Sungkiang

S1U1N1G2K5I1A1N1G2

A form of Songjiang — A district of Shanghai, China, located along the Grand Canal and formerly the principal city of the region.

Scrabble 15

Meanings

proper noun
  1. datedDated form of Songjiang: a district and former county of Shanghai, China.

    CHANG-HAI, a town of China, of the third rank, in the province of Kiang-nan, or Nan-king ; 6 leagues S.E. of Song-kiang.

    [1819, Abraham Rees, “CHANG-HAI”, in The Cyclopædia ; or, Universal Dictionary of Arts, Sciences and Literature, volume VII, page https://archive.org/details/b24991454_0007/page/n466/, column 1
    4 more examples

    Chang-hai, a town of China, in the province of Kiang-nan. In this town, and the villages dependent on it, are more than 200,000 weavers of cotton cloth. It is 18 miles SE of Song-kiang.

    [1809, “Chang-hai”, in The General Gazetteer: Or, Compendious Geographical Dictionary, 14th edition, page https://archive.org/details/cihm_32443/page/n176/, column 2

    Though small in area, the territory occupied by the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is perhaps the most important and strategic section of China. It contains Shanghai, the greatest port and commercial center of China, Nanking, the new capital, Soochow, the cultural and educational center, Huchow, the silk city, and the important cities of Changchow, Sungkiang, and Wusih.

    1929, Elmer T. Clark, The Church and the World Parish, Nashville, Tenn.: Board of Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, page 28

    The condition of Sungkiang is typical of the state of affairs throughout this densely populated delta between Shanghai and Nanking, and testifies to what may have been one of the greatest mass migrations of population in history. No one is able to answer the question of what has happened to the hundreds of thousands, or rather millions, of Chinese who have literally disappeared from this area. The whole thirty-mile route between Shanghai and Sungkiang is like a desert, with rice crops ungathered and left rotting in the fields as far as I could see.

    1938, H. J. Timperley, editor, Japanese Terror in China, New York: Modern Age Books, Inc., page 72

    The streets of Shanghai rattled with revolutionary tremors as Chiang's armies came closer and closer. They entered Chekiang, his home province, and on February 17, 1927, took Hangchow and advanced to Kashing and Sungkiang. They were less than twenty-five miles from Shanghai.

    1983, Harrison E. Salisbury, China: 100 Years of Revolution, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 90
  2. datedDated form of Songjiang: a former province of China.

    Governor Feng Chang-yung, of Sungkiang Province, in which Harbin is located, gave me harsh details of his fighting days.

    1948 December, Anna Louise Strong, “Manchurian Empire”, in Tomorrow's China, New York: Committee For a Democratic Far Eastern Policy, →OCLC, page 85
    2 more examples

    China's first two collective farms were reported in the Communist press in the summer of 1952. One is said to be near Kiamusze in Sungkiang province in northeastern Manchuria; the other, near Tihwa in Sinkiang province.

    1953, Frank Moraes, “"The Land Is Ours"”, in Report on Mao's China, New York: The Macmillan Company, →OCLC, page 56

    Before 1905, Harbin was the center of the Russian-controlled part of Manchuria. It still has a large Russian population. In 1949, Harbin became the capital of Sungkiang province.

    1958, “Harbin”, in The World Book Encyclopedia, volume 8, Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, page 3274

Origin

  1. Mandarin松江
  2. EnglishSungkiang

From the Postal Romanization of Nanking court dialect Mandarin 松江 (Sōngjiāng), from before the modern palatalization of [k] to [t͡ɕ].

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

Sungkiang. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sungkiang

MLA

“Sungkiang.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sungkiang. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “Sungkiang,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/Sungkiang.

Source: Sungkiang on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.