Exhibition about Nantong's charity efforts. [Photo/nttv]

Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province is reputed to be a warm city as charity is rooted deep in the gene of the natives.

Currently, all the 102 towns and subdistricts and 1,901 residential communities in the city have established branches of the Nantong Charity Federation or charity workstations. More than 50 charity spaces have been built in the city's downtown area.

Preliminary statistics show that since 2017, charitable donations in the city have exceeded 2 billion yuan ($274.07 million) and more than 2 million people in straitened circumstances have received assistance.

Volunteers distribute free meals to elder residents. [Photo/nttv]

Among the numerous charity volunteers the most familiar is Mo Wensui, a nickname given to Yang Chunyuan, a professor at Nantong University, who has dedicated himself to helping local students from disadvantaged backgrounds anonymously.

After Yang's deeds were discovered in 1995, Nantong set off a long-lasting course of learning from the unsung hero. Starting from 2015, the education assistance group at NTU has recruited 52 volunteers to offer educational assistance to schools in western China.

Last year, a charity fund named after Zhang Jian (1853-1926), a native of Nantong and a renowned entrepreneur, politician and educator, was established in the city. To date, Nantong has had 380 charity funds and nearly 40 charity volunteer teams of over 50,000 members.

In 2022, the charity organizations in Nantong collected 448 million yuan in donations and helped over 200,000 people with financial difficulties.