The Qinhuai after dark
7 stops · 3 h · on foot · start at 16:00 to catch the lights · 7 stops
- Zhonghua Gate
- Bao'en Temple
- Laomendong
- Egret Island
- Examination Hall
- Fuzimiao
- Zhan Garden
142 curated places · MICHELIN 2026 沪苏浙, Black Pearl and Chinese guides · no Eater coverage
Tap a route and it gets drawn on the map, stop by stop.
Tap a pin to see photos, rating and how to get there by metro, bus or on foot. Turn on a route to follow the numbered path.
This interactive map of Nanjing (China) brings together 142 hand-picked places: 52 attractions, 45 restaurants, 24 cafés and 21 shops. It also includes 5 walking routes with their stops in order. For every place you get what it is, a practical tip and how to get there by public transport. It is free, works on your phone and needs no sign-up.
· Curated by the HOLASIM team · How we make the maps
Tap a route to see it drawn on the map, stop by stop.
7 stops · 3 h · on foot · start at 16:00 to catch the lights · 7 stops
7 stops · full day · park shuttle and on foot · book the Mausoleum 7 days ahead · 7 stops
6 stops · 4 h · on foot · the Taicheng stretch costs 30 CNY separately · 6 stops
7 stops · full day · on foot and metro L2 · the museums close on Mondays · 7 stops
5 stops · 5 h · metro L2 and on foot · the Memorial needs booking and closes Mondays · 5 stops
中山陵 · Zijinshan
392 granite steps of white stone and blue tile climbing Zijinshan to the tomb of modern China's founder.
Tip: Free BUT it needs a named reservation through the 钟山风景区 WeChat mini-program; slots drop at 16:00, seven days ahead. No phone data, no entry — sort it before you arrive.
🚇 Metro L2 to Muxuyuan, then the Y1 sightseeing bus to the Bo'ai archway at the foot of the stairs.
Featured in: Sitio oficial 钟山风景区 · Nanjing Bendibao 2026
Show on map明孝陵 · Zijinshan
The first Ming emperor's tomb, a World Heritage site, with its Sacred Way of stone elephants and camels.
Tip: The pattern flips here: the Mausoleum next door is free-but-booked, while this one charges 70 CNY you can pay at the gate. The four-site Zhongshan pass is 100 CNY.
🚇 Metro L2 to Muxuyuan, then the park shuttle; gate 8 (明孝陵8号入口) sells tickets on the spot.
Featured in: UNESCO · Nanjing Bendibao 2026
Show on map梅花山 · Zijinshan
The plum-tree hill beside the Sacred Way: in October it is a quiet wood of osmanthus and maples just starting to turn.
Tip: Famous for February plum blossom, but in mid-October 2026 it is where the late osmanthus smells strongest — it bloomed late this year.
🚇 Inside the Ming Xiaoling grounds; 12 minutes on foot from gate 8 along the Sacred Way.
Featured in: Yangzi Evening News (oct 2026) · OSM
Show on map灵谷寺 · Zijinshan
Pine forest, a 14th-century beamless brick hall and, in summer, fireflies: the quietest corner of Zijinshan.
Tip: Covered by the 100 CNY Zhongshan pass. Check each site separately: here you pay at the gate, with no mandatory booking like the Mausoleum.
🚇 South gate (红山门); Zhongshan park shuttle from the Mausoleum, 10 minutes.
Featured in: Nanjing Bendibao 2026 · OSM
Show on map灵谷塔 · Zijinshan
Nine 1933 storeys honouring the fallen: 252 spiral steps and, at the top, the whole Zijinshan forest.
Tip: Climb at dusk. The maples below are still green in mid-October — peak colour only arrives in November.
🚇 Five minutes on foot from Linggu Temple, along the plane-tree avenue.
Featured in: OSM · Nanjing Bendibao 2026
Show on map中山陵音乐台 · Zijinshan
A 1933 half-moon amphitheatre with a wisteria pergola and hundreds of pigeons that eat from your hand.
Tip: Buy the corn at the entrance before you go down to the stage, and come early — after 11 the terraces fill with tour groups.
🚇 400 m downhill west of the Mausoleum; the park shuttle stops right outside.
Featured in: OSM · guías locales de Nankín
Show on map孙中山纪念馆 · Zijinshan
The former Buddhist Zangjing Lou turned museum: letters, photographs and the Republic's story told from inside.
Tip: The perfect bolt-hole if it rains or you missed the Mausoleum slot: no booking needed here and almost nobody climbs up.
🚇 Eight minutes on foot east of the Mausoleum, past the pond.
Featured in: OSM · Nanjing Bendibao 2026
Show on map美龄宫 · Zijinshan
Soong Mei-ling's villa: in autumn the ring of plane trees around it turns into an emerald necklace seen from above.
Tip: The famous 'necklace' only turns yellow in late November — in mid-October it is still green. Covered by the 100 CNY pass.
🚇 Meiling Palace stop on the Zhongshan shuttle, or 15 minutes on foot from Ming Xiaoling.
Featured in: Nominatim/OSM · Nanjing Bendibao 2026
Show on map南京中山植物园 · Xuanwu
China's oldest botanical garden, founded 1929, at the foot of Zijinshan: rose beds, bamboo and an osmanthus wood.
Tip: Mid-October is its best week: late osmanthus scents the whole south section and there are far fewer people than at Zhongshan.
🚇 Metro L2 to Muxuyuan, then 15 minutes on foot north, or bus 20 to the south gate.
Featured in: OSM · Yangzi Evening News (oct 2026)
Show on map南京海底世界 · Zijinshan
An aquarium with a tunnel, penguins and a sea-lion show, tucked among the Ming tombs of Zijinshan.
Tip: Your trump card if the weather turns and you have kids: it is the only large indoor space inside the Zijinshan park.
🚇 Zhongshan shuttle, 海底世界 stop; or 10 minutes on foot from Ming Xiaoling.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map中华门瓮城 · Qinhuai
The largest surviving fortified gate on earth: four courtyards in series and 27 vaults where 3,000 Ming soldiers slept.
Tip: The wall is neither free nor walkable end to end: you pay per section. Here it is 50 CNY by day, 90 at night with the show (50 without). Last entry 17:00.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhonghuamen station, exit 1, then 12 minutes on foot north along Zhonghua Road.
Featured in: 南京城墙 oficial · SimpleChinaTrip 2026
Show on map南京城墙博物馆 · Qinhuai
The museum that explains the 25 km of Ming wall through bricks signed by their own potters 650 years ago.
Tip: Free, 09:00-17:00 and CLOSED MONDAYS. Booked through the 南京城墙 WeChat account, though the museum usually admits walk-ins outside holidays.
🚇 Directly opposite Zhonghua Gate; metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1.
Featured in: 南京城墙 oficial · The Nanjinger
Show on map台城（解放门） · Xuanwu
The stretch of wall running between Jiming Temple and Xuanwu Lake: the best-postcard walk in Nanjing.
