Over three days in Nantong, international guests of the Global South Journalists Explore China field trip experienced a city where the Yangtze meets the sea and tradition meets innovation.

From the headwear museum's 6,000-piece global collection to smart farms run by a "smart agriculture brain"; from COSCO Shipping's offshore engineering base to the riverside forests reborn from sulfur wharves; from the centuries-old Haohe River night show to Luolai's unmanned smart workshops—Nantong showed how a century-old port city writes its next chapter.

This is what the Belt and Road Initiative looks like, up close—a river-and-sea city, and an encounter to remember.