Jiangsu is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning (now Nanjing), and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" (sū), the second character of its name. It is the province with the highest population density in China, though provincial level municipalities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Tianjin have a higher density.