During the cruise SO269 (August/September 2019) on board of the German RV SONNE, we collected water with a CTD SBE911 rosette system at 81 stations (resulting in more than 600 water samples) distributed along the shelf, shelf edge and deep-sea of the northern South China Sea. We measured concentrations of chlorophyll a, phaeopigments, suspended particulate material (SPM) and nutrients as nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and silicate. Also, we determined concentrations of particulate organic carbon (POC) and particulate organic nitrogen (PON) as well as dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved organic nitrogen (DON). The hydrographic data collected during this survey is available at PANGAEA (Waniek et al. 2021). Brief description of the methodology used: Nitrate, nitrite, phosphate and silicate were measured by continuous flow analysis. DOC and DON were measured by catalytic oxidation after filtration through GF/F-filter. POC and PON were measured by means of an elemental analyser after filtration through pre-combusted GF/F-filters. SPM was determined gravimetrically after by determining the difference between empty pre-combusted and loaded (sample filtrate) weighted GF/F-filter. Chlorophyll a and phaeopigments were measured using a fluorometer after ethanol extraction of the GF/F-filters.