After the establishment of the Nanjing Nationalist Government in 1927, the entire China was generally reunified in 1928. Despite the domestic troubles (civil wars between new warlords, armed confrontations between the Kuomintang of China﹝KMT, 中國國民黨﹞ and the Chinese Communist Party﹝CCP, 中國共產黨﹞) and foreign invasion (continuous Japanese aggression), there was still a rare and short period of construction before the outbreak of the total war of resistance against Japanese aggression in 1937. This period became known as the “Golden Decade” (the nine years from the reunification in December 1928 to the relocation of the capital in November 1937 were roughly referred to as a “decade”). During this decade, many achievements were made by the Nanjing (南京) Nationalist Government, which included:

(1) Politics: the establishment of national political power and the implementation of “political tutelage”; the setting up of the five chambers of administration, legislation, supervision, examination, and justice by the Nationalist Government Committee; the promulgation of the “Guiding Principles of the Political Tutelage”; and the codification of the constitution and civil law, criminal law, commercial law, civil procedure, criminal procedure, etc.

(2) Military: the recruitment of German military advisers and the reinforcement of the training of the Whampoa Military Academy’s (黃埔軍校) cadets to strengthen the army so as to deal with domestic troubles and foreign invasion.

(3) Diplomacy: the recognition from the Great Powers such as Britain, the United States, Germany, France, Japan, and Spain. Some foreign concessions as well as privileges in China, such as consular jurisdiction and tariff autonomy were recovered. Military cooperation with some countries was also carried out. However, the diplomatic relations with countries such as Germany and the Soviet Union were rather inconsistent. Meanwhile, the Nationalist Government faced the continuous Japanese invasion since the “September 18th Incident”.

(4) Economy: the rolling out of a fiscal rectification; the implementation of tariff autonomy; the strengthening of industrial and commercial, agricultural, water and electricity, and transport infrastructure, such as building the Gansu-Haizhou Railway (隴海鐵路); gradual construction of national highways; the establishment of airlines, factories and mines in such as hardware, chemical, and electrical supplies; the promulgation of the “25 per cent rent reduction” for arable lands; the policy to “abolish the silver (tael) and establish the dollar (yuan) ”; and the launching of legal tender.

(5) Education: the establishment of standards for school facilities and curriculum; the elimination of illiteracy; and the promotion of Mandarin as a standard language. During the ten years, the numbers of primary schools and ordinary secondary schools increased from 212,385 to 320,080 and 945 to 1,956 respectively.

(6) Culture: the setting up of the Central Research Institute for excavating and exploring the ruins in such as Zhoukoudian (周口店), Yinxu (殷墟), Liangzhu (良渚); the establishment of the China National Radio; the publication of newspapers and magazines that gave rise to civilian literature and movies.

(7) Society: the initiation of the New Life Movement (新生活運動) that promoted civility, justice, integrity, and humanity, and the advocation of the four standards of “tidiness, cleanliness, efficiency, and honesty”.

A group photo of the key party political and military personnel when the Nanjing Nationalist Government was established. It basically reunified the whole country in 1928 and initiated the “Golden Decade” of the Nanjing Government in the Republic of China’s history.

Since 1928, the Nanjing Nationalist Government implemented a series of political, military, economic, cultural, educational, and social policies and achieved a certain extent of success. The photo shows the national assembly convened by the Government on 5 May 1932 to resolve the Constitution of the Republic of China during the period of political tutelage.

In the mid-1930s, some Chinese tactical units were equipped with German weapons. After the Nazi Party came to power in 1933, the Sino-German relations were once close. As the Nanjing Nationalist Government admired the discipline, strong army, and rapid construction of Nazi Germany at that time, it emulated the operating model by hiring German advisers. In fact, the German advisers played a critical role in strengthening the Nanjing government, especially in terms of military power.

The Shanghai Bund (上海外灘) in 1935. The Nanjing Nationalist Government era was the golden age of modern Shanghai.

The Nanjing Nationalist Government strengthened the financial construction and launched the legal tender as one of the important financial measures. Left: the Central Mint during the Nanjing Nationalist Government era. Right: a 500-yuan (dollar) banknote issued by the Central Bank in 1936.

Left: a postcard from 1933 with “Postal Administration of the Republic of China” printed on top. Right: female operators of the Shanghai Telephone Company in 1936. During the Nanjing Nationalist Government era, both postal and telephone communications were significantly improved.

From left to right: Guangdong’s (廣東) First Sugar Cane Mill officially commenced operation in 1934; the Yangtszepoo Boiler Room was newly built by Shanghai Electric Power Company in 1930; the Sun Department Store in Shanghai in 1936. The Nanjing Nationalist Government era witnessed rapid urban industrial and commercial development.

A train of the Guangzhou-Hankou Railway (粵漢鐵路, or Canton-Hankow Railway) with a new British locomotive in 1936. After more than 30 years of twists and turns during the preparation since the late Qing dynasty (清朝), the Guangzhou-Hankou Railway was finally completed in August 1936. During the Nanjing Nationalist Government era, the construction of railways and highways accelerated.

While building more primary and secondary schools, the Nanjing Nationalist Government also strengthened the sports promotion to improve the people’s physical fitness. Left: A group photo of a primary school’s football team in 1931. Right: The fifth National Games in 1933 was held in the then newly built Central Stadium in Nanjing.

The Nanjing Nationalist Government was devoted to improving the social atmosphere. In 1934, the Government launched the New Life Movement to promote civility, justice, integrity, and humanity, while advocating tidiness, cleanliness, efficiency, and honesty. Left: The amateur service group of the New Life Movement of the Wu County (吳縣) Tourism Professional Trade Union in Jiangsu Province (江蘇) took a photo at Changmenshi Road (閶門石路) in December 1934. Right: Nanjing held a smoking cessation campaign in 1936 to urge the public not to smoke opium.

Source of most photos used in this feature piece: Visual China Group (pictures 1, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10), Fotoe (pictures 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10)