Tip: A separate 30 CNY: your Zhonghua Gate ticket is not valid here. From 17:00 to 22:00 the night stretch towards Xuanwu opens, with the wall lit up.
🚇 Metro L3 or L4 to Jimingsi station, exit 2, then 6 minutes uphill along Jimingsi Road.
Featured in: 南京城墙 oficial · SimpleChinaTrip 2026
Show on map玄武门 · Xuanwu
The 1909 gate cut through the Ming wall so that the city could finally look out onto Xuanwu Lake and its five islands.
Tip: Walking through is free and it is the easiest way into the lake park. Climbing the wall itself is paid, over at Taicheng.
🚇 Metro L1 to Xuanwumen station, exit 1: the gate is 150 paces away.
Featured in: OSM · 南京城墙 oficial
Show on map南京夫子庙 · Qinhuai
The Confucius temple on the Qinhuai river: a thousand years of exam candidates, and today Nanjing's most photographed lantern quarter.
Tip: Wandering the district is free; entering the Dacheng hall is paid. Arrive 19:00-20:00: the lights come on and you can still walk.
🚇 Metro L3 to Fuzimiao station, exit 2: 400 paces to the red river wall.
Featured in: OSM · guías locales de Nankín
Show on map江南贡院 · Qinhuai
The largest imperial examination centre ever built: 20,644 cubicles the size of a wardrobe, now a museum sunk under water.
Tip: The museum drops four floors underground: the best Qinhuai shelter in the rain. Book the same-day ticket from your phone.
🚇 Metro L3 to Fuzimiao, exit 2, then 5 minutes east along the river.
Featured in: OSM · The Nanjinger
Show on map瞻园 · Qinhuai
A six-hundred-year-old Ming garden with two artificial rock mountains and the best night light show in southern China.
Tip: Two giant osmanthus trees guard the entrance and still perfume the air in mid-October. The night show is sold separately and sells out: book days ahead.
🚇 Metro L3 to Fuzimiao, exit 1, then 7 minutes west on foot along Zhanyuan Road.
Featured in: Yangzi Evening News (oct 2026) · OSM
Show on map太平天国历史博物馆 · Qinhuai
The world's only museum devoted to the rebellion that killed twenty million people and had its capital right here.
Tip: It is included in the Zhan Garden ticket, so don't walk past: almost nobody goes in, and the original banners and swords are worth half an hour.
🚇 Same grounds as Zhan Garden; metro L3 to Fuzimiao, exit 1.
Featured in: OSM · The Nanjinger
Show on map老门东历史文化街区 · Qinhuai
The old town rebuilt in grey brick and timber: artisan workshops, shadow theatre and the city's best street food.
Tip: Entry is free and it stays open late. Skip the central axis at peak hour: the side lanes Jianzi and Gutong have the same stalls without the crush.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 10 minutes northeast on foot along Bianying.
Featured in: OSM · guías locales de Nankín
Show on map白鹭洲公园 · Qinhuai
The eastern Qinhuai garden: moon bridges, willows over the water and, on the 15th of the eighth lunar month, the lantern festival.
Tip: Ten minutes from Fuzimiao with a tenth of the people: the best spot on the Qinhuai to sit with tea and watch the water.
🚇 Metro L3 to Wudingmen station, exit 2, then 6 minutes north on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map甘熙宅第 · Qinhuai
The 'ninety-nine and a half rooms' of a 19th-century scholar family, now a living folk-arts museum.
Tip: In the back courtyards, paper-cut and lantern artisans actually work; it is Nanjing's best place to buy craft that is not mass-moulded souvenir.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhangfuyuan station, exit 2, then 8 minutes southwest on foot.
Featured in: OSM · The Nanjinger
Show on map荷花塘历史文化街区 · Qinhuai
The last quarter of Nanjing where people still live in courtyard houses: washing lines, cats and not one sign in English.
Tip: It has been under phased restoration since 2024, so some lanes are boarded up. People live here, it is not a park: keep your voice down and don't photograph interiors.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 2, then 12 minutes northwest on foot along Chuanban Lane.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map大报恩寺遗址博物馆 · Qinhuai
On the foundations of the Porcelain Tower that astonished 17th-century Europe, a glass-and-steel pagoda that lights up at night.
Tip: The night session costs 79 CNY and the lighting ceremony is the moment: arrive 15 minutes early. Tower access closes well before the grounds do.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 8 minutes north on foot along Yuhua Road.
Featured in: Dahepiao 2026 · OSM
Show on map南京总统府 · Xuanwu
Six hundred years of power on one site: a Ming garden, the Taiping palace, Sun Yat-sen's office and Chiang Kai-shek's desk.
Tip: CLOSED MONDAYS and booked on the official site up to seven days ahead. Allow three hours: most people see the first courtyard and miss the garden at the back.
🚇 Metro L2 or L3 to Daxinggong station, exit 4, then 5 minutes north on foot.
Featured in: Nanjing Bendibao 2026 · OSM
Show on map南京博物院 · Xuanwu
One of China's three great museums: 430,000 objects and an entire Republican-era street rebuilt underground.
Tip: Free, but you cannot walk in without a booking: slots open seven days ahead and vanish. CLOSED MONDAYS. Save two hours for the underground Republican street.
🚇 Metro L2 to Minggugong station, exit 1, then 7 minutes west along Zhongshan East Road.
Featured in: The Nanjinger · Nanjing Bendibao 2026
Show on map六朝博物馆 · Xuanwu
Designed by I.M. Pei Partners on top of the original 4th-century wall: the city's most elegant museum.
Tip: The third-floor room, with wooden columns against black, is the most photographed corner; it is empty first thing.
🚇 Metro L2 or L3 to Daxinggong, exit 1: 200 paces away, facing the Presidential Palace.
Featured in: OSM · The Nanjinger
Show on map江宁织造博物馆 · Xuanwu
Where Cao Xueqin's grandfather wove the emperor's silk and where, they say, 'Dream of the Red Chamber' was born.
Tip: Wu Liangyong's building hides a rooftop garden almost nobody finds: go to the top floor before you leave.
🚇 Metro L2 or L3 to Daxinggong, exit 2, then 4 minutes west along Changjiang Road.
Featured in: OSM · The Nanjinger
Show on map中国共产党代表团梅园新村纪念馆 · Xuanwu
The three houses where Zhou Enlai negotiated with the Nationalists in 1946, kept with the exact furniture of the time.
Tip: Closed Mondays, like almost every Nanjing museum. The surrounding lanes of 1930s houses are worth as much as the museum itself.
🚇 Metro L2 or L3 to Daxinggong, exit 4, then 8 minutes northeast on foot.
Featured in: OSM · The Nanjinger
Show on map南京图书馆 · Xuanwu
China's third-largest library keeps, on its ground floor, an excavated Ming street displayed under glass.
Tip: Free entry with your passport and free wifi: the best spot downtown to sit out an hour of rain or wait for a booking slot.
🚇 Metro L2 or L3 to Daxinggong, exit 3: right on the corner.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map鼓楼公园 · Gulou
The 1382 Ming drum that struck the capital's hours, now on an island of lawn ringed by traffic.
