Atlas of China
Nanjing 南京Nánjīng
Ming walls, Purple Mountain tombs and lantern-lit evenings on the Qinhuai
About Nanjing
Nanjing served as a capital for dynasties and republican governments from the 3rd century until 1949, and about 25 km of the Ming city wall still stands around the centre. On Purple Mountain to the east lie the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and the Ming Xiaoling, the tomb of the dynasty's founder, while the Fuzimiao (Confucius Temple) quarter crowds the banks of the Qinhuai River. The Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre records the killings of 1937–38.
What to eat in Nanjing
- Salted duck (盐水鸭)
- Duck blood and vermicelli soup (鸭血粉丝汤)
Featured places in Nanjing
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Purple Mountain & Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum 南京钟山风景区
A forested mountain on Nanjing's edge, crowned by a blue-roofed hilltop tomb
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City Wall of Nanjing 南京城墙
The Ming capital's brick ramparts, anchored by the vast fortress of Zhonghua Gate
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Fuzimiao and the Qinhuai River 夫子庙—秦淮风光带
Nanjing's lantern-lit Confucius Temple quarter, beside painted boats on the Qinhuai
Listed sites in Nanjing
56 listed sites are in Nanjing. These are the 29 rated 5A or 4A; see all 56 in the Jiangsu list.
- Chaotian Palace 朝天宫 4A scenic area · National heritage site
Rebuilt from 1384 as Nanjing's leading Taoist temple, where the Ming court's Taoist registry sat and officials rehearsed court ceremonies, the complex on Yeshan hill was wrecked in the Taiping war and rebuilt in 1865–69 as the Confucian temple and school of Jiangning prefecture. - Gaochun Cittaslow (Yaxi) 高淳国际慢城 4A scenic area · on the map
A rural area of low hills, tea gardens and villages around Yaxi in eastern Gaochun, which became China's first member of the international Cittaslow ('slow city') network and hosts the network's China office. - Gaochun Old Street 高淳老街 4A scenic area · on the map
The old main street of Chunxi, Gaochun's district town, which grew up as a market street from the Song dynasty and is lined with Ming- and Qing-period shop-houses now selling local snacks, crafts and souvenirs. - Great Bao'en Temple Heritage Park 大报恩寺遗址公园 4A scenic area · National heritage site
The site of the Great Bao'en Temple, rebuilt by the Yongle Emperor from 1412 on the site of the older Changgan Temple, whose nine-storey, 78 m pagoda faced with white porcelain and glazed tiles was famous in Europe as the Porcelain Tower of Nanjing until it was blown up in 1856 during the Taiping war. - Happy Valley Nanjing 南京欢乐谷 4A scenic area · on the map
A large theme park in Qixia District, opened in November 2020 as the eighth park of China's Happy Valley chain. - Hongshan Forest Zoo 红山森林动物园 4A scenic area
A zoo of about 68 hectares spread over three wooded hills in northern Nanjing, Xiao Hongshan, Da Hongshan and Fangniu Shan, which opened in 1998 when the old Xuanwu Lake Zoo moved here. - Jinniu Lake 金牛湖 4A scenic area · on the map
Nanjing's largest artificial lake, a reservoir built in 1958 on the Babai River in the far north of Liuhe District, near the borders of Tianchang and Yizheng and overlooked by Jinniu Hill. - Jinniu Lake Wildlife Kingdom 金牛湖野生动物王国 4A scenic area · on the map
A safari park on the west shore of Jinniu Lake, laid out over hillsides and former quarry pits and holding more than 300 species of animals. - Meishan Steel Industrial Culture Tourism Area 梅钢工业文化旅游区 4A scenic area · on the map
An industrial tourism area inside the Meishan steelworks on Nanjing's south-western edge, a plant begun in the late 1960s as the '9424' project to supply iron to Shanghai and now one of Baosteel's main production bases. - Meiyuan Xincun Memorial Hall 梅园新村纪念馆 4A scenic area · National heritage site
The group of houses in the Meiyuan Xincun residential quarter where the Communist Party delegation led by Zhou Enlai lived and worked from May 1946 to March 1947, during its negotiations with the Nationalist government in Nanjing. - Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders 侵华日军南京大屠杀遇难同胞纪念馆 4A scenic area · National heritage site
The memorial museum to the victims of the mass killings carried out by Japanese troops after they captured Nanjing, then China's capital, on 13 December 1937. - Mochou Lake Park 莫愁湖公园 4A scenic area
A lake park in western Nanjing, west of the Qinhuai River and Hanzhongmen, laid out around Mochou Lake, which takes its name from Mochou, a virtuous young woman of local legend. - Nanjing Eye Footbridge & Hexi Riverside 南京眼 4A scenic area
A riverside park area of about 61 hectares on both banks of the Jiajiang, the arm of the Yangtze between Nanjing's Hexi new town and Jiangxinzhou island, taking its name from the Nanjing Eye, a cable-stayed footbridge across the channel. - Nanjing Museum 南京博物院 4A scenic area
Jiangsu's provincial museum, founded in 1933 as the preparatory office of the National Central Museum, with a collection of more than 400,000 objects that is especially strong in Ming and Qing imperial porcelain. - Nanjing Science and Technology Museum 南京科技馆 4A scenic area · on the map
Nanjing's main science museum, set beside Huashen Lake in Yuhuatai District, with hands-on halls on scientific principles, space and the Earth. - Niushoushan 牛首山 4A scenic area
