Nanjing 南京

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392 marble steps up Purple Mountain to the father of modern China.

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Sacred Way stone animals guarding the tomb of the Ming founder.

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Qinhuai River lantern district; night cruise past painted boats.

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The world's largest castle-style city gate, 27 soldier hideouts inside.

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The mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, begun in 1926 with his remains interred in 1929. The "Liberty Bell" ground plan by young architect Lü Yanzhi won a global design competition, a milestone of modern Chinese architectural history.

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The joint tomb of Ming founder Zhu Yuanzhang and Empress Ma, begun in 1381. It pioneered the "court in front, resting quarters behind" mausoleum layout, the wellspring of the Ming-Qing imperial tomb system; in 2003 it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of the extension of the Imperial Tombs of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

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An ancient temple at the southern foot of Purple Mountain, descended from the Liang-dynasty Kaishan Temple; relocated and renamed Linggu Temple in the early Ming, its old view "Deep Pines of Linggu" was listed among the Forty-Eight Scenes of Jinling.

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Completed in 1931 as the official residence of the Chairman of the National Government, this palace-style three-story villa blends Chinese and Western design; interiors are restored to their Republican-era state, with finely detailed painted ceilings, fireplaces and reception rooms — hailed in its day as the "finest villa in the Far East."

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A semicircular open-air music stage designed in 1932 by Guan Songsheng and Yang Tingbao for Sun Yat-sen memorial ceremonies and music gatherings; the echo screen wall and fan-shaped lawn form a natural acoustic theater — an outstanding piece of modern Chinese open-air architecture.

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China's first modern observatory, completed in 1934 on the third peak of Purple Mountain, hailed as "the cradle of modern Chinese astronomy"; today a science-outreach observing station and a museum on its historic site

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Six hundred years condensed into one compound: a Han prince's palace in the early Ming, the office of the Liangjiang Viceroy in the Qing, the Heavenly King's palace under the Taiping, where Sun Yat-sen was sworn in as provisional president in 1912, the Nationalist Government's presidential palace after 1948, and from the 1980s the Site Museum of Modern Chinese Hist...

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An upscale residential quarter of Republican-era Nanjing, where more than 200 garden villas in various foreign styles were built across twelve plots in the 1920s-1930s; streets of grey-and-yellow façades, wrought-iron railings and plane trees are summed up as "one Yihe Road, half the history of the Republic"—the best-preserved slice of Republican-era cityscape in Nanjing...

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A quarter of converted Republican-era buildings right next to the Presidential Palace, opened in 2004; old structures such as the palace's service buildings form its skeleton, now infused with bars, dining and livehouses, as night lights and old walls strike up a dialogue between old and new

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The flagship store of Librairie Avant-Garde, founded by Qian Xiaohua in 1996 and converted from a Wutaishan air-raid shelter and underground garage, hailed as "China's most beautiful bookstore"

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A national memorial hall established in 1985 on the original site of the "10,000-corpse pit" mass grave at Jiangdongmen, where the remains of victims were found; its grey-and-black architectural complex bears the complete historical evidence of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre

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One of China's three great museums, initiated by Cai Yuanpei in 1933; formerly the National Central Museum, with a collection of over 430,000 items

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The heart of Nanjing's history and culture: the Temple of King Wenxuan was relocated to this former site of an Eastern Jin academy in 1034 (first year of the Northern Song's Jingyou era), forming a millennium-old 'temple-and-market' layout back to back with the Jiangnan Examination Hall

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A historic district east of Zhonghua Gate, the commercial and residential heart of Nanjing's old city since the Ming dynasty; after its conservation-led street reopening in 2013 it became the emblematic calling card of 'Old South City'

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The largest of the thirteen inner gates of the Ming city wall, completed in 1386, with a deep layout of three successive barbicans and as many as 27 troop-hiding caves; its scale and design are rare nationwide, earning it the title 'the foremost barbican under heaven'

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The former site of Dabaoen Temple, rebuilt by Ming Emperor Yongle (Zhu Di) in gratitude to his mother; construction of its glazed pagoda began in 1412 — nearly 78 m tall, nine stories and eight sides, sheathed entirely in glazed tiles — and Western visitors ranked it among the Seven Wonders of the Medieval World; destroyed by war in 1856

