China · Jiangsu
Where to Stay in Nantong, Jiangsu
Nantong is a city of southern Jiangsu in China at the mouth of the Yangtze, an old cotton town called China's first modern city, across the river from Shanghai.
Find your area →
Where to stay in Nantong
The right area depends on your trip — here's what each neighbourhood is best for.
Nantong's rooms fall either in the old museum quarter or out along the Yangtze. The old centre keeps the museum, the parks, and the markets within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the town. The Yangtze runs to the south.
Ships cross the wide mouth. Out toward the river and the hills, the town gives way to the cotton mills, the Wolf Mountain shrines, and the wide delta country. A room out of the centre trades the streets for the green fields, the winding canals, and the great river along the southern sky.
The delta runs on for miles. Stay downtown for the town, or out for the river. The old museum and the wide river hold the delta city.
About Nantong
Nantong is a cotton city of the Yangtze mouth.
What is Nantong known for?
On the north bank of the Yangtze where the great river opens to the sea, across from Shanghai, it grew into a model industrial town, and it keeps the old Dasheng cotton mills, the first public museum of China, the reformer Zhang Jian who built the modern city, and the Buddhist hills of Wolf Mountain by the river. Below Nantong the Yangtze broadens on its last run to the sea. Ships cross the mouth.
What are the main landmarks in Nantong?
The Nantong museum is the pride of the city. The old Nantong museum, the first public museum of China, founded by Zhang Jian in his model city, is the emblem of the town, downtown. A Buddhist hill rises by the river.
The shrines of Wolf Mountain stand on the low hills above the Yangtze nearby, while the Dasheng cotton mills, the old chamber of commerce, and the river wharves mark the country around Nantong.
What is the history of Nantong?
The river made a port. On the north bank of the Yangtze mouth, Nantong grew as a cotton port and a market, a town of the delta across from the great river cities. One man built the modern city.
The reformer Zhang Jian founded cotton mills, schools, and the first public museum of China at Nantong, and he made it a model of the new age. Cotton mills filled the town. The Dasheng mills spun the cotton of the delta, and Nantong grew rich as a town of textiles and trade on the river.
Old temples kept the hills. By the river the Buddhist shrines of Wolf Mountain looked over the water, and Nantong grew as a city of southern Jiangsu, keeping its mills, its museum, and its river. The wide river still runs by.
Nantong keeps its cotton city on the delta.
Where is Nantong?
Nantong lies in the south of Jiangsu in China, at the Yangtze mouth. The city sits on the flat delta land of the north bank, where the Yangtze widens to the East China Sea, across the water from Shanghai, in a land of cotton fields and canals, with the great river to the south and the low hills of Wolf Mountain by the shore. Green fields run to the river.
Canals lace the plain.
What is the climate of Nantong?
Nantong's climate is subtropical, mild and damp off the river. Warm wet summers and cool grey winters cross the delta, with sea fog in spring and damp chilly days through the winter. River fog drifts over the town.
Winter days turn raw.
How do you get to Nantong?
Nantong lies in southern Jiangsu, on the north bank of the Yangtze. The bridges and the rail run to it from Shanghai and Suzhou across the river, and ships call at its port. Boats cross the river.
Shanghai lies south over the water.
Good for
More cities in Jiangsu
Updated August 2026