Swallow Rock is a small scenic area in the northwest part of Nanjing

Nanjing

' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...

, Jiangsu

Jiangsu

' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...

 Province, China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

. It's one of the three most famous rocks in Nanjing. Swallow Rock is 36 meters high. The rock stands in the Yangzi river, shaped like a flying swallow, so it's called The Swallow Rock.

Swallow Rock is also of minor historical interest for several unrelated events. In the Qing dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

, when the emperor qianlong traveled to the south, he passed Swallow Rock and left a poem here and that is now displayed on the rocks. On the top of the rock, there is a pavilion with a stone tablet in it. Swallow Rock is one of the 48 scenic areas in Nanjing.

There is also a small monument that marks this as one of the sites where citizens of Nanjing were slaughtered by the Japanese during the Nanjing Massacre.