In 1895, Zhang Jian, who took the top spot in an annual national-level recruitment exam for officials of the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), set up Dasheng Cotton Mills in his hometown of Tangzha town, Nantong. Later, he established multiple businesses and transformed the town into an industrial town with a reasonable layout.

Zhang built a wharf and founded Dada Steamship Company at Tiansheng Port, marking the beginning of Tianshenggang Town's history. He also built Linxi Library and Wangyu Building, making Nantong a religious and scenic area.

Zhang built a new downtown area in the south of the old city of Nantong, gathered schools and cultural institutions in the east, and founded Tongzhou Normal School, the first private secondary normal school in China, Nantong Museum, the first public museum in the country, and public facilities such as a library, hospital, and nursing home.

On the west side of the old city, with Taowu Road at its center, he built business streets and theaters.

The distribution of Nantong City, Tangzha town, Tianshenggang town, and Langshan town resembled a tripod incense burner.

A layout with one city and three towns with the old downtown area at the core took shape in Nantong, and a multi-level layout of the city and towns combining the emerging Sanyu, Changle, and Haifu towns was formed.

In this way, the combined urban-rural layouts helped drive the development of dozens of towns to the north of the Yangtze River.

The urban planning and construction of Nantong in modern times was almost synchronized with the advanced planning theories of the West.

Under Zhang's management, Nantong transitioned from a lesser-known small town into a "model county" in China. This is a true pioneering move in China's history of urban planning and construction.

In addition, Zhang left behind a diversified heritage of modern administrative, residential, industrial, and transportation architecture, which were designed and built by the graduates of schools in Nantong.

After careful investigation into Nantong's urban construction and relics through meticulous research and repeated argumentation in 2002, Wu Liangyong, CAS academician, proposed from the perspective of China's history of modern urban development: "Nantong as designed by Zhang can be called a pioneering city in modern China!"

Since then, his statement has been echoed by academic, theoretical and historical circles, as well as researchers focusing on Zhang Jian.

After more such research, "a pioneering city in modern China" is no longer limited to urban planning and construction.

The city's economic progress, cultural and educational development, and impact on regional development all demonstrate Zhang Jian's explorative efforts, which placed Nantong in a unique position in the history of modern China.

Editor-in-chief: Yu Lei

Editor: Wang Yun

Photo by Gu Yao

Translated by Wang Haifei from the Shanghai Waiyuan Translation Agency