Nantong is a provincial city in Jiangsu province. It is located on the northern bank of the Yangtze River, near the river mouth, covering an area from latitude 31°41'06'' to 32°42'44'' north and from longitude 120°11'47'' to 121°54'33'' east. The city stretches 114.2 km from south to north and 158.8 km from east to west.
Being one of the first fourteen coastal cities opening to the outside world in China, Nantong is by the Yangtze River and near the Yellow Sea, being surrounded on three sides by water, thus forming a peninsula.
Nantong faces Shanghai and Suzhou to the south across the Yangtze River and to the north borders on the vast Northern Jiangsu Plain. Known as the southern bridgehead of the "Eurasia Land Bridge", it has a railway connection with the Eurasia Land Bridge.
Eurasia Land Bridge?runs directly to the hinterland up the Yangtze River, with links to China's coastal areas and the world's major ports going south through the Yangtze River into the sea. Since the Suzhou-Nantong Yangtze River Bridge opened to traffic, Nantong has been integrated into the Shanghai One-Hour Economic Circle and has become a hub in the Golden Corridor of the West Bank of the Pacific. As an important city with unique advantages in the Yangtze River Delta megalopolis, Nantong has won the reputation of " the Gateway of River and Sea" and "the No.1 window of the Yangtze River".
The NETDA Free Trade Zone got the original go-ahead, on Jan 3, 2013, from the State Council, for a 5.29-sq-km area, in two parts.
Suzhou-Nantong science & technology industrial park
Equipment manufacturing industrial park
Urban-rural commercial zone
Nengda central business district
New materials industrial park
Medical treatment & health industrial park
Sci-tech industrial park
Precision machinery industrial park