Senior government officials from Nanjing and its neighbouring cities Maanshan, Chuzhou, Wuhu, Caohu, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang and Huaian gathered at a summit on 12 July to agree new plans to build an integrated transport system.

The so-called Nanjing City Cluster, first mentioned and recognised in an official State Council document released in June 2010, covers a population of 33m in Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. The plan is to connect all eight cities by road, rail and air by 2015, with Nanjing at the centre so that most of them are within 30 minutes of each other.