Things to do in Nanjing

Landmark · Encircling the old city

The longest surviving city wall in the world, built in the fourteenth century, with long stretches walkable along the top.

Local tip: Zhonghua Gate in the south is the extraordinary bit — a fortified gatehouse with four successive gates and internal courtyards designed to trap an attacking army, plus tunnels for three thousand soldiers. Walk the wall section from Jiming Temple toward Xuanwu Lake at sunset; it is one of the great urban walks in China and it costs almost nothing.

Nature · Eastern edge of the city

A forested massif on the city's edge holding the Ming Xiaoling tomb, the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and an observatory.

Local tip: The Sacred Way at Ming Xiaoling — a curving avenue lined with stone elephants, camels and officials, laid out in the 1380s — is best in late November when the maples and ginkgos turn. It is a UNESCO-listed site as part of the Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and on a weekday morning it is nearly empty.

Culture · Jiangdongmen, western Nanjing

The national memorial to the Chinese civilians and disarmed soldiers killed by Japanese forces in the winter of 1937–38, built on a mass grave site.

Local tip: It is free, it is heavily visited by school groups, and it is a demanding two hours. Going is a normal thing for a resident to do rather than a tourist act — this event is central to how the city understands itself, and the anniversary each December is marked citywide.

Nature · Immediately north-east of the old city, inside the wall

A large lake with islands and causeways, wrapped by the Ming wall on one side and Purple Mountain on the other.

Local tip: The circuit is about ten kilometres and the northern shore is the quiet half. This is where Nanjing exercises — the early morning around the lake, with the wall above and the mountain behind, is the best free thing the city offers.

Food · Qinhuai district, southern old city

The Confucius Temple and the historic imperial examination quarter, on a canal lit with lanterns at night.

Local tip: Fuzimiao itself is the busiest tourist strip in the city. Go one street back into the lanes off Zhanyuan Road for the actual Nanjing snacks — salt-water duck, duck blood and vermicelli soup, and the small dumplings — at half the price and without the crowds.

Neighborhood · Gulou and Xuanwu, around the former government buildings

Streets of 1920s and 1930s Republican-era villas and ministries under plane trees, largely unvisited and still in use.

Local tip: Between 1927 and 1937 this was the capital of China and the state built accordingly — legations, ministries and villas in a distinctive Republican style, most of them still standing and many still occupied. Walk Yihe Road and the streets around it on an autumn afternoon. Almost no visitor knows this exists, and it is the most atmospheric part of the city.