dating to the 2nd century. While the Citadel was formed around important public spaces in [[Themiclesian Antiquity|Antiquity]], the gradual multiplication and expansion of palaces, temples, and government buildings slowly drained the Citadel of space available for private homes. As a result, most of the city's residents (even prominent ones) lived outside of the Citadel by the 4th century. The settlement outside of the Citadel was uneven—in some places, the area outside of the walls were bustling streets, while in others the Citadel bordered unused land. The unevenness of settlement outside of the Citadel would persist until the growth of Kien-k'ang as a modern city in the 18th century. | ||
Kien-k'ang's outer walls (衛成) were initially wooden pallisades shielded by a deep ditch of 5 m both wide and deep. These were breached during the Siege of Kien-k'ang in 1385, within a matter of hours. The pallisades are no longer visible as above-ground structures, but the ditch is still flooded with water and forms the outer boundary of the original city and its countryside, called [[Great Kien-k'ang]] (建大邦). | |||
Starting in 1410, proposals to replace the pallisades with a {{wp|rammed earth}} wall were floated, but owing to finances and calming relation with [[Yi dynasty|Yi Menghe]], they were not found immediately necessary. By 1432, opinions shifted again, and money and labour was set aside to construct an outer wall, which could not be the original perimeter of the pallisades, which would be prohibitively expensive. The new walls were retracted from the extent of the pallisades by 1.5 to 2 km and surrounded the citadel on three sides, the new walls connecting to the citadel's north wall. Even at a reduced scale, the wall enclosed an unprecedented amount of territory, at least half of which was still rural. The important Old City, where the Kien-k'ang magistrates presided, was connected to the Citadel by the new walls, while other settled places like the Ward Temples were not within them. | |||
Built by a force of 100,000 over the span of 30 years, this wall was originally about 10 m thick and 5 m tall, but it has been enlarged in successive stages, resulting in a stone-faced, earthen-core wall 28 m at its thickest point and 20 m at the thinnest. The general method was removing the earth from the {{wp|counterscarp}} of the ditch and then ramming it against the city side of the wall, which broadens the former and thickens the latter. In the 1600s, the ditch was flooded with water from the River Kaung, producing a moat that was declared a source of miasma and finally drained in 1861. Before this time, the moat was frequently dredged by hand, an unpleasant task done by corvée labour. | |||
These walls measured about 14.2 km in total. Initially, there were six gates, one each on the western and northern sides and two each on the south and east. In 1514, two more gates were opened for the convenience. By 1850, the walls had 19 gates in total. All city gates have a single gateway under a gatehouse, which is a design emphasizing the defensive capability of the gate, as opposed to double or triple gateways more common in the walls of the Citadel, whose defensive functions were diluted by the newer, outer walls. | |||
During the [[Pan-Septentrion War]] and [[Battle of Kien-k'ang]], the city walls were formidable defences for citizens taking refuge in the city and were never breached. The gates were stopped up by bricks hastily laid by hand, and the gatehouses reinforced with steel girders on the inside. The Dayashinese forces apparently used nearly a million tonnes of ordnance on the walls, only to fail to breach them. After the war, the walls were completely demolished to build the [[Kien-k'ang Ring Road]], after their defensive functions were made obsolete and projections of future evacuations were adjusted. | |||
==See also== | ==See also== | ||
Latest revision as of 01:21, 9 December 2023
Kien-k′ang
建康 | |
|---|---|
Metropolitan City | |
| Shinasthana transcription(s) | |
| • Timothy | kyan-k′ang |
| • Garrett | kiàn-kang |
.jpg) Dusk in Banks District | |
| Country | Themiclesia |
| Province | Exchequer |
| Inner walls | 570 |
| Outer walls | 1412 |
| Seat | City Hall |
| Manors | List
|
| Government | |
| • Body | Metropolitan City of Kien-k'ang |
| • President-Alderman | Sally Chang (Conservative Party) |
| • Chairperson of the Council | Larry Pu |
| • Civic Marshal | Lt. Gen. Mark Ryam |
| Area | |
| • Metropolitan City | 7,642 km2 (2,951 sq mi) |
| • Land | 7,257 km2 (2,802 sq mi) |
| • Urban | 574 km2 (222 sq mi) |
| Population (2017) | |
| • Metropolitan City | 11,273,520 |
| • Density | 1,500/km2 (3,800/sq mi) |
| Time zone | SMT+4 |
| Postal code | 103 |
The Metropolitan City of Kien-k'ang (泰邑建康, qlats-qrep-kyen-k'ang) or simply Kien-k'ang is the capital city of Themiclesia, located in the country's west and straddling the banks of the River Kaung, about 150 km from its discharge. The city has a growing population of 11.24 million. The Metropolitan City, covering 7,642 km², is much larger than the historic walled city or the modern urban area expanding from it, occupying as much as a third of the Exchequer Province and includes rural districts and satellite cities. The urban area of Kien-k'ang covers about 450 km² and is the home of about 4 million denizens. The city is governed by the elected Metropolitan Board of Aldermen and City Council, which are its executive and legislative authorities respectively.
Kien-k'ang is considered a world city with respect to its prominence in the global economy and as a centre for trade, culture, education, and technology. Kien-k'ang's economy is now dominated by the tertiary sector. Domestically, it is the seat of the central government, and it is the dominant city in Themiclesia as to its population and economic output. The global and Hemithean headquarters of numerous international enterprises are also found in Kien-k'ang.
The city is a hub of Themiclesia's much-used conventional and high-speed railway systems, which connect it to both domestic and foreign destinations as far as Suurlarko, Camia, Solevant, Menghe, and Dayashina. Within the city, there is rapid transit, the commuter railway, tram, and bus services, which converge at Twa-ts'uk-men Station. Flights to and from Kien-k'ang are served by two airports, the urban Tibh Airport and more remote Kei Airport.
Kien-k'ang is the site of both aboriginal settlements in the Neolothic period and of early Meng settlements in Themiclesia, dating to the 6th century BCE. In the 4th and 3rd centuries, it profited greatly, situated on the trade route to Menghe, and became the dominant city of the Themiclesian south, whence emerged an empire that governed Themiclesia-proper. The city was historically an entrepot between the Subcontinent, Meridia, and the Hemithean interior, which has left copious marks on the city's cultural, musical, artistic, architectural, academic, and political fabric. The annual Procession of Envoys into the royal palace is part of this heritage.
