Why go
Nantong was an early moderniser: Zhang Jian, the 1894 scholar-turned-industrialist, built China's first museum, first textile school and a cluster of firsts here, and the relaxed Haohe moat — dug in 958 AD — now loops the old town as a lantern-lit park with boats.
The food is river-and-sea: eel, river shrimp and the famous Nantong whitebait; the coast east of town adds mudflat crab dishes. Kite-flying is the pastime — Nantong kites carry bamboo whistles that sing in the wind, a craft recognised as national intangible heritage.
- Haohe River — the 3.6-km moat ringing the old town, lit at night
- Nantong Museum — China's first, founded 1905
- Shuihui Garden — a Qing water garden on the way to the coast
- Whistle-kite culture along the riverside
Where to go
Half a day: museum, Haohe loop and Wolf Hill's temple overlooking the Yangtze. Add Shuihui Garden if heading toward the coast.
What to eat
Eel three ways (roasted, with rice, in soup), whitebait omelette, and crab roe soup dumplings in autumn.
Getting there
- 1h from Shanghai by rail via the Sutong bridge corridor
- Role
- River port, Jiangsu province
- China's first museum
- Nantong Museum, 1905
- Kites
- Whistle kites, national intangible heritage
