Photo by LOWELL BENNETT

On a hill overlooking the Yangtze River stands Yuejiang Tower. Though it could be easily mistaken as hundreds of years old, it was in fact completed in 2001, more than 600 years after the Ming Dynasty's founding emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, had first envisioned building a tower here that would embody the dynasty's grandeur and aspirations.

The city of Nanjing accomplished what the emperor did not, but the significance of the tower lies perhaps less in its magnificent view of the Yangtze than in the tiled mural housed inside depicting the travels of Zheng He, the eunuch who sailed to India, Arabia and Africa for the Ming Emperor Yongle in the 15th century. This outward-looking enterprise of exploration and connection with the wider world is an apt symbol for Nanjing, where Zheng's voyage commenced.

There are a number of ways that Zheng could be symbolic for Nanjing. Each has to do with how the past can direct the future of the city, and to a larger extent, the direction of China.

When most foreigners, and just as likely many Chinese, hear the word "Nanjing," they first think of the massacre committed by Japanese troops in 1937, resulting in the slaughter of some 300,000 men, women and children. Movies, documentaries, articles and books constantly replay this event before the Chinese national psyche.

This grand tower over the Yangtze never witnessed those events nearly 70 years ago. Like the generations that have grown up in China since the massacre, this tower is a fresh and untarnished monument to a city and country growing in cultural and economic confidence.

It is with that confidence that Nanjing goes forward in the world. In late September, the city held its 18th annual Golden Autumn Economic and Trade Fair, this year focusing on service outsourcing as its major goal. At a press conference during the event, a representative of the mayor said Nanjing would like to become known as "the office of the world" in reverse of the name China has long held as the "factory of the world."

With its growing IT industry, its solid manufacturing base, its surging software industry and attractive tourist sites, Nanjing is a cornerstone for the Yangtze Delta region. Besides these, Nanjing's greatest asset is probably its highly educated workforce and low cost of labor, especially when compared to Beijing and Shanghai. With 560,000 university students (60,000 postgraduates), Nanjing could make significant inroads into the service outsourcing sector in the coming years. Though the sector is just starting in Nanjing, ITO (IT outsourcing) and business process outsourcing (BPO) profits have jumped from $380 million in 2006 to $550 million so far in 2007. By the looks of it, service outsourcing is ready to boom in Nanjing.

What is interesting in this push to build the service outsourcing industry in Nanjing and make it into an "office of the world" is the fact that one of the countries most targeted for this type of business is, considering Nanjing's history, the very one you might least expect--Japan.

Could business ties reverse the years of mistrust, suspicion and antagonism Chinese feel toward the Japanese? It is difficult to tell how far doing business goes in repairing cultural ties, though they certainly can't hurt.

This December marks the 70th anniversary of the massacre in Nanjing. By no means should the Chinese forget what happened in their war against the imperial Japanese invasion. Yet there are various ways to remember the past and these often dictate how the future unfolds. The symbol of the famous mariner Zheng He is one of openness, curiosity, adventure and exploration--it is an outward looking, open-minded embracing of the world.

Nanjing seems to be moving beyond those dark memories to a bright future more in line with the symbolism Zheng He provides. For China, in the creation of a national mythology, one path of history points toward an embrace of the world, while the other points toward a mistrust of it. China's larger quest for a harmonious society and a peaceful world can take a cue from Nanjing's aspirations.

The writer is an American journalist living in Beijing