The city is home to numerous primary and secondary schools, which offer compulsory education to children living in the city. The city has private schools and a smaller number of tertiary institutions, including 5 of Themiclesia's 15 chartered universities, of which 12 which are considered top global institutions. It is also a centre for medical care, with multiple recognized general and research hospitals within its ambit. The historic core of the city is the Citadel (成), which hosts royal palaces and government departments. The urbanized area around the Citadel was enclosed by palisades since Antiquity but were only walled after the 1385 Menghean siege. Much new development takes place outside the walled city. The Kien-k'ang Financial Centre, the world's tallest building for nine years, is located in the South Fring district.
The city faces industrial and air pollution, high housing costs, and ageing infrastructure. Some pollution may be traced to the city's industrialization in the 19th and 20th centuries, whereby untreated waste has permanently altered the hydrology and habitability of some places. In others, unregulated development led to groundwater overuse or pollution, in turn endangering structures built above. Several of the city's districts, desirable but subject to strict rules, are neither actively developed nor affordable, and in some cases have become dilapidated. The price of homes in central Kien-k'ang has consistently risen faster than wage levels since 1982, encouraging remote developments that in turn require lengthy commutes.
Name
Kien-k'ang was originally the name of the Royal Citadel situated next to the city of Tsinh (晉邑, tsinh-qrep); however, as Tsinh evolved to mean the political body controlled from that city, the name of the citadel came to denote the city itself.
Geography
Kien-k'ang is situated on the east bank of the river Kaung (江, kwrang), roughly 150 km from its discharge into the Bay (小海, smu′-qme′).
Topography
Climate
The Metropolitan City of Kien-k'ang traverses two Köppen climate classification zones, the hot-summer humid continental (Dfa) and cold semi-arid climates (Bsk). The place where the following climate data is collected is within the former. The city experiences low to moderate precipitation year-round. Seasons are well-defined in terms of temperature, with coldest temperatures in January and February and hottest in July.
| Climate data for Kien-k'ang (normals 1883 – present; extremes 1945 – present) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Record high °C (°F) | 12.4 (54.3) |
15.7 (60.3) |
20.6 (69.1) |
29.3 (84.7) |
37.3 (99.1) |
39.3 (102.7) |
41.9 (107.4) |
42.5 (108.5) |
37.9 (100.2) |
31.0 (87.8) |
21.1 (70.0) |
12.2 (54.0) |
42.7 (108.9) |
| Average high °C (°F) | −3.3 (26.1) |
−2.6 (27.3) |
4.7 (40.5) |
15.4 (59.7) |
22.8 (73.0) |
27.8 (82.0) |
30.6 (87.1) |
29.5 (85.1) |
22.3 (72.1) |
13.3 (55.9) |
4.1 (39.4) |
−1.6 (29.1) |
13.5 (56.3) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | −6.4 (20.5) |
−6.0 (21.2) |
0.3 (32.5) |
9.4 (48.9) |
16.6 (61.9) |
21.5 (70.7) |
24.2 (75.6) |
23.0 (73.4) |
16.1 (61.0) |
8.4 (47.1) |
0.7 (33.3) |
−4.4 (24.1) |
8.7 (47.7) |
| Average low °C (°F) | −9.0 (15.8) |
−9.1 (15.6) |
−3.2 (26.2) |
4.3 (39.7) |
10.4 (50.7) |
15.5 (59.9) |
17.7 (63.9) |
16.6 (61.9) |
10.4 (50.7) |
4.4 (39.9) |
−2.2 (28.0) |
−7.8 (18.0) |
4.0 (39.2) |
| Record low °C (°F) | −34.0 (−29.2) |
−31.5 (−24.7) |
−24.8 (−12.6) |
−13.8 (7.2) |
−2.1 (28.2) |
1.0 (33.8) |
6.4 (43.5) |
5.5 (41.9) |
−2.0 (28.4) |
−13.2 (8.2) |
−23.8 (−10.8) |
−28.8 (−19.8) |
−34.0 (−29.2) |
| Average precipitation mm (inches) | 21 (0.8) |
15 (0.6) |
18 (0.7) |
14 (0.6) |
29 (1.1) |
21 (0.8) |
15 (0.6) |
12 (0.5) |
18 (0.7) |
23 (0.9) |
16 (0.6) |
21 (0.8) |
225 (8.9) |
| Average extreme snow depth cm (inches) | 11 (4.3) |
18 (7.1) |
10 (3.9) |
1 (0.4) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
0 (0) |
1 (0.4) |
6 (2.4) |
18 (7.1) |
| Average rainy days | 8 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 11 | 13 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 127 |
| Average snowy days | 21 | 17 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 19 | 81 |
| Average relative humidity (%) | 85 | 83 | 79 | 62 | 55 | 54 | 51 | 49 | 59 | 71 | 84 | 87 | 68 |
| Source: Themiclesian Institute for Science | |||||||||||||
History
Prehistory
The modern Metropolitan City of Kien-k'ang contains several sites attributed to the pre-literate Sarcophagus Culture which inhabited the south and east of Themiclesia between the 19th and 9th centuries BCE, whose eponymous cultural material were large, heavy stone sarcophagi in which their dead were placed during elaborate funerary ceremonies. They further served as sign posts or meeting places for the Sarcophagus Culture's migratory population groups. At least 14 such sarcophagi and more sites of temporary settlement have been discovered within the city's administrative borders. The Sarcophagus Culture was predominantly a Neolothic culture, though metal objects were imported from the Achahan people who governed northern Menghe and Dzhungestan during the later phase of the Sarcophagus Culture. While some scholars believe it strongly influenced burial customs of Meng people who later settled in Themiclesia, its lack of a permanent settlement renders difficult the connection to the history of the later city proper.
Antiquity
During the Themiclesian Dark Ages, the earliest Meng settlers pursued the Lapis Road from the remnants of the Achahan empire to what is now Themiclesia. The majority view places the first permanent, agricultural settlement of Meng affinity using bronze tools in the 8th century BCE, though not near Kien-k'ang. There, Meng settlements can only be dated to the first half of the 6th century, concentrating in the many bends of the River Kaung that irrigated farms.
