Nantong

About Nantong

On the north bank of the Yangtze, just before the great river meets the sea, Nantong has been a busy riverside town for more than a thousand years. Its modern identity was shaped by one man: Zhang Jian, a top scholar of the imperial examinations who turned to industry in the 1890s and built cotton mills, schools and a museum here, earning Nantong a reputation as China's first modern city.

That heritage is still visible around the Hao River, the ring of old moat water that circles the centre, lined with museums, gardens and early 20th-century buildings. Nantong's crafts are just as distinctive, above all its indigo blue calico printed through paper stencils, and its kitchens make the most of fish and shellfish from the Yangtze estuary and the nearby coast.

In the south of the city, Langshan and its sister hills rise abruptly from the flat plain, topped by temples and a pagoda overlooking the river. Long bridges now link Nantong with Suzhou and Shanghai, putting both within easy reach by road and rail.