Haimen district in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province, has been striving to pursue integrated development with the Yangtze River Delta over the past decade.

The two major transportation projects, the Haimen-Taicang Yangtze River Tunnel and the Jiangsu section of the Shanghai-Nanjing-Hefei high-speed railway that started construction in September, have brought Haimen, Shanghai and southern Jiangsu closer and allowed Haimen to further connect with Shanghai, Jiangsu and the Yangtze River Delta.

A rendering of the Haimen-Taicang Yangtze River Tunnel. [Photo/WeChat account: haimenrongmei]

The Haimen-Taicang Yangtze River Tunnel connecting Taicang and Haimen will reduce travel time between Haimen and downtown Shanghai to half an hour in the future. And it will take just 40 minutes to get to major cities in southern Jiangsu from Haimen.

The Shanghai-Nanjing-Hefei high-speed railway passing through Chongming Island to connect with Shanghai will become a major channel connecting the central and western regions to Shanghai via Haimen.

In addition, Haimen regards industrial linkage as its main integration priority. It regularly holds investment promotion activities in Shanghai and southern Jiangsu to jointly build an advanced manufacturing information sharing platform in the Yangtze River Delta and undertake the non-essential urban functions of Shanghai and the industrial transfer and expansion of Suzhou.

In recent years, more than 70 percent of major projects in Haimen have come from southern Jiangsu and Shanghai.

The establishment of these projects has greatly strengthened the district's manufacturing industry and accelerated Haimen's industrial and economic development.

From January to August, taxable sales of industrial enterprises above designated size totaled 80.88 billion yuan ($11.16 billion), an increase of 25.3 percent. Industrial electricity consumption increased by 42.3 percent, ranking first among the seven administrative areas of Nantong.