NantongWade-Giles romanization Nan-t’ungPinyin Nantongcity, eastern Kiangsu Jiangsu sheng (province), China. Nan-t’ung It is situated on the northern shore of the head of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) estuary. Northward, it is connected with the Yün-yen and T’ung-yü Tongyang and Tonglü canal systems, which serve the coastal zone of Kiangsu Jiangsu north of the Yangtze and connect westward with the Grand Canal. T’ien-sheng-kangTiansheng port, about 7.5 miles (12 km) to the west, provides Nan-t’ung with a port and Nantong port provide Nantong with ports on the Yangtze. Another port at Langshan, some 8 miles (13 km) south of Nantong, has been developed since the 1990s; this facility has greatly expanded the handling capacity of the ports group administered by the city and has made Nantong one of the largest ports along the Chinese coast.

During the Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220 BCE–220 CE), and even as late as the Sui (581–618) and T’ang Tang (618–907) periods, the seacoast was much farther west than at present; , and the area now called Nan-t’ung Nantong was an outlying county, Hai-lingHailing, subordinate to Yang-chouYangzhou. It grew into a commercial, communications, and strategic centre and became a prefecture (chouzhou) under the name of T’ung Tong in 958. After 1368 it lost its prefectural status and again became a county subordinate to its wealthy neighbour, Yang-chouYangzhou. In 1724, however, it was again created a prefecture and was given the name Nan-t’ung (meaning “southern T’ung”Nantong (“Southern Tong”) to avoid confusion with T’ung-chouTongzhou, near PekingBeijing. After 1912 it became a county, retaining its old name.

The coastal area to the east and northeast has always been known for salt production, and the inland area to the north and northwest is a rich rice- and cotton-growing region. It is above all on cotton that Nan-t’ung’s Nantong’s prosperity has depended. Domestic-scale spinning and weaving of cotton had long been established, but the modern industry was almost entirely the creation of a statesman and modernizer named Chang Chien (d. 1926Zhang Jian (1853–1926), who was a native of the district. After the disasters of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–95, Chang Zhang decided to abandon politics and to devote himself to developing Nan-t’ung Nantong into a model district. In 1895 he founded the Dah Sun Cotton Mill at T’ang-chia-chia(Dasheng Sha Chang) at Tangzha, some 5.5 miles (9 km) west of Nan-t’ungNantong. This mill came into production in 1899 and proved more efficient than any other private textile firm of the same period. Out of its profits, ChangZhang, between 1900 and 1905, built up an industrial complex in Nan-t’ung Nantong that included flour and oil mills, a modern factory for reeling silk, a distillery, and a machine shop. He also founded a shipping line and, after 1901, formed the T’ung-hai Tonghai Land Reclamation Company—the first of a number of such companies that brought much of the saline northern coastal zone of Chiang-pei the Yangtze estuary under cotton cultivation.

Chang Zhang also founded the first teacher-training colleges in China—the Nan-t’ung Nantong normal schools—which staffed hundreds of primary schools. Later he founded an agricultural college, a textile school, and a medical college (1910–12), which eventually merged to form Nan-t’ung Nantong University. He also founded In addition, he established museums, libraries, and theatres, so that Nan-t’ung and Nantong became an important cultural centre as well as a prosperous industrial town. In the early republican period (after 1911), Nan-t’ung Nantong was commonly called “Chang Chien’s “Zhang Jian’s Kingdom,” or the “Model County.”

Like all centres of cotton manufacture in China, Nan-t’ung Nantong suffered seriously during the years of economic depression in the 1930s, after which the area came under Japanese occupation for a time. The modern contemporary city remains has remained heavily dependent upon on the textile industry and upon on cotton. In 1984 Nan-t’ung Nantong was designated one of China’s “open” cities in the new open-door policy inviting foreign investment. Since then, the city has undergone tremendous economic growth, forging to prominence as a new industrial centre and foreign-trade port north of the Yangtze estuary. While the textile industry has continued to flourish in Nantong, factories producing machinery, electronics, and chemicals also have been established. The six-lane Sutong Bridge across the Yangtze, the longest cable-stayed bridge in the world (completed in 2008), provides the city much quicker expressway access to Suzhou and Shanghai. There are scheduled flights from Nantong to Beijing, Canton, and Amoy. Pop. (1988 2002 est.) 306,city, 564,713; (2007 est.) urban agglom., 947,000.