Parts of the Ditch of Pren, located 31 km away from central Kien-k'ang, have been identified as the defensive works that surrounded a small settlement of about 1,000 people. The ditch was constructed around 550 BCE and seems to have accompanied an expansion of the settlement by craftsmen working the lapis lazuli ores that were not mined in Kien-k'ang's vicinity but transported over 500 km away.
Post-war
In the post-war period, Kien-k'ang's territories were extended into the Exchequer Province three times, in 1948, 1952, and 1971. With the addition of the Superior Woods, West Woods, Fortress, and Hallian Mission precincts in 1857, Kien-k'ang administrative area stood at 51.2 km², divided into 30 districts, though by the early 20th century the actual built-up area extended quite far exceeded the city's borders, often along corridors served by public transit. Thus, in 1948, the cities of Sungh and Der were annexed to the municipality, since any countryside separating them from Kien-k'ang had long disappeared. This separation was vexing as businesses often needed multiple licenses and inspections. Thus, the two cities became six new districts of Kien-k'ang, whose territories stood at 75.4 km².
A different plan proceeded in 1952 when six cities and five adjoining counties were annexed to the municipality, following reforms creating the Metropolitan Executive Authority (邑大府), managing matters better suited to a more general geography like public transit, road work, education, housing, licensing, and urban planning; other matters were left to extant local authorities. As the central government promised not to relocate slum and tenament residents to a different city, where they might go out of work, the Kien-k'ang Council complained throughout the 30s and 40s there simply was no available land for resettlement. A considerable part of Kien-k'ang was owned by the Crown and leased to prestigious residents, which precluded their redevelopment for resettlement.
On the other hand, as private vehicles became more common and rural roads improved, many citizens migrated to satellite cities and newly-developed communities outside of the traditional boundaries of the city. The Kien-k'ang Council was equally concerned about lost revenues if these citizens were to move into the Province, even though much of their productive work occurred in the city. The 1952 expansion of the city enable resettlements of either character to occur "within the same city". After the expansion, the city's geographic size increased by about ten times and stood at 767 km². To protect the city against "pilfering by rural interests", the newly-annexed areas were not rezoned in harmony with Kien-k'ang, with the result that the old city was represented in the Council by population units, and the suburbs, still deemed rural, represented by geographic parcels irrespective of population.
This management system concentrated budgets in the city-centre. In 1967, for example, Kien-k'ang was able to manage the simultaneous constructions of three rapid transit lines, a quadruple-track underground commuter railway, and the underground sections of a high-speed railway, after the city was fully restored to its pre-war shape by about 1957. On the other hand, concern for infrastructure in resettlement communities was limited, and some remote areas did not have modern sewage well into the 70s. Some developers built outdoor privies, promising (not always fulfilled) to retrofit or connect indoor toilets after the sewage main reaches the vicinity. Knowing that urban property values were to rise, all classes sought to "cling on" to the city-centre if they had any property and avoid being "washed out".
It has been suggested that urban properties appreciated more than eight times as much as suburban properties have between 1950 and 2000. In this view, suburban homes were failures as investments, as they demanded consistent maintenance and yet failed to appreciate in value. Its owner was, moreover, often forced to maintain a motor vehicle, with associated taxes, fines, and expenses, where public transit did not reach; in contrast, urban life was more feasible without a vehicle. Because new suburbs were constantly being developed, suburban homes could never become desirable in the same way as a decent urban property, which is limited in supply by geographic and cultural factors (such as proximity to the commercial centre and the palaces).
In the same period, urban properties improved in value not only on account of improving amenities but also the elimination of "undesirable" factors, such as polluting factories and slums. As slum residents often accepted subsidized houses in the suburbs, their urban properties were cheaply purchased, consolidated, re-developed into town houses, and sold for a premium, often by developers on good terms with the Council. The former slum residents were then left with properties associated with increased living expenses, reduced productivity, and which did not appreciate. In 1981, the imposition of the Kien-k'ang congestion charge was characterized as "pay to go out, pay again to come in" by the poet Ki-mryi. The anthropologist Drew Blair's Urban Replacement describes the way in which the inner city of Kien-k'ang has largely defied urban decay. To him, "the typical house is seven figures; eight figures is only common; nine figures will barely raise one eyebrow these days."
Margaret Tup, a land historian, writes that Kien-k'ang appears to be unique in that most of the metropolitan city is a poverty trap. Only in select locations does real estate appreciate when inflation is taken into account, and that potential is accordingly reflected in prices. In the early 21st century, she estimates a "reasonably rewarding" investment (considering alternatives in stocks and commodities) cannot be made under the threshold of $3.5 million, while homes under $1.5 million are "at risk of depreciation under policies expanding the housing supply". Restrictions on the availability of credit, while curbing the sharpest rises in average property values, have created a "barrier to the small investor to enter the market and reserved it to the people who do not aboslutely require credit".
She notes that, in the suburbs, the house itself represents a considerable part of the value of the property, such that "if the house is destroyed by fire, the property would be worth almost nothing." If the house remains extant, it still naturally depreciates as it becomes technologically outdated, or its architecture unfashionable, etc. In contrast, in the city, the house itself is usually a tiny fraction of the value of the property, as "it is the land that is valuable, and land cannot become technologically outdated. The fashion of the land moves at the speed of molasses compared to the fashion of the house." Moreover, old urban properties are often valued for their historicity. Thus, proportionally speaking, an investment into a suburban property is one where a great portion is in a naturally-depreciating asset (the house), and the reaminder in a non-appreciating one (the land).
Suburban houses, in new developments, more often advertise the "potential" that public transit or commercial development may serve it at some future time. While such claims are usually not unfounded, they are often priced into the development and may not always materalize. In comparison, the transit and commercial infrastructure in the city is already built and thus no longer a source of risk. This is "consonant with our observation that urban properties are almost free of hazards and risks, compared to suburban ones".
Government and administration
Subdivisions
The Metropolitan City of Kien-k'ang covers 9,027 km² and is geographically located in the southwest of the Exchequer-Province (左內史). It is the economically-dominant city within that province, the city's population and territory accounting for 85% and 31%, respectively, of the provincial total.