Tip: The park is free and open all day; from the upper terrace you face Zifeng Tower head-on — a good contrast frame.
🚇 Metro L1 to Gulou station, exit 1: the tower is inside the park across the square.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map朝天宫 · Qinhuai
The largest Ming-Qing architectural complex in southern China: yellow walls, grand stairs and the imperial Confucius temple.
Tip: The outer compound with the great stairs is free, and at dawn locals use it for tai chi. The city museum inside charges separately.
🚇 Metro L2 to Shanghai Road, exit 3, then 10 minutes southeast; or L1 to Zhangfuyuan and 12 minutes.
Featured in: OSM · The Nanjinger
Show on map南京市博物馆 · Qinhuai
Inside Chaotian Gong: the city's story from the Six Dynasties on, with the jade burial sets of the Ming princes.
Tip: Check it separately from the grounds: the outer courtyard is free, but the museum closes Mondays and asks for a booking in high season.
🚇 Inside the Chaotian Gong grounds; metro L2 to Shanghai Road, exit 3, then 10 minutes on foot.
Featured in: Nominatim/OSM · The Nanjinger
Show on map南京明故宫遗址公园 · Xuanwu
What remains of the palace that was the model for Beijing's Forbidden City: broken columns, stone thresholds and lawn.
Tip: Free and always open. Cross to Wuchaomen park on the other side of the avenue: that is where the Meridian Gate keeps its five original openings.
🚇 Metro L2 to Minggugong, exits 1 or 3: the park surrounds the station.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map紫峰大厦 · Gulou
450 metres of green glass above Gulou, with an observation deck on floor 72 and all of Zijinshan to the east.
Tip: Go on a clear day: on hazy days the deck does not refund your ticket. At sunset you see the wall and Xuanwu Lake in a single glance.
🚇 Metro L1 to Gulou, exit 4: the tower stands on the Zhongyang Road corner.
Featured in: Nominatim/OSM
Show on map侵华日军南京大屠杀遇难同胞纪念馆 · Jianye
Built over a 1937 mass grave. This is not sightseeing: it is where the city keeps its wound.
Tip: Free BUT with a named booking through the museum's WeChat mini-program: slots drop at 07:00, seven days ahead, and in high season they go in ten minutes. CLOSED MONDAYS. Foreign passport holders have a separate queue at the gate if you missed the booking.
🚇 Metro L2 to Yunjin Road station, exit 2: gate 1 is 300 paces away.
Featured in: Nanjing Bendibao 2026 · The Nanjinger
Show on map南京利济巷慰安所旧址陈列馆 · Qinhuai
The world's only surviving Japanese 'comfort station' building, kept with the testimony of the women held there.
Tip: Free, closed Mondays, and booked on WeChat like the big Memorial. It is not a visit for children.
🚇 Metro L2 or L3 to Daxinggong, exit 4, then 5 minutes north along Liji Lane.
Featured in: OSM · The Nanjinger
Show on map拉贝故居 · Gulou
The garden where German John Rabe hid 600 neighbours in 1937, inside the Safety Zone he helped create.
Tip: Mind the hours: open Monday to Friday 08:30-16:30 and CLOSED AT WEEKENDS, the opposite of every other museum in town.
🚇 Metro L2 to Shanghai Road, exit 1, then 8 minutes north along Guangzhou Road.
Featured in: The Nanjinger · OSM
Show on map颐和路历史文化街区 · Gulou
Two hundred 1930s villas under huge plane trees: the quarter where the Republic's generals and ambassadors lived.
Tip: Walking the quarter is free; only block 12 charges admission. In October the plane trees are only starting to turn — full yellow is November.
🚇 Metro L4 to Yunnan Road station, exit 2, then 8 minutes west on foot.
Featured in: Yangzi Evening News (oct 2026) · OSM
Show on map浦口火车站 · Jiangbei
The 1914 station where Zhu Ziqing said goodbye to his father: cast-iron platforms intact and not a train since 2004.
Tip: Come by ferry: it costs a couple of yuan, crosses the Yangtze and is Nanjing's best cheap ride. The station is restored and free to walk around outside.
🚇 Metro L10 to China Pharmaceutical University, then a local bus north; or the ferry from Zhongshan Wharf (15 minutes across the Yangtze).
Featured in: OSM
Show on map雨花台风景名胜区 · Yuhuatai
The 'rain flower' hill, with its century-old osmanthus wood, its memorial and the coloured pebbles that give it its name.
Tip: Its osmanthus garden holds late varieties (晚银桂) — exactly the ones in bloom in mid-October 2026. Free entry.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 3, then 8 minutes south; the north gate opens onto Yuhua Road.
Featured in: Yangzi Evening News (sep 2026) · OSM
Show on map玄武湖公园 · Xuanwu
Five islands linked by bridges inside the Ming wall: China's oldest imperial lake, still open and still free.
Tip: It has over 2,000 osmanthus trees across Huanzhou and Liangzhou islands and Osmanthus Hill: in mid-October 2026 they still smell. Always free.
🚇 Metro L1 to Xuanwumen, exit 1, or L3 to Jimingsi and enter via Jiefang Gate.
Featured in: Yangzi Evening News (sep 2026) · OSM
Show on map鸡鸣寺 · Xuanwu
Seventeen hundred years of temple on a knoll, with the Ming wall at its foot and the incense included in the ticket.
Tip: It costs around 10 CNY with incense included; skip the big bundles the outside sellers push. It closes at 17:00, before the wall next door.
🚇 Metro L3 or L4 to Jimingsi station, exit 2, then 5 minutes uphill on foot.
Featured in: OSM · guías locales de Nankín
Show on map九华山公园 · Xuanwu
The hill with Xuanzang Pagoda, holding a relic of the monk who travelled to India: a lake view with no queue at all.
Tip: Fifteen minutes from Jiming and empty: from the pagoda you see the whole of Xuanwu Lake with the wall in front. Token entry fee.
🚇 Metro L3 to Jiuhuashan station, exit 1, then 6 minutes uphill.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map莫愁湖公园 · Jianye
The 'lake without sorrow', with the Victory Pavilion where the first Ming emperor played chess, and lotus to the edge.
Tip: In mid-October the osmanthus around the Bailu and Ershui pavilions are among the best-smelling in town, and the park costs just a few yuan.
🚇 Metro L2 to Mochouhu station, exit 1, then 4 minutes south on foot.
Featured in: Yangzi Evening News (sep 2026) · OSM
Show on map清凉山公园 · Gulou
The 'cool mountain' where the Six Dynasties court took shelter: thick forest, a 10th-century well and total silence.
Tip: Free. On the north slope stands the memorial to the 1937 Jinling University refugees, one of the city's most intimate sites.
🚇 Metro L4 to Qingliangshan station, exit 1: the park gate is right across.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map阅江楼 · Gulou
The tower the first Ming emperor commissioned in 1374, wrote the poem for and never built: it finally went up in 2001.