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Garden of the Ming mansion of Xu Da, Prince Zhongshan; repeatedly renovated through the Ming and Qing dynasties, with Emperor Qianlong inscribing 'Zhanwang Yutang' during his southern tour; long known as 'the foremost garden of Jinling' and Nanjing's oldest surviving classical garden

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Historic site of the East Garden of Xu Da, the Ming dynasty Prince of Zhongshan; the park entered the Forty-Eight Scenes of Jinling as "White Egret Fragrant Islet"; lake-center islets linked by winding bridges — a quiet citizens' garden beside the bustling Qinhuai River

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Six Dynasties royal garden lake known as "Sangbo" (one of China's largest imperial garden lakes); five islets (Huanzhou, Yingzhou, Liangzhou, Cuizhou, Lingzhou) linked by dikes and bridges

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Continuation of Tongtai Temple founded in the Western Jin (Emperor Wu of Liang "became a monk" here four times); rebuilt as "Jiming Temple" in the Ming Hongwu era; 44.8 m Medicine Buddha Pagoda

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"The foremost scenic spot of Jinling"; legend of the Mochou Girl (Yujin Hall / Lotus-Viewing Hall); crabapple blossom fair (March-April)

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On the crest of Lion Hill; Zhu Yuanzhang's Ming Hongwu-era "Record of Yuejiang Tower" left 600 years of "a record without a tower"; completed in 2001 (51.4 m, one of China's Ten Great Cultural Towers); views of the Yangtze River Bridge

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Completed in 1968 as China's first self-designed and self-built double-decker rail-and-road bridge (the road-rail "Bridge of Pride"); magnolia-shaped street lamps and bridgeheads with three red flags

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One of the three famous rock outcrops of the Yangtze (its head reaching over the river resembles a swallow), Emperor Qianlong's imperial stele "Yanziji", and Tao Xingzhi's "Think it over—death is not the answer" life-saving stele

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Built in the Southern Qi Yongming 2nd year (484) as the "foremost famous temple of Jinling", on Qixia Mountain (red-leaf festival mid-November to early December; "Niushou for spring, Qixia for autumn")

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Niushou Mountain's Usnisa Palace (opened 2015, hailed as a "new world heritage of Buddhist culture"), enshrining the Buddha's parietal-bone relic (a dome with the Thousand Buddha Hall and a single-level reclining Buddha), a twin-peak design of "mending the sky's gap and hiding the underground palace"

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Built in the Ming Jiajing era, a Republican-era "famous temple of the capital" (Ten Thousand Buddha Tower), a social-media hit in ginkgo season (November)

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Ming Hongwu-era site where civil and military officials rehearsed court etiquette before paying homage (the largest surviving ancient building complex in Jiangnan), Lingxing Gate and Dacheng Hall

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Landmark pedestrian bridge of the 2014 Youth Olympic Games (cable-stayed bridge with two curved towers), views over the Jiajiang channel + light show at Youth Olympic Park

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Riverside wetland beside the Third Nanjing Yangtze Bridge; Lighthouse Plaza sunset photo spot ("Little Kenting"); red-and-white lighthouse + river views

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Zaha Hadid-designed theatre with "fluid" glass curtain walls

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Riverside park on the 2005 Green Expo site; Dutch Garden (windmill/tulips March-April) and Left Bank Flower Sea

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First of China's four great hot spring resorts (developed as the "Sacred Soup" in the Southern Dynasties 1,500 years ago); Tangshan Ape Man Cave (Nanjing Homo Erectus No. 1 skull fossil, 1993)

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"First Ancient Street of Jinling" (900 m Ming-Qing commercial street); Gaochun Folk Museum / Qianlong Ancient Well

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A "naturally formed" bridge carved from rock over the man-made Yanzhi River canal in the Ming Hongwu era (built 1393, the only surviving stone-bridge marvel on a man-made canal in Jiangnan); boat rides on the Yanzhi River

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Pearl Spring (bubbles rising like pearls, 'ten thousand bushels of bright pearls'), Laoshan National Forest Park (green lung of the Yangtze's north bank)

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Jinniu Hill + reservoir (folk song collection site of 'Mo Li Hua' / Jasmine Flower), Wildlife Kingdom (drive-through zoo opened in 2019)

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Thousand-mu pond cypress water forest (red foliage in autumn and winter), egret birdwatching corridor, lake on the Jiangsu–Anhui border

Brined and air-dried duck, the city's 1,000-year signature.

Retro canteen of Nanjing classics under lanterns.

Eight Quintessences snack sets along Qinhuai River.