How Many Days in Nanjing? Three, and Here's Why
Three full days is the right number for Nanjing. Two days covers the headline sights but forces you to drop either the Nanjing Museum or the massacre memorial; four lets you do both without sprinting, plus a stretch of the Ming wall.
What each length actually buys you
| Time in the city | What fits | What you give up |
|---|---|---|
| 2 days | Purple Mountain (Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum plus Ming Xiaoling), the Presidential Palace, an evening at Confucius Temple or Laomendong | Nanjing Museum, the massacre memorial |
| 3 days | The above, plus one of the museum or the memorial, plus a walk on the wall at Zhonghua Gate | Linggu Temple, Meiling Palace |
| 4 days | Everything on the three-day plan and both the museum and the memorial, at an unhurried pace | Nothing much — this is the comfortable answer |
Purple Mountain alone eats half a day. The journey out, the 392 steps up to the mausoleum, Ming Xiaoling next door and the shuttle between them is a morning and into the afternoon, not a photo stop.
Build the trip around Monday
The Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, Nanjing Museum, the Presidential Palace and the massacre memorial all close on Mondays, public holidays excepted. Treat Monday as your wall, lake and old-town day — Zhonghua Gate, Xuanwu Lake, Confucius Temple, Laomendong — and put the ticketed sites on the other days.
Reservations you must make in advance
- Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum: free, but every visitor needs a real-name timed slot, released seven days ahead through the Zhongshan Scenic Area WeChat account. Open 08:30–17:00, last entry 16:30. The burial chamber is closed to visitors.
- Nanjing Museum: free, 09:00–17:00 with last entry at 16:00. Slots drop at 18:00, seven days ahead, in a morning and an afternoon band. Foreign passport holders book online and then present the passport at the manual service window.
- Massacre memorial: free, 08:30–17:30 with last admission at 16:30. Bookings open one to seven days ahead, released at 08:00, and its three exhibition halls are booked separately.
- Presidential Palace: ¥35, closed Mondays, 08:30–18:00 from 1 March to 14 October and 08:30–17:00 from 15 October to the end of February. Allow two to three hours.
- Ming Xiaoling: ¥70 on its own, or the ¥100 Zhongshan combined ticket covering Ming Xiaoling, Linggu, Meiling Palace and the Music Hall — cheaper than four singles.
Where to base yourself
Stay near Daxinggong on metro lines 2 and 3: three minutes' walk to the Presidential Palace, one line out to Purple Mountain, walkable to the old town in the evening. Rooms there fill for plum-blossom weekends and the October holiday, so compare the main booking sites before you commit.
Book hotels, flights & trains across China — all in one place
Nanjing is about an hour from Shanghai on the high-speed train, which tempts people into a day trip. Don't — the city rewards two nights at minimum, and the Monday closures punish anyone squeezing it.
Last checked: 2026-11-06
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