Nantong City, an old textile manufacturing center in China, is located on the banks of the Yangzi River in eastern Jiangsu Province. Only a dozen years ago, it had an unprepossessing, rundown appearance, but today, great changes have taken place in this city: its rivers are cleaner, streets are broader, and new buildings have mushroomed. The city now exudes vitality.

A Garden City

Nantong lies on the northern bank of the Yangtze River estuary, and is surrounded by water on three sides. It faces Shanghai Municipality and Suzhou City across the Yangzi River, neighbors Taizhou to the west, and is contiguous to Yancheng in the north. Nantong City, covering an area of 8,001 square kilometers, and with a population of 7.86 million, has jurisdiction over Rugao, Tongzhou, Haimen, and Qidong cities, Hai'an and Rudong counties, Chongchuan and Gangzha districts, Nantong Economic and Technological Development Zone, and Langshan Holiday Resort -- altogether 167 villages and town. It is one of the first batch of 14 State Council designated open cities along the coastal areas, and is also one of the 40 cities with the most favorable investment environment nationwide.

Nantong lies on the alluvial plain formed about 5,000 years ago on the lower reaches of the Yangzi River. According to archeological findings, human inhabitation began here as early as the Neolithic age. Nantong was known as Jinghai during the Tang Dynasty, and its name was later changed to Tongzhou in the fifth year of the reign of Xiande (958) in the Later Zhou Dynasty. During the second year of the reign of Yongzheng (1724) in the Qing Dynasty, its name was again changed to Nantongzhou, to distinguish it from Tongzhou prefecture in Hebei Province. Since then, the administrative division of the city has changed several times, but the name Nantong has remained.

Nantong is the birthplace of many Chinese notables, such as Lu Dai, a general during the Three Kingdoms period; Chen Gongshi, a famous doctor of the Ming Dynasty; Li Fangying, a respected scholar of the Qing Dynasty; Zhang Qian, the number one scholar (the candidate who came first in the highest imperial examination) and founder of Chinese modern national industry; Zhao Dan, a modern performance artist; and Yang Yue, a modern mathematician.

Nantong is a beautiful garden city surrounded by rivers and the sea. The Haohe River, about 30 kilometers long, winds its way around the whole city, and there are blocks of buildings on both banks in entirely different styles. In its southern suburbs is Langshan Mountain, home to a famous Buddhist shrine, and where the Guangjiao Temple, established during the Tang Dynasty still receives a large number of worshippers. There is a bird's eye view of scenery on the northern plain from the five peaks of Langshan, Junshan, Jianshan, Ma'an, and Huangmin mountains along the Yangtze River. Langshan also has many places of historic interest, and its scenic spots include the ruins of Luo Binwang's Tomb, where Master Jianzhen set out for Japan, and a tablet bearing an inscription by emperor Kangxi. Wang Anshi (1021-1086), a great politician of the Northern Song Dynasty and Wen Tianxiang (1236-1282), a national hero, both wrote poems about Langshan Mountain, and traces of the work of Zhang Qian and Mi Fu can be found there.

Langshan Mountain is one of Jiangsu Province's famous scenic areas and holiday resorts. Apart from its natural scenic spots, there are also tourist facilities constructed by the local authority, such as the Langshan Pleasure Park, Water Garden, the Jianshan Mountain Cultural Scenic Area, the Yu Building, the Langshan Mountain Cableway, and the pottery market. It currently welcomes 1.5 million visitors annually.

A Kingdom of Textiles and the Hometown of Construction

Nantong has a semitropical monsoon climate that is particularly suitable for growing cotton, which it began to do during the Song Dynasty(960-1279), and became famous as a cotton producing area in the Ming Dynasty. At that time, nearly every household grew cotton and made cloth, making it top producer of cloth within the whole nation. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Qian, with his great ambition to "save China through developing industries," established China's first cotton mill in Nantong. He founded the Dasheng Capital Group, which also encompassed other industries including land cultivation, transportation, postal services, foreign trade, and financing. Nantong thereby became one of the main progenitors of Chinese modern industry, particularly textiles. Zhang Qian also established the first vocational schools for training teachers, textile workers, actors and actresses, and for the blind and deaf mute. These measures not only cultivated talent, but also elevated the status of teachers.

After the founding of new China in 1949, and particularly since reform and opening, industries in Nantong have rapidly developed. There are now 5,086 enterprises above township level, forming a modern industrial system with textiles as its nucleus, supported by machinery, electronics, chemi-industry, medicine, construction, building materials, shipping, metallurgy, power, and port industries. Today, Nantong is one of the 12 textile products export bases and one of the ten garment industry bases nationwide. It produces a large number of name products, including the White-Cat brand menthol crystal, White-Crane brand citric acid, embroidered brocade and silk clothes, blue cotton print, redwood carvings, and snake products. Nantong Ocean-going Project Co., Ltd., owns a 150,000-ton floating dockyard, ranking the first in Asia, and Nantong Acetate Fiber Co., Ltd., is the largest acetate industrial base in China, while the Jiangsu Huarong Group is to be developed into a leading enterprise in aluminum electrolytic capacitor production.

Township enterprises account for two thirds of Nantong's industrial economy, and in 2000, their business income reached 74.9 billion yuan, realizing profits and tax of 3.86 billion yuan.

Nantong is also known as the hometown of construction, many famous architects, such as Tao Guilin and Sun Zhisha, come from Nantong. The city has 494 enterprises engaged in construction, employing 321,000 workers. Construction companies from Nantong now work all over the country, having participated in the construction of the Yangpu Bridge in Shanghai and Hong Kong International Airport, as well as abroad, in such countries as the USA, Japan, Russian, and Singapore. Many of Nantong's construction enterprises have won the Lu Ban Award, an accolade within the Chinese construction industry. In 1999, the gross output value of Nantong's construction industry reached 26.2 billion yuan, second only to industry and agriculture.

Making Use of the City's Advantages to Accelerate Development

Nantong has 436 kilometers of coastline and riverbank. Of the latter, 30 kilometers of its total 226-kilometer length can be used to build a 10,000-ton deepwater berth, two 100,000-ton sea port berths can be built along its 210-kilometer coastline, and more than 40 kilometers of deepwater coastline is suitable for building deepwater berths. With these advantages, Nantong has already established 72 1,000-ton docks, of which 28 are of a 10,000-ton level, with a total handling capacity exceeding 32 million tons. At present, Nantong is open to navigation to 187 ports in 65 countries worldwide and has developed 24 international container routes, becoming one of the ten largest ports in China and the northern gate to Shanghai.

Attracted by the fast growth rate in Nantong, many foreign companies have come to invest in the city. The tertiary industry, which has developed through providing harbor services, has also made rapid progress. After China's entry into the WTO, Nantong's economy will witness a greater development.

The ports, airports, railways, highways, and the planned Yangtze River Bridge, will all form a stereoscopic transportation network in Nantong. The construction of modern energy and communications equipment, the establishment of the Nantong Economic and Technological Development Zone in particular, will further enhance Nantong's viability as a venue for foreign investment.

The Nantong Economic and Technological Development Zone was approved and established in December 1984. It now covers an area of 20 square kilometers and houses over 200 foreign-funded enterprises from 22 countries and regions, with a total investment of US $2 billion and an actual utilized foreign investment of US $10 billion. The development zone is becoming one of the most vigorous and fast-developing areas in the Yangtze River Delta.

By XU HAN