In Nanjing the Free Sites Need Booking and the Paid Ones Don't

Nanjing inverts the usual rule. The two places you came for are free and cannot be entered without booking days ahead. The paid sites around them are cheap and take walk-ups.

So the thing to plan is not money. It is two reservation slots, and one of them releases at 08:00 and goes.

The Massacre Memorial

The Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre is free, and it has more rules than anywhere else you will visit in China. They are worth knowing before you arrive rather than at the gate.

• Everyone books, by real name — children and concession holders included. A passport is accepted ID.

• The three exhibition sites are booked separately. Booking one does not get you into the others.

• Tickets release daily at 08:00 for dates one to seven days out, through the memorial's official WeChat account.

• Open 08:30 to 17:30, last entry 16:30. Closed Mondays, except public holidays. The Liji Lane site opens at 09:00.

• Sessions are morning 08:30–12:30, with entry tolerated until 13:00, and afternoon 12:30–16:30, with entry from 12:00.

On conduct, the published rules are specific and they are enforced. Dress plainly; clothing or insignia at odds with the setting will be stopped. Photography is allowed outside the halls and in the historical materials hall, but without a professional camera, without flash and without a selfie stick. In the skeletal remains room and the mass grave halls, do not photograph the remains at all.

One rule has no equivalent anywhere else: wearing or posing with Japanese militarist uniforms, flags or insignia anywhere on the site is prohibited, as is publishing any such image online. People have been detained for it. And the ordinary tourist reflex — a peace sign for the camera — is the wrong gesture here. Nobody will shout at you. Somebody will look at you.

Give it three hours and do not schedule something cheerful immediately afterwards. Most people are quiet for the rest of the day, and the itineraries that put this between lunch and a shopping street are written by people who have not been.

Purple Mountain, where the free thing also needs booking

Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum (中山陵) is likewise free and likewise real-name booked, in timed slots: 08:30–10:30, 10:30–12:30, 12:30–14:30, 14:30–16:30. Book through the Zhongshan Scenic Area's WeChat account or website, or at the self-service machines at the visitor centre if you are already there and slots remain.

Everything else on the mountain is paid, cheap and needs no reservation.

The combined ticket is the obvious buy: the three named sites alone come to ¥130.50 bought separately, before the Music Stage. Ming Xiaoling is the Ming founder's tomb and the model for every imperial tomb built afterwards, including the ones outside Beijing. The Spirit Way with its stone animals is the part people photograph, and it is best in late autumn.

The wall is sold in pieces

Nanjing has the longest surviving city wall in the world, about 25 km of Ming brickwork still standing. You cannot buy one ticket for it. Four sections are open and each is priced separately.

Zhonghuamen is the one to climb if you climb one: a four-layer barbican fortress with courtyards that held three thousand soldiers, and the best-preserved gate of its kind anywhere. Open 08:30–17:00, then again in the evening — 17:00–22:00 from April to October, 17:00–21:00 from November to March. The evening session is the better one in summer.

The City Wall Museum, on the east side of the Zhonghuamen barbican, caps admission at 2,500 a day, 1,250 each half, and needs booking like everything else here.

Where to eat and what it is

Nanjing is one of the home cities of Jiangsu cuisine, which is the delicate, faintly sweet, knife-work-heavy end of Chinese cooking and the opposite of everything Sichuan does. The regional cuisine guide explains where it sits and why you should not order it expecting heat.

Locally: salted duck (盐水鸭), which is the city's dish and is sold cold by weight from shops rather than ordered in restaurants; duck blood and vermicelli soup (鸭血粉丝汤), which is better than it sounds; and the Confucius Temple (夫子庙) area on the Qinhuai River, which is touristy and worth one evening for the lit boats.

Fitting it into a route

Nanjing sits on the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed line, which makes it an easy stop rather than a destination people fly to: about 2h20m from Shanghai Hongqiao and four and a half hours from Beijing South. Booking on 12306 with a passport is straightforward, and the refund rules make an early booking free to abandon.

Two days is the shape: the memorial and the Qinhuai River on day one, Purple Mountain and the wall on day two. Three if you want the Presidential Palace and the Nanjing Museum, which is one of the better museums in the country and also free with booking.

Jiangsu is on the 240-hour visa-free transit list, so an eligible passport can reach Nanjing without applying for anything, provided the route continues to a third country — the transit rules cover what qualifies. Onward, Suzhou is 25 minutes further on the same line.

FAQ

Do I need to book the Nanjing Massacre Memorial?

Yes, and it is free. Everyone books by real name, a passport works as ID, and the three exhibition sites are booked separately. Tickets release at 08:00 for dates one to seven days ahead through the memorial's official WeChat account. It is closed on Mondays outside public holidays.

Is Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum free?

Yes, with a real-name timed reservation in one of four slots between 08:30 and 16:30. The paid sites around it on Purple Mountain need no booking: ¥98 for the combined ticket covering Ming Xiaoling, Meiling Palace, Linggu and the Music Stage.

How much is the Nanjing city wall?

There is no single ticket. Four sections are sold separately: ¥50 for Dongshuiguan to Jiqingmen including the Zhonghuamen barbican, ¥30 for Shencemen to Taipingmen including the City Wall Museum, and ¥10 each for the Zhongshanmen and Longbozi sections.

How long do I need in Nanjing?

Two days covers the memorial, the Qinhuai River, Purple Mountain and one wall section. Three if you want the Presidential Palace and the Nanjing Museum as well.