Situated in the South Jiangsu Plain, Jintan is a county-level city under the jurisdiction of Changzhou. The city, dubbed “Golden Jug” in Chinese since 688 A.D., has a long history of human civilization, tracking back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. The city has been honored the provincial garden city since 2006.

Jintan city is located in middle in Changzhou jurisdiction, bordering Wujin District on the east, Jurong city of Zhenjiang jurisdiction on the west, Danyang city on the north and Liyang and Yixing cities on the south. Zhao Lake, called Changdang Lake as well, is one of ten major freshwater lakes of Jiangsu, which flows into the Lake Tai.

Jintan is crisscrossed by numerous rivers, canals and lakes and the water surface area occupies one fifth of its size of the land. The natural resources mainly include salt, coal, and granite mines.

Jintan has a maritime monsoon climate, a mild and humid climate with distinct four seasons. The annual average temperature is 17ºC around. The so-called Mei Yu season, meaning “humid and rainfall abundant” in Chinese, last about 2-4 weeks.

Jintan was traditionally a farming land and the agricultural income occupied once the major portion of the city’s revenue. The agricultural produces mainly include rice, wheat, cotton, rapeseeds, etc. The agricultural income nowadays, however, only occupies less than 5% of its total GDP.

The rapid economic expansion over past two decades has turned the city to a wealthy municipality and the industrial income is becoming the city’s prominence, occupying more than 80% of its GDP. The industrial sectors have attracted numerous investments from national and international enterprisers and have brought the city the new economic capability. The city has been listed at 69 on China’s Top 100 Counties (county-level cities) for its comprehensive economic strength in 2006 and 2007.

Economic expansion and environmental conservation have seemed like two different approaches. The Jintan government has been putting stiff environmental policies into practice over years. The city has spent remarkable funds to clean polluted rivers and to plant trees along its major road. Many companies in Jintan have been noted as having significantly reduced its pollution and 39 of them have been shut down duo to contamination problems. The city has been listed as one of the best Chinese cities in environment protection.