Atlas of China
Nantong 南通Nántōng
A river-mouth city shaped by one late-Qing industrialist
About Nantong
Nantong stands on the north bank of the Yangtze close to its mouth, and much of its character comes from Zhang Jian, the late-Qing scholar and industrialist who built cotton mills and schools here and in 1905 founded the Nantong Museum, one of the oldest museums in China. The Haohe River, the old city moat, loops around the centre, and on Langshan, a low hill on the Yangtze shore, the halls of Guangjiao Temple climb to a Song-dynasty pagoda.
What to eat in Nantong
- Xiting crisp cake (西亭脆饼)
Listed sites in Nantong
16 sites in Nantong are on the official lists. Those with a page of their own link to it; the rest open as cards on the map.
- Haohe River Scenic Area 濠河 5A scenic area · on the map
The Haohe is Nantong's old city moat, dug by the 10th century and still ringing the historic centre in a gourd-shaped loop about 10 km long that widens from 10 m to more than 200 m. - Dieshiqiao Home Textile Market 叠石桥国际家纺城 4A scenic area · on the map
Diesiqiao in Sanxing town is a vast wholesale market district for bedding, curtains and other home textiles, built up over some forty years and described by provincial media as the world's largest home-textile cluster, with more than 2,500 firms. - Hai'an Museum and Han's Mansion 海安博物馆 4A scenic area · National heritage site · on the map
Hai'an Museum is spread over a modern main building and Han's Mansion (Han Gongguan), the 1906 family residence of Han Guojun, a late-Qing official who governed Jiangsu in 1913 and again in 1922–25 and in old age refused to serve the Japanese-backed regime. - Langshan (Wolf Hill) 狼山 4A scenic area · National heritage site
Langshan is a low hill on the Yangtze shore south of Nantong, the highest of five small hills grouped as a scenic area and counted among China's eight lesser Buddhist mountains. - Nantong Forest Safari Park 南通森林野生动物园 4A scenic area · on the map
A large wildlife park on Nantong's northern outskirts covering about 2 km², which the city says holds nearly 20,000 animals of some 300 species. - Red 14th Army Memorial Hall 红十四军纪念馆 4A scenic area · on the map
This memorial hall in a park on the east side of Rugao covers the 14th Red Army, formed in 1930 from Communist guerrilla bands in the Nantong, Haimen, Rugao and Taixing countryside and formally founded at a rally south-west of Rugao that April. - Rugao Bonsai Park (Penjing Daguan) 盆景大观 4A scenic area · on the map
Rugao calls itself China's capital of flowers and bonsai, and its Rugao school, known for trees shaped with a 'cloud head, rain feet and beauty's waist', is counted among the country's seven main schools of penjing. - Seyuan Garden 啬园 4A scenic area · on the map
Seyuan is a large wooded park in Nantong's southern suburbs, counted by the city as one of its biggest botanical gardens and the burial place of Zhang Jian (1853–1926), the scholar-industrialist who built the Dasheng cotton mills and Nantong Museum. - Shuihui Garden 水绘园 4A scenic area · National heritage site
Shuihui Garden in Rugao was begun by the Mao family in the late Ming and became the home of the scholar Mao Xiang (Mao Pijiang) and the courtesan Dong Xiaowan, whose romance made it famous. - Tonghai Land Reclamation Company Site 通海垦牧公司旧址 4A scenic area · on the map
Zhang Jian founded the Tonghai Land Reclamation Company here in 1901 to turn coastal salt flats into cotton farms for his Dasheng mills; it is regarded as China's first agricultural joint-stock company. - Wonderful Farm 奇妙农场 4A scenic area · on the map
A farm-themed leisure park of about 53 hectares on Nantong's northern edge, opened in October 2021 and rated 4A in December 2024. - Zhouji Green Expo Park 洲际绿博园 4A scenic area · on the map
A botanical park in Nantong's Tongzhou district that the city says holds more than 8,000 plant species gathered from around the world. - Dasheng No. 3 Cotton Mill 大生三厂旧址 National heritage site · on the map
Zhang Jian opened his third Dasheng cotton mill here in 1921, at Sanchang near the Yangtze east of Haimen. - Nantong Museum 南通博物苑 National heritage site
Founded in 1905 by the industrialist and educator Zhang Jian, Nantong Museum is regarded as the first public museum set up by a Chinese founder, laid out as a garden with exhibition halls among lawns, ponds and trees. - Qingdun Neolithic Site 青墩遗址 National heritage site
Villagers digging a canal in 1973 found this settlement of about 5,000 years ago, and three seasons of excavation in the late 1970s followed; the city calls it the best-preserved Neolithic site in the eastern Jianghuai plain. - Tianning Temple, Nantong 天宁寺 National heritage site
Founded in the Tang dynasty as Baoen Guangxiao Temple and given its present name in 1457, Tianning Temple is the old heart of Nantong: the 10th-century city was laid out on an axis running from the temple to Langshan.
On the map
Open Nantong on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Nantong on the map