Located on the north of Yangtze River's mouth to the Yellow Sea, Nantong city, Jiangsu province, saw hundreds of shipyards prosper along its riverbank and seacoast in the past century. But then the tide changed.

Big shipbuilders from Singapore and Japan set up their branches in Nantong from the late 1990s, and helped upgrade the techniques and management of the Chinese shipyards, including the state-owned China Ocean Shipping (Group) Company (COSCO), which established its shipyards in Nantong and Qidong, a county in Nantong, after 2000.

Yet, after the 2008 global financial crisis, shipbuilding became burdened by overcapacity, because of the decline in overseas demand. Shipbuilding's share of Nantong's economy fell from nearly 30 percent 10 years ago to about 19 percent now.