The Metropolitan City (as of 2020) consists of the metropolitan territory (幾, ker) and 13 boroughs (邑, qrep); it is divided into 85 districts (鄉, qang) and then 3,580 civil parishes (里, req). The metropolitan territory comprehends 47 districts under the direct authority of the Metropolitan Council, while the boroughs have their own magistracies with local authority relating to matters of schools, transport, sanitation, and land-use planning. The district offices are mere administrative divisions and are not separately elected. The most basic level of local government is carried out by civil parish staff members, where functions like voter enumeration are performed at the household level.
The extent of the Metropolitan City was expanded several times in recent history, the more recent being in 1952 and 1971 when most of its modern territory was incorporated to the city from the Exchequer Province. For most of the city's existence and up to 1857, its magistracy controlled a stable but much smaller territory of 28.1 km² that now still is its primary urban core, called Great Kien-k'ang (建大邦), which was defined by wooden pallisades and a surrounding ditch. The outer city walls of Kien-k'ang do not define the borders of Great Kien-k'ang, as often held. This historic part of the city is divided into 21 districts and 65 civil parishes.
In 1857, the Superior Woods, West Woods, Hallian Mission, Tlang-qrum Castle, and the East Prison, once under separate administrations, were joined under the civil magistracy of Kien-k'ang. This occurred because royal industries were waning in importance in the Superior Woods, where land was increasingly devoted to real estate development to generate income for the Crown, which wished to retain only the role as a landlord rather than a provider of public services. The annexation of the Superior Woods created a trend of placing far-flung (by contemporary standards) territories to the city's administration. The Kien-k'ang Council was created as a statutory entity with the support of the central government to redress the city's strained resources to administer an expanding territory.
The district of the Justice of Appeal (廷㷉, ling-’uts), which encompassed the 3.7 km² of territory in the Citadel, was abolished in 1953 and joined to the city. The separate magistracy existed to exclude the seat of the central government from the local administration, but this arrangement became meaningless because . The central government possessed many buildings beyond this area, and its miniscule jurisdiction and skewed economic profile (consisting almost entirely of government buildings and only a handful of houses) was fiscally unsustainable as a separate local authority.
The Magistracy of the Exchequer (中廷) is an exclave at 0.45 km² located southeast of the Citadel and belongs not to the City but to the Exchequer-Province. It houses but a single property—the historic Exchequer palaces—where many central government departments are concentrated. Unlike the jurisdiction of the Justice of Appeal, this area is devoid of current inhabitants. It is subject to an agreement with the City to provide police, fire, and medical services when required, for a convenience fee due to the City. There has been debate on the formal transfer of this territory to the City for some decades, but no action has been taken.
| District | Area (km²) |
Population (2019) |
Density (per km²) |
Civil parishes |
Region | Places of notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 廷㷉 | Justice of Appeal | 3.7 | 13,872 | 3,749 | 14 | Metropolitan | w.i., Sqin-lang Palace, Middle Palace, etc. |
| 東郊內 | East Fringe Inside | 2.1 | 12,860 | 6,124 | 3 | w.i., surrounds the Exchequer Justiceship | |
| 西郊內 | West Fringe Inside | 2.3 | 17,223 | 7,488 | 3 | w.i. | |
| 南道內 | South Way Inside | 1.8 | 23,279 | 12,933 | 6 | w.i., seat of the Metropolitan Council and Metropolitan Executive Authority | |
| 平除 | Bing-lra | 3.3 | 35,203 | 10,668 | 6 | w.i. | |
| 三行 | Srum-gang | 1.5 | 18,293 | 12,195 | 4 | w.i. | |
| 天宗下 | Qlin-tsung-graq | 2.6 | 38,290 | 14,727 | 10 | w.i. | |
| 嚮行 | Qang-gang | 2.1 | 28,290 | 13,471 | 7 | w.i. | |
| 南畿 | South District | 1.5 | 38,495 | 25,663 | 6 | w.o. | |
| 東郊外 | East Fringe Outside | 1.5 | 33,293 | 22,195 | 10 | w.o. | |
| 西郊外 | West Fringe Outside | 2.1 | 29,389 | 13,995 | 8 | w.o. | |
| 南道外 | South Way Outside | 1.3 | 19,203 | 14,772 | 6 | w.o. | |
| 天宗右 | Qlin-tsung-ghwe | 2.4 | 37,384 | 15,577 | 10 | w.o. | |
| 府外 | Pa-lin | 1.2 | 20,039 | 16,699 | 5 | w.o. | |
| 荽外 | Nur-ngwats | 1.8 | 27,348 | 15,193 | 8 | w.o. | |
| 五行外 | Ngaq-gang-ngwats | 1.7 | 23,930 | 14,076 | 6 | w.o. | |
| 林梁 | Rem-rang | 1.2 | 19,283 | 16,069 | 5 | w.o. | |
| 迕津 | Ngrak-tsin | 1.3 | 17,394 | 13,380 | 4 | w.o. | |
| 都門度 | Ta-men-daks | 1 | 18,293 | 18,293 | 4 | w.o. | |
| 副梁 | Peks-rang | 0.5 | 12,394 | 24,788 | 4 | w.o. | |
| 藤道外 | Lrem-lu-ngwats | 1.2 | 19,293 | 16,078 | 7 | w.o. | |
| 上林 | Dank-rem | 7.3 | 41,940 | 5,700 | 7 | ||
