One Week in Nanjing: Offbeat

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A full week of Nanjing-only sightseeing would mean padding, so this plan is honest about what it actually is: four days in the city, then three separate day trips using Nanjing’s spot on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed rail line as a base for the wider Jiangnan region. Shorter trip? The 6-day plan covers Days 1-6 below without Zhenjiang.

Book these before you go

  • Reserve your free timed passport-ID slot for Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum via the official site or WeChat before you fly.
  • Check hotel rates on Booking.com , especially near Golden Week (1-7 October 2026) or Labor Day (1-5 May 2026), both of which will crowd every day trip below.
  • Book your Suzhou, Yangzhou, and Zhenjiang train tickets a few days ahead in peak season; all three run on the same busy Shanghai-bound corridor.
  • Link Alipay or WeChat Pay to a foreign card and install a VPN before you land.

Currency is the yuan/renminbi (RMB, ¥), tipping isn’t expected, and a mid-range pace runs roughly RMB600-900 a day in Nanjing itself, a bit more on day-trip days. Best months are October-November and March-May; avoid the July-August “Three Furnaces” heat.

Day 1

Base yourself near Xinjiekou or Fuzimiao.

Morning: the Confucius Temple (Fuzimiao) complex, Dacheng Hall ¥30, then the Jiangnan Examination Hall next door (¥50), where candidates once sat exams for days in cells reportedly just 1.33m wide.

Midday: skip the snack stalls directly on the water at Fuzimiao; the same salted duck and duck-blood-and-vermicelli soup cost less at an ordinary diner a few streets back toward Xinjiekou.

Afternoon: Zhan Garden, now housing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom History Museum, covering the 1850-1864 civil war when rebel forces held Nanjing as their capital, renamed Tianjing, for over a decade.

Evening: the Qinhuai River at dusk. A night cruise runs about ¥80 for roughly 50 minutes from Panchi Wharf, or walk the riverside lanes for free.

Day 2

Morning: the Ming Palace ruins, the 14th-century imperial palace Zhu Yuanzhang built starting in 1367, whose layout directly modeled Beijing’s later Forbidden City. The Meridian Gate, Donghua Gate, and Xi’an Gate platforms survive as a free public park near Minggugong metro station.

Midday: lunch around Xinjiekou.

Afternoon: the Presidential Palace (¥40), China’s largest museum of modern history. The gatehouse has been closed to entry since 10 December 2024; enter through the new west-side entrance.

Late afternoon: a stretch of the Ming City Wall, the Shence Gate to Taiping Gate section (Taicheng, ¥30) along Xuanwu Lake.

Evening: Xuanwu Lake’s free shoreline, or Bailuzhou Park (Egret Island).

Day 3

Morning: Purple Mountain. Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum (free, reservation required), the Ming Xiaoling Sacred Way, then Linggu Temple and its beamless, all-brick-and-stone hall. The combo ticket (¥100) covers all three. Ming Xiaoling is part of the joint “Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties” UNESCO listing.

Afternoon: the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall , commemorating the estimated 300,000 civilians and unarmed soldiers killed after the city fell to Japanese forces on 13 December 1937. Entry is free, roughly 8:30am-4:30pm, closed Mondays; check the official site for the current reservation policy. Keep photography quiet and don’t rush it.

Day 4

Morning: Niushou Mountain’s Foding (Usnisa) Palace, a modern temple built inside a disused mining pit, enshrining what’s described as the only surviving parietal (skull) relic of the Buddha since 27 October 2015. Confirm current hours and price before you go.

Afternoon: the Nanjing Yunjin Brocade Museum, covering the “cloud brocade” silk-weaving tradition Qing-era Nanjing wove on thousands of looms.

Evening: Nanjing 1912, a Republican-era-themed bar and restaurant district near the Presidential Palace.

Day 5

Suzhou day trip. Commonly cited at roughly 1-1.5 hours by high-speed rail from Nanjing South (confirm minutes and fare when you book). Suzhou’s UNESCO-listed classical gardens are a completely different flavor of history from Nanjing’s tombs and walls.

Day 6

Yangzhou day trip, via the Nanjing-Qidong railway. Exact minutes weren’t directly confirmed, but the line’s 2016 electrification cut the much longer Nanjing-Nantong run to roughly 1h50, so this segment should run well under an hour; confirm the current schedule when you book. Yangzhou’s Slender West Lake (¥120), the gardens He Yuan and Ge Yuan, and the 5th-century Daming Temple are the draws.

Day 7

Zhenjiang day trip, the closest of the three stops on the Shanghai-Nanjing line and the easiest last outing of the week. Draws include Jinshan (Golden Hill) Park, its monastery and pagoda tied to the “Legend of the White Snake,” Beigushan Park overlooking the Yangtze with lantern-lit paths after dark, and Jiaoshan, a small river-island park with temples. Budget 1-2 hours per park and expect entry fees in the ¥30-50 range plus a small pagoda supplement. Head back to Nanjing by early evening; there’s no need to stay over for a trip this short.

A full week honestly spent is Nanjing plus its Jiangnan neighbors, not seven days of city-only sightseeing stretched thin. If a place on this list turns out to matter more than you expected, especially the memorial on Day 3, give it the extra time rather than sticking rigidly to the schedule.