This paper aims to develop folic acid-modified paclitaxel nanocrystals (PTX NC@FA) with good stability, high drug loading and tumor cell targeting for endoscopic injection for preoperative local chemotherapy of gastric cancer. PTX NC@FA was prepared by the "bottom-up" followed by ultrasonic to study its morphology, particle size, ζ-potential, drug loading, folic acid-modified phospholipid (FA-DSPE-PEG₂₀₀₀) content, crystalline characteristics, stability, in vitro release, cytotoxicity against human gastric cancer cell line SGC-7901, and anti-tumor effect in two different tumor sizes (tumor volume 100 mm³ or 300 mm³) after single peri-tumor injection in a murine subcutaneous SGC-7901 tumor model. Animal experiments were approved by the Experimental Animal Ethics Committee of the School of Pharmacy, Fudan University. The resulting PTX NC@FA was of short rod-like shape, average particle size 175.3±2.5 nm (PDI 0.17±0.02), ζ-potential -2.5±0.2 mV, PTX loading (28.23±0.74)% (w/w) and FA-DSPE-PEG₂₀₀₀ content (4.40±0.60)% (w/w). The size of the PTX NC@FA remained unchanged for 4 days in phosphate buffer with or without serum. Cellular growth inhibition effect on SGC-7901 showed the superiority of PTX NC@FA over nanocrystals without FA modification. PTX NC@FA inhibited tumor growth more efficiently than both nanocrystals without FA modification and commercially available paclitaxel injection (Taxol) 12 days after peri-tumor injection. For model tumor with the volume of 100 mm³, tumors of all animals in the PTX NC@FA group disappeared completely. For model tumor with the volume of 300 mm³, tumors of 3 animals in the PTX NC@FA group completely disappeared and tumors of the rest 4 animals also became significantly smaller with a tumor volume inhibition rate of 90%. PTX NC@FA showed good potential for preoperative chemotherapy of increase the chances of function preserving gastrectomy and improve the quality of life of patients.