Tongzhou Bay Jianghai Joint Development Demonstration Zone. Photo by Wang Jiliang, a reporter from People's Daily Online: With Changzhou's official announcement entering the "trillion dollar club", the number of trillion dollar cities in Jiangsu has increased to five. There are model soldiers in Suzhou in the front, and chasing soldiers in Changzhou at the back. What should Nantong do? A week ago, during the Jiangsu Two Sessions, the Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Nobunaga Xing, stated during the review of the work report of the provincial government by the Nantong delegation that Nantong has abundant development vitality and great potential, and has played a positive supporting role in the province's economy. He said, "When it comes to Nantong, there are two well-known and talked about phrases that everyone is familiar with. One is the 'vicissitudes of life', the change in the ecological environment is behind the change in high-quality development; the other is' Nantong is good ', with access to rivers and seas, and close proximity to Shanghai, which means good development prospects." At several recent local conferences, Nantong has issued a strong signal: benchmarking against the' strongest prefecture level city 'Suzhou, Adhere to the principle of "building a strong city through industry and manufacturing", with science and technology innovation leading, integration of data and reality, cross river collaboration, and development towards the sea as the strategic engine. Wu Xinming, Secretary of the Nantong Municipal Party Committee, said, "The trend has arrived in Nantong. If you dare not compete with the strongest, do not want to compete with the fastest, and do not want to climb to the highest, you will inevitably fall behind." Since Nantong's GDP exceeded one trillion yuan for the first time in 2020, Nantong has firmly held the fourth "position" in Jiangsu's trillion yuan city, and the "next trillion yuan" goal is on the way. "What does Nantong learn from Suzhou?" "Nantong and Wuxi, who is the third city in Jiangsu in the future?" Nantong's every move has attracted much attention. Looking at the entire region of Nantong, the total economic output of seven counties and districts has exceeded 100 billion yuan. The Nantong Economic and Technological Development Zone, Tongzhou Bay Jianghai Linkage Development Demonstration Zone, and Suxitong Science and Technology Industrial Park under its jurisdiction are all strong modern comprehensive functional parks, known as the "Seven Tigers Competing for Nantong and the Top Ten Chasing for Jianghai". At the same time, Nantong is the only city north of the Yangtze River in the Shanghai "1+8" metropolitan area, and is also an important growth pole for high-quality development that the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee has high hopes for. In recent years, Nantong has accelerated its pace of connecting with Shanghai and integrating into southern Jiangsu, striving to build an important pivot city for the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta. Data shows that in 2023, Nantong achieved a regional GDP of 1181.33 billion yuan, an increase of 5.8%. The growth rate of industrial electricity consumption, industrial invoicing sales, and added value of large-scale industries all remain among the top in the province. In the whole year, there were 64 new national specialized, special and new "little giant" enterprises, doubling the total number, implementing 8171 "intelligent transformation to digital networking" projects, adding 57 provincial level and above intelligent manufacturing and industrial Internet benchmarking demonstrations, ranking 12th among the top 50 cities with high-quality development of the national manufacturing industry in 2023. Hardware transportation is beneficial for connecting with Shanghai and southern Jiangsu. The layout plan for the Yangtze River trunk line crossing the river (2020-2035) issued by the National Development and Reform Commission shows that the five cross river channel projects in Nantong have received planning support and will form a pattern of "eight dragons crossing the river" in the future. In August 2023, Nantong and Suzhou signed a contract to jointly build a national comprehensive transportation hub, and the North Along the Yangtze River high-speed railway, the Zhangjinggao Yangtze River Bridge, and the Haitai Yangtze River Tunnel were pushed forward beyond schedule. The preliminary work of Su Tong Second Channel, Su Jia Yong Rudong Extension, Normal Expressway, Shanghai Expressway, and Linhai Expressway is progressing in an orderly manner. With the implementation of the Yangtze River Delta integration strategy, new transportation in Nantong