A twin-peaked hill south of Nanjing, a Buddhist centre since the Southern Dynasties and the birthplace of the Niutou school of Chan, redeveloped as a Buddhist cultural park that opened in 2015 to enshrine a relic venerated as part of the Buddha's skull, found in 2008 in the crypt beneath the old Bao'en Temple. - Pearl Spring Scenic Area 珍珠泉 4A scenic area · on the map
A hill-and-lake scenic area at the eastern foot of Laoshan in Pukou, facing the Yangtze, named after a spring whose bubbles rise in strings like pearls and praised in Ming and Qing times as the finest outing north of the river. - Pingshan Forest Park 平山森林公园 4A scenic area · on the map
A wooded hill park of about 22 km² in Liuhe District, north of the Yangtze, which the district describes as its largest green conservation area, with forest cover of more than 85% and a highest point of 161 m. - Presidential Palace, Nanjing 南京总统府 4A scenic area · National heritage site
A 9-hectare compound on Changjiang Road that was in turn a Ming prince's mansion, the office of the Qing viceroy of Liangjiang, the palace of the Taiping Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan, the seat of Sun Yat-sen's provisional presidency in 1912 and the headquarters of the Nationalist government and presidency until 1949. - Qixia Mountain & Qixia Temple 栖霞山·栖霞寺 4A scenic area · National heritage site
A low wooded hill above the Yangtze north-east of Nanjing, known for its red autumn maples, with Qixia Temple at its western foot, founded in 489 in the house of the recluse Ming Sengshao and regarded as the ancestral seat of the Sanlun (Madhyamaka) school of Chinese Buddhism; its present halls date from a rebuilding begun in 1919. - Tangshan Zhiqing Lake Resort 汤山紫清湖 4A scenic area · on the map
A large hot-spring resort in the Tangshan spa area east of Nanjing, developed over more than a decade, combining hotels, outdoor hot springs and a wildlife park. - Tianshengqiao, Lishui 天生桥 4A scenic area · on the map
A natural-looking stone bridge over the Yanzhi River, a canal that the Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang had a large labour force cut through a ridge in Lishui in 1393–1395, to link the Qinhuai River with the Taihu waterways for grain transport. - Xuanwu Lake 玄武湖 4A scenic area
A lake of about 10 km round just north of the old city, bounded on the west and south by the Ming city wall and looking east to Purple Mountain, which has been an imperial park and pleasure ground since the Six Dynasties. - Yangshan Quarry 阳山碑材 4A scenic area · National heritage site
An ancient stone quarry in the hills near Tangshan where, from 1405, the Yongle Emperor had a vast memorial stele cut for his father's tomb, the Ming Xiaoling, using a huge labour force. - Yangtze River Crossing Victory Memorial Hall 渡江胜利纪念馆 4A scenic area · on the map
A museum on the Yangtze waterfront where the Qinhuai River enters it, about the April 1949 campaign in which the People's Liberation Army crossed the Yangtze and took Nanjing, then the Nationalist capital. - Youzi Mountain 游子山 4A scenic area · on the map
A wooded range of low hills in eastern Gaochun, whose name ('the wanderer's mountain') comes from a tradition, recorded in a Song-dynasty gazetteer, that Confucius passed this way on his journey to the state of Chu. - Yuejiang Tower 阅江楼 4A scenic area
A seven-storey tower in Ming style on Lion Hill in north-western Nanjing, completed in 2001 to realise a building that the Hongwu Emperor ordered in 1374 but never finished, and which was known for six centuries only through essays such as Song Lian's 'Record of Yuejiang Tower'. - Yuhuatai (Rain Flower Terrace) 雨花台 4A scenic area · National heritage site
A ridge of low hills just south of Zhonghua Gate, named after a legend that flowers rained from the sky when the monk Yunguang preached here in 503. - Yunyougu Scenic Area 云幽谷 4A scenic area · on the map
A leisure park in the hills of Tangquan, at the western edge of Pukou District, that combines countryside scenery with a farm-themed amusement park.
Getting to Nanjing
Train, flight and driving times from the cities most visitors come from, with stations, fares and how many run a day; each opens the full comparison.
- Suzhou 苏州 high-speed train 44 min, 215 a day, from ¥106
- Hangzhou 杭州 high-speed train 1 h, 142 a day, from ¥141
- Huangshan City 黄山市 high-speed train 1 h 48 min, 25 a day, from ¥109
- Shanghai 上海 high-speed train 59 min, 290 a day, from ¥162; one nonstop flight a day, 1 h 5 min in the air
- Wuhan 武汉 high-speed train 2 h 27 min, 60 a day, from ¥213
- Qingdao 青岛 high-speed train 4 h 12 min, 11 a day, from ¥260; one nonstop flight a day, 1 h 15 min in the air
- Zhengzhou 郑州 high-speed train 2 h 39 min, 55 a day, from ¥321
- Changsha 长沙 high-speed train 4 h 8 min, 22 a day, from ¥405; 2 nonstop flights a day, 1 h 45 min in the air
- Tianjin 天津 high-speed train 2 h 58 min, 51 a day, from ¥473
- Xiamen 厦门 high-speed train 5 h 40 min, 14 a day, from ¥519; 11 nonstop flights a day, 1 h 55 min in the air
- Beijing 北京 high-speed train 3 h 14 min, 74 a day, from ¥532; 8 nonstop flights a day, 1 h 55 min in the air
- Xi'an 西安 high-speed train 4 h 41 min, 29 a day, from ¥600; 11 nonstop flights a day, 2 h in the air
- Guangzhou 广州 high-speed train 6 h 31 min, 6 a day, from ¥756; 20 nonstop flights a day, 2 h 30 min in the air
- Hong Kong 香港 high-speed train 7 h 12 min, 1 a day, from ¥971; 3 nonstop flights a day, 2 h 30 min in the air
On the map
Open Nanjing on the illustrated map to see its outline, its places and listed sites together, and to add them to a trip.
Open Nanjing on the map