Jiangsu ( listen ), earlier romanized as Kiangsu, is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the 2nd smallest, but the 5th most populous and the most densely populated of the 22 provinces of China. Jiangsu borders Shandong in the north, Anhui to the west, and Zhejiang and Shanghai to the south.