Tip: From the top floor you see the Yangtze and the wall climbing Shizi Hill. Pair it with Yifeng Gate, five minutes away.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhongyangmen, then bus 21 west, or a taxi; the south gate is on Jianning Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map南京长江大桥 · Jiangbei
The 1968 bridge China built alone when nobody would help: 4,500 metres, worker statues and two decks of red steel.
Tip: You can walk across the upper deck, free. Sunset from the park at the south abutment is the shot everyone is after.
🚇 Metro L3 to Shangyuanmen then a local bus, or metro S8 to Changjiangdaqiaobei on the north side.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map燕子矶公园 · Qixia
The 'swallow rock' hanging over the Yangtze, with the stele the Qianlong emperor wrote in his own hand.
Tip: It is the northern edge of this map and the park is free. Beside it stands the memorial to the 1937 victims shot on this very bank.
🚇 Metro L1 to Yanziji station, exit 2, then bus 8 or 15 minutes on foot to the bank.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map红山森林动物园 · Xuanwu
The zoo that became famous across China for rebuilding its enclosures for the animals, not the public.
Tip: The best plan in town with kids. It is a whole hill: allow four hours and enter by the north gate to avoid the full climb.
🚇 Metro L1 to Hongshan Zoo station, exit 1: the gate is 300 paces away.
Featured in: OSM · prensa china
Show on map南京眼步行桥 · Jianye
The pedestrian bridge with two leaning masts over the Yangtze, built for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games.
Tip: Free and open at night; it lights up after 19:00. The Hexi side is the new skyscraper district, a world away from historic Nanjing.
🚇 Metro L10 to Yuantong station, then 15 minutes west along the riverside park.
Featured in: Nominatim/OSM
Show on map渡江胜利纪念馆 · Gulou
The museum of the 1949 crossing, with the Jingdian ship moored outside and a giant red prow pointing at the river.
Tip: Free, closed Mondays. It is ten minutes from Zhongshan Wharf, where the ferry north departs: do both together.
🚇 Metro L4 to Longjiang station, exit 1, then 12 minutes northwest to the riverbank.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map南京古生物博物馆 · Xuanwu
Fossils from the Chinese Academy's geology institute: trilobites, dinosaurs and life before almost everything existed.
Tip: WARNING: open Saturdays and Sundays only. With kids on a rainy weekend, it is downtown's best card.
🚇 Metro L3 or L4 to Jimingsi, exit 1, then 5 minutes west along Beijing East Road.
Featured in: The Nanjinger · OSM
Show on map帝粤轩 · Xinjiekou
The one Nanjing MICHELIN star we can place with certainty: high-school Cantonese on an upper floor of the Ritz-Carlton.
Tip: It kept its star in the 2026 沪苏浙 guide. Book days ahead and ask for the lunchtime dim sum: half the price of dinner, the same kitchen.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 5: the hotel is on Zhongshan Road, 200 paces north.
Featured in: MICHELIN 2026 沪苏浙 (oficial) · OSM
Show on map南京大排档 · Gulou
The house where every visitor first tries salted duck, duck-blood vermicelli soup and red-bean dumplings, with waiters who sing the orders.
Tip: Take a queue number on your phone BEFORE you walk over: the wait hits 90 minutes. Order salted duck, duck-blood vermicelli and red-bean dumplings, in that order.
🚇 Metro L1 to Xuanwumen, exit 2, then 6 minutes west on foot to the Shiziqiao pedestrian street.
Featured in: Nominatim/OSM · guías locales de Nankín
Show on map绿柳居 · Qinhuai
A 1912 vegetarian house that fed monks and the Republican court: the city's most famous vegetable bun.
Tip: The ground-floor counter sells the vegetable buns to take away from 06:30; by 09:00 they are gone. Upstairs there is a proper sit-down room.
🚇 Metro L3 to Changfujie, exit 1, then 7 minutes south along Taiping South Road.
Featured in: OSM · guías locales de Nankín
Show on map安乐园 · Qinhuai
A 1920 Muslim institution where Nanjing's beef guotie was, they say, invented: thin dough, beef filling and a caramelised base.
Tip: It is halal: no pork, no alcohol. Order the guotie straight off the griddle plus the beef soup; eating standing at the counter is normal here.
🚇 Metro L2 to Shanghai Road, exit 3, then 9 minutes southeast, beside Chaotian Gong.
Featured in: Nominatim/OSM · guías locales de Nankín
Show on map永和园酒楼 · Qinhuai
Fuzimiao's oldest tea house, from 1901: breakfast here is sesame cakes and shredded tofu as it was a century ago.
Tip: This is a breakfast place: it opens early and the good kitchen runs out before noon. Order the shredded tofu and the crab-roe bun — October is crab season.
🚇 Metro L3 to Fuzimiao, exit 2, then 5 minutes west along Gongyuan Street.
Featured in: Nominatim/OSM · guías locales de Nankín
Show on map七家湾牛肉锅贴 · Qixia
The name of Nanjing's historic Muslim quarter turned into a brand: beef pot-stickers fried on the griddle, one batch after another.
Tip: You order by the 两 (about five pieces), not by the piece. Two 两 plus a beef soup comes to under 25 CNY.
🚇 Metro L1 or L3 to Maigaoqiao, then 8 minutes on foot; it is on the neighbourhood's shopping street.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map李记牛肉锅贴 · Qinhuai
A halal counter on old Pingshi Street: a street-facing griddle, beef-fat smoke and a neighbourhood queue from seven in the morning.
Tip: Guotie are only right in the first minute: eat them on the pavement, don't take them away. By 13:00 the griddle is off.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhangfuyuan, exit 2, then 9 minutes west along Pingshi Street.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map鸡鸣汤包 · Xuanwu
Nanjing's soup dumplings: bigger and sweeter than Shanghai's, with pork-bone broth you drink through a straw.
Tip: Ask for the crab-roe version: it is seasonal and the season has just opened. Eat it with Zhenjiang vinegar and ginger.
🚇 Metro L2 to Minggugong, exit 2, then 10 minutes south on foot.
Featured in: OSM · guías locales de Nankín
Show on map鸡鸣鸭血粉丝汤 · Qinhuai
The dish that defines Nanjing: sweet-potato noodles in duck broth with set blood, liver, gizzard and a spoon of chilli.
Tip: Duck blood is a mild brown cube with no strong flavour: if you have never tried it, this is the place. Order the small bowl the first time.
🚇 Metro L3 to Fuzimiao, exit 1, then 6 minutes west on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map回味鸭血粉丝汤 · Xinjiekou
The Nanjing-born chain that took duck-blood vermicelli soup across China: a clean, fast version with a picture menu.
Tip: If a no-English neighbourhood joint feels daunting, start here: picture menu and QR payment. Then go try the alley version.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou: it is in the Xinbai basement, inside the shopping arcade.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map叶新鸭血粉丝汤 · Xinjiekou
A counter on the stall block behind Xinjiekou, with broth boiling from five in the afternoon and neighbourhood prices.