| 克野 | Kek-la | 3.4 | 68,394 | 20,116 | |||
| 祿野 | Ruk-la | 5.7 | 88,740 | 15,568 | |||
| 普野 | Pa-la | 4.3 | 56,384 | 13,113 | |||
| 平邍 | Bing-ngwyan | 6.9 | 52,046 | 7,543 | |||
| 慕邍 | Maqs-ngwyan | 3.3 | 71,293 | 21,604 | |||
| 虎林 | Qa-rem | 9.2 | 201,849 | 21,940 | |||
| 算 | Stsors | 19.4 | 154,682 | 7,973 | |||
| 平野 | Bing-la | 28.1 | 291,856 | 10,386 | |||
| 奧邍 | 'Uks-ngwyan | 13.5 | 199,478 | 14,776 | |||
| 彌 | Ni | 17.4 | 191,037 | 10,979 | |||
| 我野 | Ngar-la | 28.3 | 241,589 | 8,537 | |||
| 井野 | King-la | 52.9 | 286,790 | 5,421 | |||
| 辦邍 | Brars-ngwyan | 86.2 | 277,642 | 3,221 | |||
| 圭邍 | Kwis-ngwyan | 69.5 | 289,084 | 4,159 | |||
| 矢林 | Sli-rem | 57.5 | 324,560 | 5,645 | |||
| 邦林 | Proang-rem | 192.4 | 331,206 | 1,721 | |||
| 益野 | Qyik-la | 215 | 280,508 | 1,305 | |||
| 龢野 | Goi-la | 332.9 | 348,902 | 1,048 | |||
| 巳水 | Sqe-stur | 560 | 441,693 | 789 | |||
| 中野 | Trung-la | 292.1 | 238,561 | 817 | |||
| 牉林 | Prans-rem | 560.1 | 276,665 | 494 | |||
| 谷 | Ghuk | 337.1 | 343,501 | 1,019 | |||
| 復野 | Peks-la | 492.8 | 388,567 | 788 | |||
| 尺林 | Tsrek-rem | 182.4 | 268,475 | 1,472 | |||
| 逆林 | Ngrak-rem | 397.3 | 287,693 | 724 | |||
| 邳 | Prei | 173 | 670,203 | 3,874 | Borough of Prei |
||
| 尋林 | Slun-rem | 332 | 224,392 | 676 | |||
| 生野 | Sring-laq | 432 | 172,930 | 400 | |||
| 升林 | Steng-rem | 57 | 73,849 | 1,296 | |||
| 圖野 | Da-laq | 162 | 162,830 | 1,005 | |||
| 其 | Ge | 195 | 98,293 | 504 | |||
| 郚 | Ngaq | 78 | 384,920 | 4,935 | Borough of Ngaq |
||
| 頍野 | Le-laq | 293 | 182,394 | 623 | |||
| 鼟 | Teng | 285 | 122,939 | 431 | |||
| 郛 | Puq | 45 | 227,384 | 5,053 | 郛 | Borough of Puq |
|
| 頦野 | Krek-laq | 182 | 83,949 | 461 | |||
| 需 | Snwa | 224 | 43,394 | 194 | |||
| 洣野 | Mri-laq | 331 | 134,946 | 408 | |||
| 壼 | Gwe | 293 | 113,205 | 386 | |||
| 喜野 | He-laq | 172 | 84,900 | 494 | |||
| 庱野 | Dreng-laq | 220 | 49,302 | 224 | |||
| 彭野 | Breng-laq | 78 | 182,930 | 2,345 | |||
| 郜 | Kus | 51 | 332,384 | 6,517 | 郜 | Borough of Kus |
|
| 湯 | Qlang | 283 | 92,049 | 325 | |||
| 厒 | Pru | 192 | 29,304 | 153 | |||
| 汸野 | Prang-laq | 109 | 74,183 | 681 | |||
| 屉 | Lyiq | 32 | 155,200 | 4,850 | |||
| 洗野 | Ser-laq | 27 | 143,840 | 5,327 | |||
| 浭野 | Kang-laq | 220 | 112,090 | 510 | |||
| 郝 | Qrak | 112 | 438,291 | 3,913 | 郝 | Borough of Qrak |
|
| 餥 | Prer | 75 | 74,812 | 997 | |||
| 不野 | Peks-laq | 107 | 46,598 | 435 | |||
| 池 | Lir | 89 | 37,211 | 418 | |||
| 蓪 | Lwang | 95 | 29,399 | 309 | |||
| 郞 | Rang | 43 | 389,402 | 9,056 | 郞 | Borough of Rang |
|
| 契林 | Kits-rem | 109 | 172,830 | 1,586 | |||
| 趿林 | Kreps-rem | 155 | 84,798 | 547 | |||
| 郟 | Ghrap | 57 | 270,394 | 4,744 | 郟 | Borough of Grap |
|
| 舛 | Twan | 122 | 167,293 | 1,371 | |||
| 郠 | Kryang | 23 | 283,940 | 12,345 | 郠 | Borough of Kryang |
|
| 元野 | Mgwan-laq | 57 | 77,890 | 1,366 | |||
| 郜林 | Kus-rem | 120 | 65,293 | 544 | |||
Government
The modern government of the Metropolitan City of Kien-k'ang consists of two arms, the Metropolitan Council (鄕斅, sqang-sgruk) and the Metropolitan Board of Aldermen (邑長老, qrep-trang′-kru); the former is responsible for deliberating over Metropolitan ordinances and appropriations, while the latter is focused on their implementation and are responsible to the former. The relationship between the two organizations may be described as that between legislative and executive branches, though both have certain legislative and executive functions.
The Magistrate of Kien-k'ang (建康令, kyan-k'ang-ringh) is the nominal head of the Metropolitan City and is appointed by the central government as its representative to the city, but this officer no longer has executive responsibility within the city. The Justice of Kien-k'ang (建康㷉, kyan-k'ang-′uts) is the ceremonial head of the inferior courts of Kien-k'ang with jurisdiction over family, probate, and traffic laws and the ceremonial commander of Kien-k'ang militia units in peacetime. This official is appointed by the central government on the recommendation of the Secretary of State for Home Affairs.
Economy
Kien-k′ang is the dominant city in Themiclesia in economic terms. Its gross product has consistently accounted for about one third of that of the entire country, or nominally $610 billion in 2020 (2019 Int'l dollars). Globally, it ranks as of 2019 the seventh most productive city, behind Nakazara, Avallone, Sunju, Selkiö, New Hadaway, and Paris. Though once the heart of Themiclesia's heavy industry, the tertiary or service sector has enjoyed primacy since the 1970s.
Raks-de
Raks-de (各市 or 路市) is the historic commercial centre of Kien-k'ang, located around the south of the city walls. The name raks-de means "open air market". It is also named nem-de or "south market" as it was with the east and west markets one of three principal marketplaces from the medieval period, but the east and west markets remained produce and goods markets of a local relevance, whereas the south market developed into the financial centre of Themiclesia during the first half of the 19th century.
