Bắc Ninh is a city in Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

 and capital of the Bac Ninh province. The city is the cultural, administrative, and commercial center of the province. The city area is 80.82 square km, with a population of 150,331 (2006). In January, 2006, the town (thị xã) of Bac Ninh was upgraded to city (thành phố). The city is home to the Banking Academy of Vietnam, Bac Ninh campus (Học viện Ngân hàng), the Kinh Bac International School, and the Military Academy of Politics main campus (Học viện Chính trị Quân sự).

In March 1884, Bac Ninh was the site of a decisive battle

Bac Ninh campaign

The Bac Ninh Campaign was one of a series of clashes between French and Chinese forces in northern Vietnam during the Tonkin campaign...

 in the wars between France and assorted Chinese/Vietnamese forces

Black Flag Army

The Black Flag Army was a splinter remnant of a bandit group recruited largely from soldiers of ethnic Zhuang background, who crossed the border from Guangxi province of China into Upper Tonkin, in the Empire of Annam in 1865. They became known mainly for their fights against French forces in...

.

The city's name is derived from Sino-Vietnamese

Sino-Vietnamese

Sino-Vietnamese are the elements in the Vietnamese language derived from Chinese. They account for between 30% to 60% of the Vietnamese vocabulary, not including naturalized word borrowings from China...

 北寧, meaning "northern serenity."

Subdivisions

The city is administratively divided into 19 units, including 10 urban wards (phường) - Đáp Cầu, Thị Cầu, Vũ Ninh, Suối Hoa, Tiền An, Ninh Xá, Vệ An, Kinh Bắc, Đại Phúc, and Võ Cường - and 9 rural communes (xã) - Vạn An, Hoà Long, Phong Khê, Khúc Xuyên, Kim chân, Vân dương, Hạp Lĩnh, Nam Sơn, and Khắc Niệm.

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