[citation needed] Although the city took a blow from the economic depression of the 1930s, as well as the Japanese occupation of the 1930s and 40s, Nantong has remained an important center for the textile industry.

Because of its deepwater harbor and connections to inland navigational canals, it was one of 14 port cities opened to foreign investment in recent Chinese economic reforms.

Because the coast of the East China Sea is constantly expanding eastward as the Yangtze River adds silt to its delta, the distance between Nantong and the seashore is getting longer than it once was in ancient times.

Winters are chilly and damp, and cold northwesterly winds caused by the Siberian high can force temperatures to fall below freezing at night although snowfall is relatively uncommon.

[citation needed] A local statesman and industrialist named Zhang Jian founded Nantong's first modern cotton mills in 1899.

He then developed an industrial complex that included flour, oil, and silk reeling mills, a distillery, and a machinery shop.

[citation needed] He also founded a shipping line and reclaimed saline agricultural land to the east of Nantong for cotton production.

In the early Republican period, the Nantong Special Administrative District included Chongming County, now part of Shanghai.

About 2 million people in the southern parts of Tongzhou, Haimen, and Qidong speak the Wu language, the specific local variety of which is often referred to as "Qi-hai Hua" (启海话), meaning Qidong-Haimen speech.

People in northern parts of these counties speak the "Tongdong dialect" (Chinese: 通东话; pinyin: Tōngdōnghuà; lit.

[citation needed] The Cao Gong Zhu Memorial Temple commemorates a local hero who defended the city against Japanese pirates in 1557.

[citation needed] Nantong is one of the 14 port cities opened to foreign investment projects under China's current policies of modernization.

Nantong was traditionally an industrial city, especially around the turn of the 20th century, specializing in salt and cotton textile production.

With its excellent geographic location and the completion of two Yangtze River bridges, the prefecture is attracting more investment funding nationwide.

The municipal government has been putting stiffer environmental policies into practice over the years and has spent tremendous amounts of money to curb pollution and plant more trees along its roads.

Situated 50 km (31 mi) east of Nantong's downtown area, it is conveniently located within a 1.5-hour drive from Shanghai Pudong and Hongqiao airports.

Binhai Park boasts excellent transportation infrastructure, with access to key expressways linking Tongyang to Nantong downtown, Haiqi to Qidong and Shanghai Pudong, as well as sea ports featuring 500 berths ranging from 50,000 tons to 300,000 tons in the Tongzhou Bay port cluster.

The industries in Binhai Park primarily focus on maritime and offshore activities, logistics, equipment manufacturing, new energy, advanced materials, electronics, and more.

At present, NETDA has attracted a large number of renowned companies to settle in Nantong, such as Vonnex Allied IT Services, OJI Paper, Maxion, Johnson Controls, ITOCHU, TSRC Corporation, and Merck KGaA.

The construction of terminal 2 was completed in 2014, marking an important step towards serving international flights,[19] the first of which took place on 26 May 2023, to Hong Kong.

A line from Hai'an also connects Rudong county to the national rail network, with daily departures bounding for Nanjing.

Established in 1906, Nantong Social Welfare Institute was originally created by Zhang Jian as a house for orphans, the aged, and the disabled.

[citation needed] Since 1952, Nantong Social Welfare Institute has adopted more than 16,000 elderly, orphaned and disabled children.

5The claimed province of Taiwan no longer have any internal division announced by Ministry of Civil Affairs of PRC, due to lack of actual jurisdiction.