Its reaches the Qlin Temple Compound (天宮, qlin-kyung) to the west and gradually fades into more residential neighbourhoods to the east. The district is intersected by the Avenue, which leads to the royal palace and hosts many government departments within the city walls. The area is arguably the best-served in Kien-k'ang in terms of transport options: it hosts the Twa-ts'uk-men Station on the main lines and is the area where rapid transit lines converge. The entire Raks-de district is encircled by the Metropolitan and Central lines.
Raks-de has housed the L'wats Stock Exchange since it evolved from a futures contract market during the 18th century. Today it is the sixth largest stock exchange globally by trading volume and is also where the majority of Themiclesian public companies are listed. A considerable number of global and Themiclesian businesses are headquartered from Raks-de, concentrating high-value employment in this area. As it is within the precincts of the city though beyond its physical walls, there is a building height limit in this area of 60 metres, which prevented the development of skyscrapers except in the case of the Kien-k'ang Financial Centre which reaches the height of 508 m and was the world's tallest building between 1993 and 2002.
Demographics and housing
As the citadel was mostly occupied by the palaces and government offices, residential areas arose outside of the citadel. The few residences within the citadel were held by the Privy Treasury and granted to royal favourites for convenience. In time, many of them became consular and ambassadorial residences and chanceries. Most of the palaces and government offices also had areas set aside as residences for its officers, though these were more akin to elaborate dormitories in use, the officers returning to a city home whenever released from work. Most of these residences have been torn down to make space for more offices as government ministries sprung up and struggled to find space within the citadel.
Beyond the citadel, in terms of land area, much of the city was royal forest and farmland until the 19th century. Once occupying almost 40% of the city, the High Woods (上林) to the north and the Metropolitan Botanical Garden (都木苑) are two remnants of royal forests that have been opened to public use; other parts of royal forests have been sold to private investors. Around another 12% of the city was held by the Privy Treasury as "serjeanty land" (采), leased to bureaucrats that did not already possess productive lands for the duration of their employ, according to their ranks. A commoner serving as secretary of state received some 30 hectares, while a warehouse manager received four.
The aristocratic families in Kien-k'ang built walled estates of considerable size. The very largest of these estates rivalled the palaces and housed dozens of extended families. Most land there was agricultural, worked by the estate-holder's tenants, living on the estate and sometimes for generations. These farming operations provided the estate-holder with a source of rent, partly paid in kind, was converted at markets. The estate-holder usually lived in a mansion located on the estate. Other houses existed for tenants and retainers, from single bunks and rooms for menials to detached, multiple-room residences for an estate-accountant and his family. It has been proposed that as many as a third of all of the city's residents were tenants and agents of its aristocratic houses.[1]
Most of these estates fell apart between the 17th and 19th centuries, with a few surviving into the 20th in remote areas or owned by exceptionally successful and conservative magnates. In the 1600s, the state began taxing aristocratic lands, prompting their owners to sell them off or convert them into more profitable uses. The city's growth during the 18th century led to "salami process", whereby an estate would have strips of land, facing streets, sliced off and converted into rental houses. This process accelerated in the 19th century, when the city's population grew from 400,000 to 2 million by 1900. Meanwhile, workshops and factories offered new opportunities to dispossessed farmers, encouraging agricultural land to convert to other uses.
However, most new dwellings built in the 19th century concentrated around the city's southern limits, where factories bloomed in the mid-19th century due to convenient transport (river, canal, and railway), availability of capital, and government promotion. Many factories provided dormitories for its workers that grew into communities with subsequent, independent development. Co-operating with factory owners, houses were rapidly built with the express purpose of housing as many people as cheaply as possible near to the workplace, with minimal consideration for sanitation, ventilation, and privacy. Communal kitchens and wells were the rule in these communities until cast-iron ranges and running water became common in the 20th century. Despite rapid construction, the demand for housing was insatiatble, and shantytowns grew at an astonishing pace, often infringing on existing properties.
These living conditions created a hotbed for infectious diseases that culminated in the dysentery epidemic in 1894, killing over 10,000 without medical facilities. These new communities also presented a challenge to urban authorities, who were accustomed to comparatively simple land titles in less congested areas; in the shantytowns, however, real interests were difficult to register and enforce, and residents themselves could not be censused without a conventional address. For many decades, the population of Kien-k'ang was under-reported by hundreds of housands, which hampered (admittedly limited) efforts to improve the quality of workers' lives. A professional police force did not exist until 1881, when the apparent lawlessness of the urban communities is thought to have motivated its introduction.
By 1890, the industrial and bustling south starkly contrasted with the quiescent north of the city, but tramways and urban railways, first operated in 1892, allowed working communities to propagate north. It is commonly held that this movement caused the city's elite to escape from what is now midtown and seek out new residential areas; however, the movement to more remote areas has actually existed since the beginning of the century for a variety of reasons. "Casual" houses were, in the 19th century, a hallmark of leisured lifestyles. A growing portion of merchants, formerly based in the port of Tonning, moved to Kien-k'ang; not needing access to factories, they settled in the city's northwest, where free land was still availalbe and not enclosed by estates. The growing middle class also began to live there to maintain social and physical distance from whom they believed were lesser.
The New District (新里), carved out of High Woods, was settled by upper- and middle-class residents in the 1850s, whose ranks swelled after propertied men acquired the franchise in 1845 and sought to establish themselves in the capital city. The growing middle class sometimes built their principal houses to compete with the aristocracy's casual houses, located in the same district, in terms of opulence and access to imported tastes. In the 1870s, the New District is described by The Times of Kien-k'ang as "the place where every respectable man has a house—but not necessarily live." Much of the aristocracy had other houses, either in the city or the countryside. The practice of competitive house-building in the New District then engendered its most prominent modern problems: dilapidated houses and landlord absenteeism.
In 1884, the government levied an urban land tax that drove the final nail into the coffins of remaining estates, which were being held mainly by a syndicate of landlords and corporations as land speculation. This was actually a regressive tax, but the largest estates were so under-utilized that the tax easily exceeded its value; nevertheless, the law also provided for a ten-year grace period for holders to make profitable plans for them. This tax released some 500 hectares of land into the market over the ensuing ten-year period, much of which became residential land. A few estates were sold to the government at market value.