Tip: This is a stall, not a restaurant: no English, no tables. Point and pay by QR. It opens at dusk, when the rest of the block lights up too.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhujiang Road, exit 1, then 7 minutes east to the stalls.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map南京宇帆老鸭粉丝汤 · Qixia
The 老鸭 version of the classic: broth from an old duck boiled for hours, cloudier and far deeper in flavour.
Tip: It sits in the north of this map, off the tourist circuit: come if you want to eat where there is not one foreigner in the room.
🚇 Metro L1 or L3 to Maigaoqiao, exit 3, then 6 minutes on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map芳婆糕团店 · Xinjiekou
Grandma Fang has been making glutinous rice cakes and fermented-rice dumplings for forty years, and the queue turns the corner.
Tip: Cash or QR, a long queue, and it shuts when it sells out — usually mid-afternoon. Order red-bean dumplings and a sticky-rice siumai: under 15 CNY.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 7, then 8 minutes west along Wangfu Street.
Featured in: OSM · guías locales de Nankín
Show on map红公馆 · Qinhuai
Jinling cuisine in a red-lacquered timber mansion in Laomendong, with theatre boxes and silk lamps.
Tip: Book if you want the upstairs room, which is the pretty one; downstairs is a plain dining hall. Order the squirrel fish and the house salted duck.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 11 minutes northeast, inside Laomendong.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map豆花庄 · Qinhuai
A douhua house in the coopers' lane: hot soy curd, savoury with sauce and crisps, or sweet with osmanthus sugar.
Tip: Order the sweet one with osmanthus sugar: it is the only dish on this map made with the flower blooming in the city right now.
🚇 Inside Laomendong, on Gutong Lane; metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 12 minutes on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map问柳菜馆 · Qinhuai
Nanjing home cooking in a Laomendong courtyard house: no show, just the dishes the city actually eats.
Tip: Order salted duck and the chrysanthemum-leaf egg soup, eaten only in Nanjing and right in season now.
🚇 Inside Laomendong, on Gutong Lane; metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 12 minutes on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map桃源村糕点文化博物馆 · Qinhuai
Suzhou-style lard pastry: meat mooncakes, walnut shortbread and the most tempting window in Laomendong.
Tip: The fresh-meat mooncake comes out every twenty minutes: wait for the hot batch, cold is not the same thing.
🚇 Inside Laomendong, on Gutong Lane; metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 12 minutes on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map金陵戏坊 · Qinhuai
Dinner with live Kunqu opera: Nanjing dishes served while performers work the wooden stage at the back.
Tip: There is no show every night: confirm the schedule before booking a table, or you will dine in a silent room.
🚇 Inside Laomendong; metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 10 minutes northeast.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map江宴海鲜餐厅 · Qinhuai
A fishmonger-restaurant: pick your creature from the tank and they cook it. In October the window is all hairy crab.
Tip: Ask the price per 两 BEFORE they weigh it: hairy crab is charged by weight and it is where bills inflate most.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhangfuyuan, exit 3, then 6 minutes south to Shengzhou Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map老城南旧事 · Qinhuai
Old-south-city cooking in a courtyard house beside Zhan Garden, furnished in 1930s style, two streets off the Qinhuai crowd.
Tip: Ideal for dinner before the Zhan Garden night show, two minutes on foot. Order the duck and the seasonal greens.
🚇 Metro L3 to Fuzimiao, exit 1, then 7 minutes west along Zhanyuan Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map瞻老元面馆 · Qinhuai
Nanjing-style noodles in a ten-table room: clear broth, dressing on the side and the meat on top.
Tip: Opens at noon and shuts early. Ask for the big bowl with pickled greens and pork: a standard Nanjing lunch, priced like a coffee in Europe.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhangfuyuan, exit 2, then 10 minutes west on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map白下元宵舖 · Qinhuai
A yuanxiao counter: glutinous rice balls in sweet fermented-rice broth, the street dessert of always.
Tip: Order the red-bean yuanxiao: it is what Nanjing drinks when the cold starts, and by mid-October the cold has started.
🚇 Metro L3 to Changfujie, exit 2, then 6 minutes west along Baixia Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map韓萍老南京餛飩 · Qinhuai
Paper-thin wontons in broth with seaweed and dried shrimp, folded by hand in front of you at a two-metre counter.
Tip: A bowl costs less than an airport water bottle. Ask for the small ones with translucent skins, not the big ones.
🚇 Metro L3 to Changfujie, exit 2, then 6 minutes west along Baixia Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map郑家牛肉面 · Xuanwu
Halal beef noodles in the Baiziting quarter: twenty spices in the broth and the meat knife-cut to order.
Tip: Baiziting is the quarter of restored Republican villas: eat here, then walk the two blocks of 1930s houses.
🚇 Metro L1 to Xuanwumen, exit 2, then 8 minutes east along Baiziting.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map王务民牛肉汤馆 · Qinhuai
Halal beef soup served from five in the morning to shift workers: the heaviest breakfast in Nanjing.
Tip: If jet lag wakes you at five, this is the only place on the map already open. Order soup and a sesame flatbread to dunk.
🚇 Metro L3 to Changfujie, exit 3, then 5 minutes east on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map徐家鸭子 · Qinhuai
A neighbourhood duck shop where you buy salted duck the way a local does: half a bird, wrapped, to take home.
Tip: Salted duck is eaten COLD — don't ask for it warm. Order a half, enough for two, and eat it in a park with a beer.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhangfuyuan, exit 2, then 9 minutes west along Pingshi Street.
Featured in: OSM · guías locales de Nankín
Show on map苏香楼·南京菜 · Yuhuatai
Neighbourhood Jinling cooking south of the wall: a long menu, local prices and not one table set for tourists.
Tip: Chinese-only menu: open your photo translator before sitting down. Order Jinling roast duck and stir-fried chrysanthemum leaf, October's green.
🚇 Metro L1 to Andemen, exit 2, then 10 minutes east on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map小厨娘淮扬菜 · Xuanwu
Modern Huaiyang cooking: China's finest knife school, with threaded tofu and properly made red-braised pork.
Tip: Order wensi tofu: a thousand knife-cut threads floating in broth. It is the dish that explains why Huaiyang is China's state-banquet cuisine.
🚇 Metro L1 to Gulou, exit 2, then 7 minutes east along Beijing East Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map固城湖螃蟹 · Qinhuai
Gaochun hairy crab, Nanjing's own variety, sold live from the tank and steamed at the same counter while you wait.
Tip: The season opened in late September and October is its best month: females with orange roe are the ones now. Ask for female crab and ginger vinegar.
🚇 Metro L3 to Changfujie, exit 3, then 5 minutes east on foot.
Featured in: Xinhua (sep 2026) · OSM
Show on map南湖夜市 · Jianye
The night market locals defend as theirs: two blocks of stalls, plastic stools on the pavement and smoke until midnight.
Tip: It starts at 18:00 and the good part is after 20:00. Have your QR ready: almost no stall takes cash or a foreign card.
