Nanjing · Jiangsu
Nanjing is Jiangsu's capital and one of China's four great ancient capitals — capital of six dynasties and of the Republic, with a Ming tomb, a Republic mausoleum and a river quarter lit end to end.
The short version
The place itself
Nanjing does not announce itself. There is no single skyline, no one monument that sums it up. What you get instead is 1,700 years of capital-building settled into the ground: a Ming city wall you can walk on, a tomb avenue lined with stone elephants, a Republic-era mausoleum shaped like a bell, and a river quarter rebuilt so many times it now sells nostalgia by the lantern.
It has been the capital of six dynasties — Wu, Eastern Jin, Song, Qi, Liang and Chen — then of the early Ming before the third emperor moved north, then of the Republic of China. It has also been sacked repeatedly and rebuilt each time. Zhu Ziqing's line is the accurate one: visiting Nanjing is like browsing an antique shop, there are marks of erosion by time everywhere. Nothing is pristine; everything is layered.
The other thing Nanjing has is trees. The plane trees planted along the Republican avenues are the city's signature, and beneath them the place slows down: people walk the 15 km shore of Xuanwu Lake at dusk, amateur choirs set up on the lakeside boardwalks, and west of the Presidential Palace the grey-brick villas of the 1930s are still somebody's home.
It is one of the easiest big Chinese cities to move around. The metro reaches nearly every sight worth naming, buses are ¥2, and almost everything sits within half an hour of Xinjiekou. Come for three days — one for the mountain and the tombs, one for the Republic and the river, one for whatever is in season.
Pins are plotted from real latitude and longitude on a 5° graticule. This is a schematic orientation diagram, not a political map — no boundaries are drawn.
The tomb of the father of the Republic on the shoulder of Purple Mountain, laid out so that from the air the whole complex reads as a bell. Free since 2010 but ticketed by daily quota; the stair is 392 granite steps and deliberately steepens as it climbs.
The joint tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma, laid out under Purple Mountain 600 years ago with the underground palace still intact. The ¥70 ticket bundles the tomb, the Sacred Way of stone beasts, Plum Blossom Hill and Zixia Lake.
Ten li of river that was the pleasure quarter of the Six Dynasties and the Ming, rebuilt in grey brick and lit end to end. A painted boat costs ¥80 after 18:00; on shore, the temple quarter runs from the Confucian hall to Wuyi Lane and the old examination compound.
The largest surviving castle gate in China, built 1369–1375 as the formal south gate of the Ming capital: 118.5 m wide, 20.45 m high, three enclosures threaded by four arches, 27 chambers that sheltered 3,000 troops.
A free lake of roughly 15 km of shoreline inside the old north wall, five islets linked by causeways, lotus in summer. At night the boardwalks by Xuanwu Gate fill with choirs, erhu players and dance groups.
Known as Zhongshan, and as Purple Mountain for the shale that hazes violet from a distance. Three peaks run together like a dragon — 'Zhongshan coils like a dragon, Stone City crouches like a tiger'. Free; the observatory is ¥15.
Nanjing Lukou International (NKG) sits about 35 km south of the centre, 45 minutes by airport expressway, with two coach lines into the city at ¥20 and a taxi to Xinjiekou running around ¥120. By rail, Nanjing station on the north shore of Xuanwu Lake handles most trains while Nanjing South is the high-speed hub wired into eight high-grade lines — Suzhou is about 1 hour, Shanghai 2h17m, Beijing South 3h39m. Coaches fan out from eight long-distance stations, the largest being Central Gate in Xiaguan.
Inside the city the metro does most of the work: fares banded at ¥2, ¥3 and ¥4, running roughly 05:56 to 23:04 every day, with line 1 threading Nanjing station, Xinjiekou, Zhonghua Gate and Nanjing South. Buses are ¥2 and the tourist lines 1–4 hit the mausoleum, Yuhuatai, Ming Xiaoling and the river. Taxis flag at ¥9 for 3 km, and hire cars start around ¥220 a day.
| Month | Weather | Crowds | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 12°C / 4°C · cool, damp | Quiet | Good |
| February | 14°C / 6°C · cool, damp | Very busy | Good |
| March | 18°C / 10°C · clear and mild | Moderate | Best |
| April | 24°C / 16°C · clear and mild | Moderate | Best |
| May | 28°C / 21°C · cool, damp | Busy | OK |
| June | 32°C / 25°C · very hot, humid | Moderate | OK |
| July | 35°C / 28°C · cool, damp | Busy | Avoid |
| August | 34°C / 27°C · cool, damp | Busy | Avoid |
| September | 29°C / 23°C · very hot, humid | Moderate | OK |
| October | 24°C / 17°C · clear and mild | Very busy | Best |
| November | 18°C / 11°C · clear and mild | Quiet | Best |
| December | 13°C / 6°C · cool, damp | Quiet | Good |
Three days is honest. Day one takes the mountain — the mausoleum early, Ming Xiaoling and the Sacred Way after — and ends on the Qinhuai at dusk. Day two does the Republic and the remembering: Yuhuatai, the Massacre Memorial, then Xuanwu Lake and the Shiziqiao snack street. Day three is for the wall at Zhonghua Gate, the Yangtze bridge and Pukou station, or a slow day at the Tangshan hot springs. A fourth day buys Suzhou, an hour away; a fifth buys Zhouzhuang or Tongli.
Plan these days properly
Suzhou
Jiangsu · 4 tours
Suzhou is the classical garden city of the Yangtze delta — founded in 514 BC, still laid out over the canals of the 12th century, and about 30 minutes
Zhouzhuang
Jiangsu · 4 tours
Zhouzhuang is a 900-year-old canal town in Kunshan, Jiangsu, called the first water town of China — more than 60% of its houses are still Ming or Qing
Tongli
Jiangsu · 4 tours
Tongli is a water town in Wujiang, Jiangsu, cut by fifteen canals into seven islets joined by forty-nine bridges — every house is on the water and eve
Late February to mid-March for the plum blossom and November for the maples. Nanjing works in every season but high summer is genuinely hard — it is one of the old three furnaces, with extremes recorded at 39.7°C. Winter is cold and dry down to -13.1°C, which is exactly when the hot springs at Tangshan earn their keep.
It is free but not unticketed. Since 12 November 2010 entry runs on a free timed ticket with a daily cap, and once the cap is reached the gates close. Reserve online a day ahead, arrive early, and carry ID — you may be asked for it at the gate.
Yes, and it is underrated. The crowds go, the lake and the tombs read as stark rather than green, and the city's answer to winter is Tangshan, a spa town 30 km east whose springs have been used for 1,500 years. The big resorts charge ¥108–158 and open 10:00 to midnight.
Duck, three ways. Salted duck first, best around the Mid-Autumn festival when it is sold as osmanthus duck. Then duck-blood-and-vermicelli soup, about ¥14 a bowl. Then the roast-duck soup bun — bite a hole, drink the soup, then eat it. Add beef potstickers and a plate of rice-flour cakes.
Easily. The Shanghai–Nanjing corridor is one of the busiest rail corridors in China, with high-speed trains to Suzhou taking about 1 hour and dozens of departures a day. Zhouzhuang and Tongli are another hour by coach from Suzhou, so a Jiangsu loop out of Nanjing is straightforward.
More than in most inland cities — it is a university town with a large foreign student population — but not enough to rely on outside hotels and the big museums. Sight names are signed in English at the major sites. Have your destination written in Chinese for taxi drivers and carry a translation app.
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