14 Days in Nantong

The Nantong Museum, founded by Zhang Jian in 1905 as China's first public museum, sits by the moat dug in 958; his 1915 hillside residence stands on its south slope; a night boat loops the water.

1. nantong bowuyuan
2. nantong haohe river

A museum day along the banks — the abacus collection, the silk embroidery of Shen Shou, who died in 1921, and the blue-calico workshop tradition.

1. nantong zhusuan museum
2. nantong shenshou art museum
3. nantong lanyinhua museum

Langshan rises barely 105 m from the Yangtze, its Guangjiao temple founded in 669; Junshan tops the five hills at about 108 m, and the riverside greenway links them.

1. nantong langshan
2. nantong junshan

Zhang Jian, the 1894 top graduate, set up the Dasheng mill in 1895; wheels turned from 1899 and the red-brick works are now the 1895 cultural block.

1. nantong tangzha ancient town
2. nantong dasheng mill

The old temple quarter of Sijie with the Tang-era Tianning temple, then the Ming-dynasty Wenfeng pagoda by the Haohe's south-east bend.

1. nantong sijie old street
2. nantong tianning temple
3. nantong wenfeng pagoda

The memorial park where Zhang Jian was buried in 1926 in the morning; in the afternoon his home village of Changle in Haimen, some 40 km east, where the story began.

1. nantong seyuan
2. nantong changle zhangjian hometown

An hour west in Rugao, one of Nantong's county-level cities, the Ming-era water garden pairs ponds and pavilions with old-town streets.

1. nantong shuihui garden

North along the coast to Xiaoyangkou in Rudong County — digging clams on the flats at low tide, the local pastime nicknamed a dance on the sea, and kites on the wind.

1. nantong rudong xiaoyangkou

To the easternmost point of Jiangsu, where the Yangtze finally joins the Yellow Sea, then the landing of the day's catch at Lüsi, among the country's best-known fishing ports.

1. nantong yuantuojiao
2. nantong lvsi fishing port

Labelled honestly as another city — rail over the 2020 bridge, whose main span crosses 1,092 m, to Suzhou for the 2006 I. M. Pei museum and the lanes of Pingjiang Road.

1. nantong suzhou day

A second cross-city day, labelled as such — the Bund's riverside walk of about 1.5 km, the Ming garden of Yu Yuan, first laid out in 1559, and the evening train back over the Yangtze.

1. nantong shanghai day

A slow day on Kaisha, the river island in Tongzhou reached over a short bridge — orchards, fish ponds and walks along the Yangtze's branch channels.

1. nantong kaisha island

Whatever the week missed — a museum or two, the banks of the moat on foot or by rented bike — fills this unhurried day.

1. nantong zhusuan museum
2. nantong haohe river

A market breakfast, a last look at the water and the train home from the city the river built.

1. nantong haohe river