In the 1890s, the City made its first provisions for urban planning. Like a police service, this policy was motivated by both the want of services in industrial and slum districts and a fear of social unrest if administration became impossible. In 1897, a multiple-day riot ensued in Ladh-brjêng District (大平里) after an explosive conflagration consumed almost 5,000 houses because fire engines were blocked; many residents of the city feared, without much evidence, that a revolution might be under foot. After the conflagration, the industrial district continued to expand.
A variety of groups advocated for restricting "industrial activity, clamour, and waste" to certain quarters and protecting the people that lived beyond it. The government sought to meet these demands while not depriving the industries of the land and labour they required. The resulting urban plans thus became a defence mechanism for a minority of city denizens against the problems they associated with industrial slums. They campaigned for "equal housing", which meant communities inhabited by families of comparable means, tastes, and expectations. The first planned district, founded in 1902, possessed provisions for lanes, sewers, running water, and manufactured gas. Running water was crucial as manufacturing and human wastes had poisoned underground water in many places. It was hoped that these new communities, with a density ceiling, would deter working-class housing and class-based hostilites.
The New District, isolated from both industry and commerce and inhabited by a highly-respected social class, was the inspiration for early urban planning. In the same decade, the City issued further plans for the east. Many communities were targeted towards certain economic and social classes through location, lot size, and other rules imposed through residents' councils. A homogeneous living environment proved attractive to many that sought to express their wealth and status through dwellings. By 1910, some 20,000 houses have been built in planned neighbourhoods. But most of these early lots were unaffordable to workers, and walking from these places to work and shop would have been impossible. Ironically, "equal housing" introduced strong geographic barriers between social classes that still remain highly visible today.
Education
Transportation
Inter-city railways
As the capital and most populous city, Kien-k'ang has been and is the primary railway hub of Themiclesia, whereto inter-city railways have connected since the beginning of the railway age in the 1850s. During the maximum of railway density in the 1950s, the city was served by eleven main-lines leading to other cities, though that number has since diminished to eight. Since the 1960s, the city has also been served by the Themiclesian High Speed Rail, which operates three lines out of the city.
All inter-city railways, conventional and high-speed, are on standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm). Power supply is mixed: one-third of the main-lines and all high-speed lines stand electrified with overhead AC power, and the remainder rely on diesel adhesion. Electrified and improved conventional lines are capable of supporting maximal speeds up to 120 mph (190 km/h), while high-speed lines may accommodate speeds up to 200 mph (320 km/h). Non-electrified main-lines are usually limited to line speeds of 100 mph (160 km/h). Lower speed limits exist on other lines for a variety of reasons.
Kien-k'ang is served by four primary inter-city stations. Twa-ts'uk-men Station and Tlang-qrum Station are the termini of National and Themiclesian & Great Northwestern, respectively. The Bring-ding-men Station is located near the southwestern gate of the city and serves primarily trains going to the south. The L′wa-rem Station, located west of the Kaung, is situated in an area experiencing growth of commercial activity since the 1970s, when that suburban district became a favoured location for office buildings due to the absence of a building height restriction.
Rapid transit
The publicly-owned Kien-k'ang Rapid Transit System operates 12 heavy-rail rapid-transit and 4 medium-capacity lines, and on them, 294 stations. Rapid-transit lines generally converge in central Kien-k'ang and terminate in suburbs. Light-rail systems, often converted from tram lines, are more common at the termini of rapid-transit lines and can function as feeder services; however, they also exist in the urban core, along with two medium-capacity lines built in the 1990s to 2000s on the basis of an old rapid-transit line removed in the 50s. The KRT has a daily ridership or trips taken of about 3 million in 2020, a figure that has been increasing since the 80s.
The entire KRT runs on the standard gauge of 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm), which was mandatory on revenue railways since the 1850s, but because the lines were constructed for different rolling stock, their loading guage, power, and signal systems are not intercompatible.
The KRT is one of the oldest urban rail transit systems in Hemithea, components whereof dating as far back as 1883. Four major railway systems existed during the first half of the 20th century in Kien-k'ang—Urban, Metropolitan, Central, and Underground Electric. These were brought under common management in 1943, by which the City undertook the duties of building and maintaining tracks, and public ownership in 1948.
Tram and light railway
Kien-k'ang has a network of nine light-rail lines that are concentrated in the urban centre and rarely venture beyond it. These were built on former tram tracks that were removed in the 1960s to allow more space for vehicular traffic. While Kien-k'ang's tram network once boasted over 80 routes and frequent services, slow-moving trams (often < 10 MPH) were considered an impediment to vehicular traffic. The very popular lines were either elevated or placed underground, while the less patronized ones were replaced with bus services. The lines retained were thus improved with exclusive rights-of-way and could be considered a light rail system. These former tram routes (04, 07, 22, 121, 125, 147, 156, 383, and 620) retain their route numbering reflecting their history.
The underground trams run in very shallow tunnels whose tops are only spanned by steel grates, that vehicles could use the space above the tunnels. These tunnels were so designed to economize on both money and time, and the resulting tunnels were deemed strong enough for the light trains that passed through them. Stations, on the other hand, were located at street level, and platform space next to the tracks is quite limited, often being only 3 to 4 feet deep; however, it was supposed that frequent service would obviate the need for wide platforms accommodating large crowds. The elevated tracks were built on 20-foot bridges, but this often resulted in conflicts with the KRT's overhead lines, whose height was between 20 and 25 foot; in this case, the light rail would climb over the KRT's tracks, since the latter's trains are not designed to negotiate steep grades.
Regional railway
Commuters' need to travel to and from the city and the cost-prohibitive construction of city-centre highways have underlaid the nascence of the Inner Region Regional Railway (IRRR) in 1968 as a distinct railway system, whose tracks were served by branch line trains run by the two main-line operators. The IRRR offers semi-frequent services, with 10 minute headways or better at peak hours, with good capacity, at distances longer than the KRT's most remote services. Its most distant stop is in Sin, 140 km from Kien-k'ang's centre.