🚇 Metro L2 to Yunjin Road, exit 1, then 12 minutes north into the Nanhu quarter.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map朱大龙虾 · Gulou
The spicy river crayfish that Nanjing eats in plastic gloves, sitting on the pavement, until late.
Tip: October is the tail of crayfish season: still available, though June to August are the best. Ask for the garlic version if chilli is not your thing.
🚇 Metro L1 to Xuanwumen, exit 2, then 6 minutes west to Shiziqiao.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map狮王府 · Gulou
A Jinling banquet house on the Shiziqiao pedestrian street: screened rooms, house duck and round tables for whole families.
Tip: If you are two, ask for half portions: most of the menu has them, and that is what stops a Chinese banquet from defeating you.
🚇 Metro L1 to Xuanwumen, exit 2, then 6 minutes west to Shiziqiao.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map金陵一哥龙虾馆 · Gulou
River crayfish and barbecue on a northern Gulou backstreet, with pavement tables until two in the morning.
Tip: Dinner here is at ten at night, not eight. Arrive early and you will sit alone: this is the city's actual schedule.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhongyangmen, exit 2, then 9 minutes west along Hehui Street.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map东方宫 · Qinhuai
Lanzhou noodles hand-pulled in front of you, in the most reliable halal room in the southern centre.
Tip: Choose your noodle gauge when you order: 二细 is the safe middle. Open all day, even at four in the afternoon.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhangfuyuan, exit 1, then 4 minutes south along Zhongshan South Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map常熟炒烧浇面馆 · Qinhuai
Suzhou-style noodles with toppings served separately on small plates: you choose what goes into the broth and when.
Tip: Order the braised-pork noodles: the belly sits on top and you push it under so it melts. It is the southern quarters' breakfast.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhangfuyuan, exit 2, then 10 minutes southwest on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map紫藤大院 · Qinhuai
A wisteria courtyard turned dining room: Nanjing home cooking two blocks from the Fuzimiao noise.
Tip: The best escape from the Fuzimiao crowds without leaving the quarter: five minutes on foot and half the price.
🚇 Metro L3 to Wudingmen, exit 1, then 6 minutes north on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map邂江南 · Qinhuai
Jiangnan cooking in a modern register, plated carefully, with a short menu that turns with the season.
Tip: The October menu brings crab and water-chestnut: ask for the seasonal dishes rather than ordering off the fixed list.
🚇 Metro L3 to Wudingmen, exit 2, then 8 minutes west towards Laomendong.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map礁石·甌味家燒 · Qinhuai
Wenzhou cooking in Nanjing: steamed fish, shellfish handled gently and almost no chilli anywhere on the menu.
Tip: Wenzhou cooks seafood without masking it: after several days of soy and sugar, this is where your palate rests.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhangfuyuan, exit 3, then 11 minutes west along Laifeng Street.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map翠园 · Xinjiekou
Classic Cantonese right in Xinjiekou: a dim sum trolley at lunch and big windows over the avenue.
Tip: The trolley only runs 11:00-14:00: outside that window it is a different menu. Sunday lunch is packed with families.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 5, then 4 minutes north on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map文通冰室 · Xinjiekou
A Hong Kong bing sutt in the Xinjiekou basement: butter toast, strong milk tea and rice with ribs at any hour.
Tip: It is open in the dead four-o'clock hour when every other kitchen has shut. Order silk-stocking milk tea and a pineapple bun.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou: in the Xinbai basement, signposted from the platform.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map稲菊 · Xinjiekou
A Japanese counter in Xinjiekou: tempura fried to order and a short chef's menu, well executed and unpretentious.
Tip: Sit at the counter, not at a table: tempura dies in thirty seconds and here they serve it piece by piece.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 7, then 6 minutes west on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map米辣 · Qinhuai
Hunan heat beside Laomendong: the perfect contrast after three days of sweet Jiangsu cooking.
Tip: Order the chopped-chilli fish head to share. State your heat level when ordering: Chinese 'medium' is high for a Latin palate.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 10 minutes northeast, beside Laomendong.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map金陵风味小吃 · Qinhuai
A snack counter beside Chaotian Gong: eight or nine Nanjing classics on small plates, so you can try them all at once.
Tip: The ideal stop if you only get one meal in town: order five different small plates and taste the whole repertoire for the price of one dish.
🚇 Metro L2 to Shanghai Road, exit 3, then 9 minutes southeast, beside Chaotian Gong.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map寅春老卤面 · Qixia
Noodles in 老卤, the master stock kept and refreshed for years on end: dark, salty and tasting of decades of simmering.
Tip: 老卤面 is one of the MICHELIN Bib Gourmand categories in Nanjing, and this is the format: a counter, two tables and zero decoration.
🚇 Metro L1 to Maigaoqiao, then a local bus east, or a taxi; it is on a residential Qixia street.
Featured in: OSM · MICHELIN 2026 沪苏浙 (categoría)
Show on map骐记茶餐厅 · Gulou
A Cantonese cha chaan teng by the Gulou campus: roast-duck rice, coffee-tea and tables that never empty.
Tip: Student territory: cheap, open late and with wifi. Order yuenyeung — coffee mixed with milk tea, Hong Kong's strangest invention.
🚇 Metro L1 to Gulou, exit 1, then 6 minutes south towards Shanghai Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map胜利咖啡厅 · Gulou
The café that opened in 1932 inside the Fuchang Hotel and switched its lights back on in early 2026, original bar and all.
Tip: It is on the Fuchang Hotel's ground floor with no street sign: go in through the lobby. The oldest café in Nanjing still standing.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 5, then 5 minutes north along Zhongshan Road.
Featured in: Yangzi Evening News (oct 2026) · Nominatim/OSM
Show on map老茶馆 · Xuanwu
The tea house inside the rebuilt Republican street in the Nanjing Museum basement: a tram, street lamps and real tea.
Tip: You need the museum's free booking to reach it. Worth it: the only café on this map set inside a 1930s stage set.
🚇 Inside Nanjing Museum, Republican wing; metro L2 to Minggugong, exit 1.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map门东水铺 · Qinhuai
A Laomendong tea house run the old way: loose leaf, refilled water and wooden stools in the courtyard.
Tip: Ask for Yuhua tea, Nanjing's own green tea grown at Yuhuatai: leaves as fine as pine needles. Refills are free.
🚇 Inside Laomendong; metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 11 minutes on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map德香茶楼 · Jianye
A neighbourhood teahouse south of the wall: mahjong tables, boiling-water flasks and pensioners from eight in the morning.
Tip: It is not a pretty place and does not try to be: it is where Nanjing drinks tea when no tourist is watching. Bring patience and a translator.
🚇 Metro L2 to Zhongsheng, exit 2, then 10 minutes south on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map熙春茶楼 · Jianye
A two-storey tea room where breakfast is shredded tofu with the pot beside you, as the whole region did a century ago.
Tip: The tea-with-shredded-tofu breakfast is the Jiangsu tradition that is fading: few places still do it and this is one.
