Nantong

  Nantong is one of the 14 port cities opened to foreign investment projects under China's current policies of modernization. The city is an integral part of the Shanghai Economic Zone. The population of 7.4 million is engaged in industrial production, especially textiles. It is hoped that textile, precision machinery and communications industries will be established either as joint ventures or entirely foreign enterprise. Ten thousand-ton vessels berth at its deep-water harbour.

  One of the city's heroes was Cao Gong, who in 1557 usefully defended the town against Japanese pirates roaming the coast of China. His heroic exploits earned him a high official position which he refused to accept. Cao was killed in another pirate raid shortly after. The Cao Gong Zhu Memorial Temple was built in his honor.

  East of the city is Lang Shan (Wolf Hill), said to be haunted by the sprit of a white wolf. The temple on top is dedicated to a Song-dynasty Buddhist monk, whom legend endowed with magical powers over water demons. Boat people prayed to him for safe journeys. The main hall contains models of different types of river craft. At the base of Lang Shan is the Five Hills Park.

Bao Shan
  The giant Baoshan Steel Works on the south bank, near the mouth of the Huangpu River, is one of the largest in China, Japanese and West German technology and plant are being used. In the early states the project ran into difficulties, not the least of which was the choice of site-marshy ground that caused subsidence. Moreover, the estuary was found to be too shallow to allow 100, 00-ton freighters bearing imported iron ore to unload. The mill began operation in 1985.

Huangpu River
  Just below Baoshan, boats pass by a large light house and between buoys to turn south into the Huangpu River, on the last stage of the journey from Chongqing to Shanghai. The 25-kilometer (13-mile) cruise today takes one through the heart of Shanghai's port; on either side of the muddy river stretch wharf installations with facilities to handle ocean-going ships of 25,000 tons, and an annual shipping volume of about 100 million tons. This is China's largest port and it’s busiest. Apart from the hundreds of foreign and Chinese registered ships, the river is busy all day long with ferries, naval and police craft, lighters and draggers.

  The Huangpu is 114 kilometer(70 miles) in length, rising from Dianshan Lake southwest of Shanghai. Its banks were once simply mud flats. The river is subject to heavy silting from Yangtze and requires constant dredging to keep the channels free.

  Soon after entering the river, on the western bank is the area known as Wusong, where in 1842, during the Opium War, a fleet of British warships and support vessels hour bombardment they forced their way up to Suzhou Creek and on to Shanghai. The fort was heroically defended but the Chinese were no match for the British Fleet, Among the many Chinese casualties was highly respected 76-year-old admiral who had been at sea of 50 years and who, it was said, wrapped himself in cotton wool before his battles to make himself invulnerable. This was a decisive battle, for it enable his battles the fleet to occupy Shanghai and move on up the Yangtze; later in the year, the Treaty of Nanking was signed, opening many Chinese cities to foreign trade.

  Before the opium trade was legitimized in 1860, opium clippers and steamers unloaded their cargo on to hulks permanently moored at Wusong, Shanghai’s outer anchorage, before they where smuggled into the hinterland.

  Gradually Shanghai’s imposing skyline appears as boats sidle up to the berth alongside Zhongshan Lu, once known as the Bund, and lined with impressive European-style buildings from a bygone era.