The IRRR's tracks, which diverge in the countryside and generally run at-grade, merge in the city-centre into three corridors, which are tunnelled and quadruple-track. Two tracks share one tunnel. By the 1950s it was clear that the concentration of transit services at a single, central station created dangerous crowds, and so the IRRR has multiple urban stations where passengers may dissipate through other modes of transit. To accommodate existing lines of the KRT, IRRR stations in the city are built even deeper, often at 35 – 45 m underground. The deepest point of the network is found where corridors 1 and 2 intersect under Twa-ts'uk-men Station, where the newer corridor 2 descends to 53.2 m at the top of rails. In turn, such depths required high-speed escalators and travelators to make access practical.
The second and third corridors (finished 1981 and 1994 respectively) have their tracks crossed-over before entering the tunnels, forming several cross-platform interchanges in the underground stations of the IRRR. These were consciously installed so that the IRRR could be better availed as an alternative, express service for the rapid transit network, which had fairly close-spaced stops (by modern standards) and thus a lower average speed.
Omnibus
Highways
Kien-k'ang is served by two limited-access inter-city highways numbered A1 and A9. A1 originates from Kwang, passes through Kien-k'ang's eastern outskirts, and leads to Sin, Rak, and Qwang; there are 16 exits and 4 interchanges within the bounds of the Metropolitan City. A9 originates from Prin, passes through Rem, and terminates at Kien-k'ang's western fringe in the Borough of L′wa.
The Southern Line Highway is an urban highway cutting across central Kien-k'ang. It was converted directly from the tracks of an elevated railway in 1954, as that line lost money and generated complaints from its rail squeal. It is a double-carriageway and two-lane road in most sections in either direction, with a maximum speed of 25 MPH due to its multiple sharp curves. This highway has seen mixed reaction from the citizenry because of combustion fumes and noise pollution, as well as its limited capacity and very restrictive speed limit. Additionally, the road grinds to a halt when accidents happen, due to its lack of any road shoulder. However, it is the city's only controlled-access road anywhere near its centre, and its supporters believe it saves time and reduces collisions.
Air
Kien-k'ang is served by two international airports, Tibh Airport and Kei Airport.
Tibh Airport is located across the River Kaung from Kien-k'ang-proper, on the riverbanks of Tibh. This facility served as the city's primary airport from its enlargement in the 1950s until the early 90s, when Kei Airport opened. Tibh Airport's primary attractiveness is its proximity to the city, at a mere 2 miles away. Once in a vacant district, this area has come to be densely settled up to the airport's limits, which has placed pressure upon the airport's nighttime operation and limited expansion. In the 70s, the airport's ageing terminal became notoriously congested but could not be expanded due to urban development nearby. After the opening of Kei Airport, Tibh underwent a major overhaul, closing its infamous northern runway and selling the land that runway occupied to developers to cover the expenses of the overhaul. It acquired an improved terminal that today serves as its primary terminal, while the old terminal is now used for administration.
Culture
City walls and moat
The Citadel's city walls (成) are the most ancient, parts thereof dating to the 2nd century. While the Citadel was formed around important public spaces in Antiquity, the gradual multiplication and expansion of palaces, temples, and government buildings slowly drained the Citadel of space available for private homes. As a result, most of the city's residents (even prominent ones) lived outside of the Citadel by the 4th century. The settlement outside of the Citadel was uneven—in some places, the area outside of the walls were bustling streets, while in others the Citadel bordered unused land. The unevenness of settlement outside of the Citadel would persist until the growth of Kien-k'ang as a modern city in the 18th century.
Kien-k'ang's outer walls (衛成) were initially wooden pallisades shielded by a deep ditch of 5 m both wide and deep. These were breached during the Siege of Kien-k'ang in 1385, within a matter of hours. The pallisades are no longer visible as above-ground structures, but the ditch is still flooded with water and forms the outer boundary of the original city and its countryside, called Great Kien-k'ang (建大邦).
Starting in 1410, proposals to replace the pallisades with a rammed earth wall were floated, but owing to finances and calming relation with Yi Menghe, they were not found immediately necessary. By 1432, opinions shifted again, and money and labour was set aside to construct an outer wall, which could not be the original perimeter of the pallisades, which would be prohibitively expensive. The new walls were retracted from the extent of the pallisades by 1.5 to 2 km and surrounded the citadel on three sides, the new walls connecting to the citadel's north wall. Even at a reduced scale, the wall enclosed an unprecedented amount of territory, at least half of which was still rural. The important Old City, where the Kien-k'ang magistrates presided, was connected to the Citadel by the new walls, while other settled places like the Ward Temples were not within them.
Built by a force of 100,000 over the span of 30 years, this wall was originally about 10 m thick and 5 m tall, but it has been enlarged in successive stages, resulting in a stone-faced, earthen-core wall 28 m at its thickest point and 20 m at the thinnest. The general method was removing the earth from the counterscarp of the ditch and then ramming it against the city side of the wall, which broadens the former and thickens the latter. In the 1600s, the ditch was flooded with water from the River Kaung, producing a moat that was declared a source of miasma and finally drained in 1861. Before this time, the moat was frequently dredged by hand, an unpleasant task done by corvée labour.
These walls measured about 14.2 km in total. Initially, there were six gates, one each on the western and northern sides and two each on the south and east. In 1514, two more gates were opened for the convenience. By 1850, the walls had 19 gates in total. All city gates have a single gateway under a gatehouse, which is a design emphasizing the defensive capability of the gate, as opposed to double or triple gateways more common in the walls of the Citadel, whose defensive functions were diluted by the newer, outer walls.
During the Pan-Septentrion War and Battle of Kien-k'ang, the city walls were formidable defences for citizens taking refuge in the city and were never breached. The gates were stopped up by bricks hastily laid by hand, and the gatehouses reinforced with steel girders on the inside. The Dayashinese forces apparently used nearly a million tonnes of ordnance on the walls, only to fail to breach them. After the war, the walls were completely demolished to build the Kien-k'ang Ring Road, after their defensive functions were made obsolete and projections of future evacuations were adjusted.
See also
Notes
- ↑ The state exempted aristocratic land from taxation until the early 1600s, so working for an aristocrat enabled one to retain more of the product.