Nantong has a strong pro-innovation atmosphere and provides platforms for professionals to realize their dreams.

The city also has a solid industrial base and many industrial parks and platforms awaiting high-quality projects, Lu said.

A well-developed sea-land-air transportation network and efficient interconnection with neighboring cities, plus a good business environment and infrastructures are the result of hard work and government effort in the city, Lu added.

Nantong is one of the most desirable cities for businesses in China. With a population of 7.64 million, the city has 166 kilometers' of riverbank along the Yangtze to its south and a 206-km coastline facing the Yellow Sea to its east. It is located 100 km away from downtown Shanghai.

The city was the cradle of China's national industries during the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Located at the crossroads of Wu, Yue and Hui cultures, throughout history Nantong has produced a number of famous entrepreneurs and scholars.

The city is the hometown to 47 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and seven Olympic gold medalists.

Last year, Nantong's gross domestic product hit 774 billion yuan, ranking 18th among all Chinese cities. Its GDP is expected to hit 1 trillion yuan next year.

According to Lu, more than 50 percent of enterprises in Nantong have cooperative ties with Shanghai, 60 percent of commodities the city consumes and produces are imported or exported through the Port of Shanghai, and 70 percent of Nantong's agricultural produce is supplied to Shanghai.

Shanghai Party Chief Li Qiang said, while meeting with a government and Party delegation from Nantong, that the city has much space to accept spillover industries from Shanghai, and he urged Nantong to make better use of its advantages in land, port and talents.

Lou Qinjian, Party chief of Jiangsu, said Nantong is in a period of strategic opportunity, and has huge development potential with its momentum for growth.

Lou encouraged Nantong to pursue high-quality development by upgrading its industry, deepening its reform and opening-up and improving infrastructure and social welfare.

City of development

The annual production value of the advanced manufacturing industry in Nantong hit 1.5 trillion yuan in 2017. The city's shipbuilding accounts for 10 percent of the national total, and its ocean engineering equipment industry occupies about one third of the national total.

The annual revenue of Nantong's home textile industry accounts for about half of all production in China.

To boost growth in other areas, the government has established a 10 billion yuan fund for the development of next-generation information technology and advanced intelligent terminals and chips, large-scale integrated circuits and new types of electron components.

Nantong has also founded Jiangsu's first transaction platform for industrial stock assets, which can serve as channels for the merging, asset reorganization and technology transfers among enterprises.

The service sector contributes half of Nantong's economic growth.

The city has seven provincial-level service industry nesting zones and 52 city-level zones, which are ready to accommodate all kinds of modern service projects.

Nantong is a competitive city in service outsourcing, in forms of information technology, business and knowledge process outsourcing.

The city is a national modern agricultural demonstration zone, with nearly 333,000 hectares of high-standard farmland, 60 modern agricultural demonstration parks and 30 agricultural produce processing zones.