🚇 Metro L2 to Zhongsheng, exit 1, then 9 minutes southwest on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map福岗茶楼 · Xuanwu
A teahouse on the city's eastern edge, on the way to Zijinshan: the perfect hour-long stop before or after the mountain.
Tip: It sits on line L2 that drops you at Muxuyuan, the Zijinshan gateway: have tea here and carry on without going back downtown.
🚇 Metro L2 to Weigang, exit 2, then 6 minutes east on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map云中食品店 · Gulou
The Shanghai Road bakery that has fed Nanjing's foreign community for thirty years: real bread and carrot cake.
Tip: The place to ask anything in English and get an answer: the foreign community's meeting point since the nineties.
🚇 Metro L2 to Shanghai Road, exit 1, then 5 minutes north on foot.
Featured in: OSM · The Nanjinger
Show on map南京植物咖啡馆 · Gulou
A greenhouse café in a low house on Cibei Road: hanging ferns, north light and the best long table for working.
Tip: Good wifi and sockets on the long table at the back: the best spot on this map to spend two hours with a laptop.
🚇 Metro L2 to Shanghai Road, exit 2, then 7 minutes southeast along Cibei Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on mapHedera Helix Cafe · Gulou
A small, serious specialty bar with its own roast and a filter list that changes every week.
Tip: Ask for the day's filter: almost everything in Nanjing is milk-and-espresso, and this is one of the few places doing black coffee properly.
🚇 Metro L2 to Shanghai Road, exit 2, then 8 minutes east on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map碳基咖啡 · Jianye
A Hexi café with a concrete bar and an office crowd: the most consistent espresso on the new side of town.
Tip: If you are staying in Hexi, this is your morning coffee. It opens at 07:30, before anything else in the district.
🚇 Metro L2 to Yuantong, exit 3, then 6 minutes south on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on mapCoffee Art Gallery · Qinhuai
A café and exhibition room in a Xinanli courtyard: grey brick walls, work on the walls and tables by the window.
Tip: Shows change monthly and are free: you can look round without ordering. Open courtyard, a good refuge in drizzle.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhangfuyuan, exit 2, then 7 minutes southwest, inside Xinanli.
Featured in: OSM
Show on mapAette Coffee · Qinhuai
A tiny bar two blocks from the Qinhuai: three stools, a good grinder and the best pause in the noisiest quarter.
Tip: Three stools and that is all: if it is full, come back in twenty minutes. The only decent coffee within walking distance of Fuzimiao.
🚇 Metro L3 to Fuzimiao, exit 3, then 5 minutes east on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map城墙咖啡馆 · Qinhuai
A café right at the foot of the Ming wall, with a window table looking straight at bricks laid in 1368.
Tip: The obvious stop between Zhonghua Gate and Laomendong, five minutes apart. Ask for the window table.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 11 minutes north, beside Zhonghua Gate.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map树咖啡 · Qinhuai
A café in a Laomendong house with a courtyard and a tree in the middle: the obligatory halfway pause.
Tip: The courtyard fills fast at weekends. On a weekday mid-afternoon it is nearly yours — which is when Laomendong is at its best.
🚇 Inside Laomendong; metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 10 minutes on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map桉时cafe · Qinhuai
A specialty bar on Laomendong's northern edge, off the tourist axis, full of local twenty-somethings.
Tip: A hundred paces off the Laomendong axis and with half the people. If the quarter is jammed, cross to this side.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 9 minutes northeast on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map茶客老站 · Gulou
A tea-house-meets-café hybrid in the heart of Xinjiekou: loose-leaf tea, cake and tables people sit at for hours.
Tip: Xinjiekou's virtue is that everything is five minutes away; its vice is the noise. This place solves both: central and quiet.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 6, then 5 minutes north on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on mapGrid Coffee · Xinjiekou
A single-origin bar: coffee only, no syrups or sugar, with the list chalked on the wall by country.
Tip: No flavoured milk, no bubble tea: the antithesis of what dominates the Chinese market. Order an americano and judge.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhujiang Road, exit 2, then 5 minutes south along Zhongshan Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on mapReal Bread Café · Gulou
Sourdough, proper croissants and coffee: the bakery that solved the western breakfast problem in central Nanjing.
Tip: Bread comes out mid-morning and sells out: if you want a loaf, drop by before eleven.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 7, then 6 minutes northwest on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on mapBusy Loaf · Qinhuai
A bakery-café on Changjiang Road between the Presidential Palace and the Six Dynasties Museum: the circuit's natural stop.
Tip: Right in the middle of the Changjiang Road museum axis: use it to wait out your Presidential Palace booking slot.
🚇 Metro L2 or L3 to Daxinggong, exit 2, then 3 minutes west along Changjiang Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map来福食糖 · Xuanwu
Cakes and coffee in a Beitingxiang lane: everything baked that day and a small bar at the back.
Tip: Beiting Lane is one of those downtown alleys no guide lists: worth walking end to end even if you don't stop in.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhujiang Road, exit 1, then 5 minutes southeast along Beiting Lane.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map泸溪河 · Xinjiekou
The Nanjing-born pastry house that conquered China with taosu: a crumbling walnut shortbread, made with lard and little else.
Tip: Sold by weight and the best cheap gift to carry home: it survives the trip and costs a fraction of any souvenir.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou: in the Xinbai basement shopping arcade.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map莎莉文 宁海店 · Gulou
The cake shop that has been selling in Nanjing since the twenties: dry-pastry windows and old-fashioned cream.
Tip: It is not haute patisserie: it is two generations of Nanjing nostalgia. Ask for the chestnut cake in October, when they make it.
🚇 Metro L4 to Yunnan Road, exit 1, then 6 minutes southwest along Ninghai Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map红跑车 · Qinhuai
A bakery founded in Nanjing in 1996 and present in every district: an entire generation's standard birthday cake.
Tip: A local brand, not an international chain: if you want to taste Chinese neighbourhood baking, this is Nanjing's benchmark.
🚇 Metro L3 to Wudingmen, exit 1, then 7 minutes east on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on mapVillabrot · Xuanwu
A German bread bakery in the university quarter: rye, pretzels and a crowd half local, half foreign.
Tip: After a week of rice and noodles, rye bread with butter is an event. They open early and close when it is gone.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhujiang Road, exit 4, then 6 minutes west on foot.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map德基广场 · Xinjiekou
The mall China's retail press cites as the country's highest-grossing: eight floors of luxury in the heart of Xinjiekou.
Tip: The art museum on floor 8 is free and holds the city's best private collection: go up even if you are not shopping.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 4: the basement links straight to the station.
Featured in: OSM · prensa de retail china
Show on map德基广场二期 · Xinjiekou
The Deji extension: the biggest brands, the upstairs food hall and the covered bridge over the avenue.
Tip: In the rain you can go from the metro to Deji, on to phase 2 and the Xinbai without stepping outside once.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 4, linked by the bridge to phase 1.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map金陵中环-西区 · Xinjiekou
Xinjiekou's newest underground development: Swiss chocolatiers, artisan bakeries and a sunken open-air plaza.
