Nanjing from Shanghai: the Ming capital in a day or, better, a night
How to add Nanjing to a Shanghai trip: the one-hour train, Purple Mountain with the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and the Ming tomb, the city wall at Zhonghua Gate, the Confucius Temple and a Qinhuai River boat at night, the Presidential Palace, the Nanjing Massacre memorial, what to eat (salted duck, tangbao), and a plan for one day or two.
Nanjing is an hour from Shanghai by train and almost nobody from Australia goes, which is the first reason to. The second is that it was China’s capital under the Ming, under the Republic in the 1920s and 30s, and through the worst event of the Second World War in China, and the city carries all three in a way Shanghai, with its colonial century, does not. It is a day trip at a stretch and a far better overnight. This is the plan we use for guests on a second Shanghai visit or on the way to Beijing.
Getting there
High-speed trains from Shanghai Hongqiao to Nanjing South take 60 to 75 minutes and run every few minutes; the train guide covers booking under your passport. Nanjing South is on metro lines 1 and 3, 25 minutes from the centre. Nanjing is also on the Shanghai to Beijing line, so a night here breaks the journey north: Shanghai to Nanjing one evening, Nanjing to Beijing (about three and a half hours) the next afternoon.
A car from Shanghai takes three to four hours; take the train and use a car in Nanjing, where the sights are spread across the city and Purple Mountain.
The sights, grouped
Purple Mountain (Zijin Shan), the forested hill on the east of the city, holds the two great tombs:
- The Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, the tomb of the founder of modern China, approached by 392 steps up a marble stairway through pine woods; the climb is the point and the view back down the axis is the photograph. Closed on Mondays. Free, with a passport booking.
- The Ming Xiaoling Tomb, the burial place of the first Ming emperor, with a long Sacred Way lined with stone elephants, camels and officials, and a quiet that the mausoleum lacks. The two are linked by a shuttle or a 20-minute walk under the plane trees.
- Linggu Temple and the Purple Mountain Observatory are nearby for a fuller day; the Meiling Palace, Chiang Kai-shek’s villa, is an atmospheric half hour.
The old city:
- The City Wall, the longest surviving city wall in the world, with the Zhonghua Gate fortress at its south: four layers of gates, hidden barracks for thousands, and a walk along the top to the lake. Allow an hour.
- The Confucius Temple (Fuzimiao) and the Qinhuai River, the old pleasure quarter, best after dark when the lanterns are lit and the boats run; a 40-minute boat ride under the bridges is the Nanjing evening.
- The Presidential Palace, the seat of the Republican government, a compound of Qing gardens and 1930s offices that tells the story of the Taiping rebels, the Qing, Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek in one walk.
- Xuanwu Lake, inside the northern wall, for a morning walk with the city’s retirees.
The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall is on the west of the city, built over a mass grave from the December 1937 massacre, free (passport booking, closed Mondays). It is a serious, well-made museum and the reason many Chinese visit the city; allow 90 minutes, go with a guide who can give the context, and do not take children under twelve. It is the hardest and most important thing in Nanjing.
The Nanjing Museum, east of the centre, is one of China’s three great museums, free with a booking, and the place for the Ming and Qing treasures and the republican-era street reconstruction that children like.
What to eat
Nanjing is a duck city. Salted duck (yanshui ya), cold, tender and lightly brined, is on every table; duck blood and vermicelli soup (yaxue fensi tang) is the street-food bowl everyone tries once and most order again; tangbao, large soup dumplings drunk through a straw, are the Nanjing answer to Shanghai’s xiaolongbao. Add sesame cakes, the local sweet-and-sour dishes, and the vegetable dishes of Jiangsu cooking, lighter than Shanghai’s. The Confucius Temple lanes are the snack street; the better restaurants are a short taxi away in the 1912 district and around the old Republican villas.
One day or two?
One day is Purple Mountain in the morning (the mausoleum, the Ming tomb), the Zhonghua Gate and the Presidential Palace in the afternoon, dinner at the Confucius Temple and the boat, and a late train back; 14 hours door to door and worth it if that is all you have.
Two days is the same at half the pace plus the Massacre Memorial, the Nanjing Museum, Xuanwu Lake at dawn, and a proper dinner, with a night in a hotel near the Confucius Temple or in the 1912 district, which is what we recommend and quote.
A two-day plan
| Day | Morning | Afternoon | Evening |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Train from Hongqiao; Purple Mountain: the mausoleum steps, the Ming tomb and Sacred Way | Zhonghua Gate and the wall; the Presidential Palace | Confucius Temple lanes, salted duck, the Qinhuai boat |
| 2 | Xuanwu Lake at dawn; the Massacre Memorial | The Nanjing Museum; duck blood soup for lunch | Train to Shanghai, or on to Beijing |
Practical notes
- Mondays close the mausoleum, the memorial and the museum; plan a Tuesday to Sunday.
- Steps. The mausoleum is 392 of them and there is no lift; older travellers can walk the lower axis and the Ming tomb’s flat Sacred Way instead, and the elderly parents guide applies.
- Bookings for the free sights are passport-linked and done online; a guide does them.
- Weather. Nanjing is one of China’s “furnace” cities in July and August; spring and autumn are the months, and the plane trees of the city’s avenues in October are the best in the country.
- With children. The Ming tomb’s stone animals, the gate fortress, the museum’s old street and the boat; skip the memorial for the under-twelves.
Nanjing is a day guide booking from Shanghai with the train, or a two-night add-on on the way to Beijing on the seven-day tour; tell us which on the contact page.