Tip: The whole B1 level is food: where Xinjiekou's office workers eat at noon and where the good bakeries are.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 8: level B1 links to the underground passage.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map金陵中环市集 · Xinjiekou
An open-air market on the Jinling Central plaza: design stalls, coffee and fairs that change every weekend.
Tip: It mostly runs Saturday and Sunday afternoons. On weekdays the plaza is near empty: don't come on a Tuesday expecting a market.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 8, then 3 minutes to the outdoor plaza.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map南京新百 · Xinjiekou
The 1952 department store that was Nanjing's first commercial high-rise, now with downtown's best food basement.
Tip: B1 is a forty-stall food court, many of them chains born in Nanjing: the best way to taste a lot for little.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou: platform exits lead straight into the Xinbai basement.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map中央商场 · Xinjiekou
The 1936 department store, founded as a copy of Shanghai's Central: an art deco façade and a whole floor of local 老字号 brands.
Tip: Look for the Nanjing products floor: Yuhua tea, vacuum-packed salted duck and silk. It is where locals buy gifts to take away.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou, exit 2, then 3 minutes south along Zhongshan South Road.
Featured in: OSM
Show on map先锋书店 五台山总店 · Gulou
China's most photographed bookshop, built inside an underground car park beneath Wutaishan stadium, sloping ramp and all.
Tip: In 2026 the shop removed its sign and black cross and banned commercial photography, instant cameras and tripods: come to read, not to pose. The in-house café is still open.
🚇 Metro L2 to Shanghai Road, exit 1, then 8 minutes north along Guangzhou Road.
Featured in: HK01 (mar 2026) · Yangzi Evening News (oct 2026) · OSM
Show on map先锋颐和书馆 · Gulou
The Avant-Garde branch in a near-century-old house in the mansion quarter, once a district government office.
Tip: Pair it with the mansion-quarter walk: the perfect excuse to see inside one of those villas. Recently renovated.
🚇 Metro L4 to Yunnan Road, exit 2, then 7 minutes west, in the heart of the Yihe Road quarter.
Featured in: Yangzi Evening News (oct 2026) · OSM
Show on map凤凰国际书城 · Gulou
Seven floors of books in the heart of Gulou: Jiangsu's largest bookshop, with an imports section and a café upstairs.
Tip: Five minutes from the Shiziqiao pedestrian street: do the bookshop then go down to eat, the classic Gulou Saturday.
🚇 Metro L1 to Xuanwumen, exit 1, then 5 minutes west along Hunan Road.
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Show on map外文书店 · Qinhuai
The old state foreign-language bookshop: maps, dictionaries and the best section of English books about China.
Tip: The only place on this map to get a paper map of Nanjing in English — still faster than a phone in the alleys.
🚇 Metro L2 or L3 to Daxinggong, exit 1, then 5 minutes west along Zhongshan East Road.
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Show on map古籍书店 · Qinhuai
An antiquarian and calligraphy bookshop on Taiping South Road: thread-bound editions, seals and rice paper.
Tip: This is where you buy real calligraphy paper and brushes, not the Fuzimiao souvenir kits. Ask for xuan paper if you want the good stuff.
🚇 Metro L3 to Changfujie, exit 1, then 6 minutes south along Taiping South Road.
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Show on map一间很小的书店 · Qinhuai
It is literally called 'a very small bookshop' and it is: four square metres in Laomendong, hand-picked stock.
Tip: Three people fit at once. It stocks postcards and notebooks made in Nanjing: the lightest, least generic souvenir in the quarter.
🚇 Inside Laomendong; metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 9 minutes northeast.
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Show on map顾业亮大师工作室 · Qinhuai
The workshop of the Qinhuai lantern master, an intangible-heritage bearer: the lanterns that light Fuzimiao at New Year are made here by hand.
Tip: Sometimes there is an open workshop to make your own lantern: ask at the counter. The most authentic souvenir you can take from the Qinhuai.
🚇 Inside Laomendong; metro L1 to Zhonghuamen, exit 1, then 9 minutes northeast.
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Show on map南京云锦博物馆 · Jianye
Yunjin brocade, a UNESCO heritage craft: two-storey looms worked by two people who weave five centimetres a day.
Tip: Museum entry is free and the looms genuinely run. The shop sells everything from affordable scarves to four-figure pieces: ask to see the certificate.
🚇 Metro L2 to Yunjin Road, exit 1, then 5 minutes north on foot.
Featured in: Nominatim/OSM · The Nanjinger
Show on map天福茗茶 · Xinjiekou
A tea shop to buy Nanjing's Yuhua tea sealed and packed, with staff who explain the difference between harvests.
Tip: Yuhua tea is Nanjing's own green tea and barely leaves the city: the local gift par excellence, and it clears customs without trouble.
🚇 Metro L1 or L2 to Xinjiekou: Xinbai ground floor, on Zhongshan South Road.
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Show on map水平方 · Qinhuai
The mall that solves Fuzimiao in the rain: young brands, cinemas, clean toilets and a direct link into the metro station.
Tip: If a downpour hits Fuzimiao, here you get a roof, clean toilets and wifi three minutes from the river. That saves an afternoon.
🚇 Metro L3 to Fuzimiao, exit 4: it connects to the mall basement.
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Show on map鹏欣·水游城 · Qinhuai
A six-floor mall with an indoor waterfall beside Fuzimiao: the one locals use, not the tourists.
Tip: The upper floors are all restaurants and stay open late: the alternative when the Qinhuai is heaving.
🚇 Metro L3 to Fuzimiao, exit 4, then 4 minutes west along Jiankang Road.
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Show on map茂业天地 · Qinhuai
A retail complex on Shengzhou Road, halfway between Zhan Garden and the old lanes of Pingshi Street, with ATMs that work.
Tip: A good regroup point: toilets, ATMs that take foreign cards, and it sits on the axis between Fuzimiao and Chaotian Gong.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhangfuyuan, exit 3, then 5 minutes south to Shengzhou Road.
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Show on map万象天地 · Qinhuai
The open-air retail street complex in the southern centre: young Chinese design shops and café terraces.
Tip: The Chinese clothing and stationery brands here do not exist outside China and cost half a western label: the map's best real shopping.
🚇 Metro L1 to Zhangfuyuan, exit 3, then 8 minutes southwest on foot.
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Show on map南京国金中心商场 · Jianye
New Hexi's luxury, at the foot of the office towers: international labels and the city's priciest restaurants.
Tip: Come only if you want to see 21st-century Nanjing: skyscrapers, nothing historic, and total contrast with the Qinhuai.
🚇 Metro L2 to Yuantong, exit 5: it links underground to the mall.
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Show on map苏宁环球购物中心 · Gulou
The Gulou mall beside the Shiziqiao pedestrian street: electronics, clothes and the natural way into the food quarter.
Tip: Suning was born in Nanjing and is China's largest electronics chain: if your charger died, this is where you fix it.
🚇 Metro L1 to Xuanwumen, exit 1, then 5 minutes west along Hunan Road.
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