Last weekend I took a trip to Nanjing with my parents. There is a 8-lane highway from Shanghai to Nanjing, so the 300 km trip takes less than 3 hours. The first 80 km is still quite busy, but once you pass Suzhou the toll road is suddenly almost empty. I was not sure if there are any speed camera’s, so I put my cruise control on 130 and had a relaxed drive to China’s former capital.

Nanjing is a city with a turbulent history, and it still has a lot of historical sites that make it worth to go there for a sightseeing weekend trip. Also the nature around the city is wonderful with the mighty Yangtze river in the north and the wooded hills surrounding the city center.

We stayed in the recently opened Sofitel Galaxy, on the corner of Zhongshan Bei Lu and Shanxi Lu, a 48-story building with several good restaurants, a pool and a nice gym. The view from our rooms on the 43rd floor were amazing, both during the day and at night. The hotel is good value for money, for a mere RMB 550 (EUR 55) we got queen size rooms and even an upgrade to the executive floor.

Nanjing feels a bit like Beijing some years ago, and it’s developing quickly. I had not been to the city since April 2000, when a DaimlerChrysler colleague of mine was murdered there together with his whole family. That had quite an impact on me (I worked closely with him until 2 days before he was killed), and I almost decided to leave China at that time. I am glad I stayed, and I now felt it was time to go back to the city. I even walked by his house (he was attacked at home), but that was more by coincidence.

The nice thing about Nanjing in comparison to Shanghai is the proximity of nature and the relatively clean air. My dad and I ran from our hotel to the Xuanwu lake early in the morning, and then ran all around it (about 10 km), something you cannot do in Shanghai. Great views over the lake, the city and the mountains during the run. There are not too many foreigners yet, and therefore lots of ‘laowai’ cries during the run. Another place that is great for a run, are the woods around Zhongshan Park (where Sun Yat-Sen’s memorial is located). Of course if you are not a runner it’s also nice to just have a hike here, far away from bustling downtown.

What else should you see in the city? The best places are the Confucius temple and the canal just south of it, Sun Yat-Sen’s mausoleum and the park surrounding it, and Xuanwu Lake. These can all be enjoyed in one day, but if you want to do some more hiking you can easily spend two days here.

What is also a nice experience is the walk up to the bridge over the Yangtze river. This structure was built during the Cultural Revolution, and it is a typical ‘communist-design’ bridge. It is about a two kilometer walk to the middle of the bridge, but when we were on top we found out that you can also get there by bus (there is a bus stop at the top of the bridge). Great views over the river and the city from there. We had also planned to visit the Nanjing Massacre museum, but this was closed when we arrived there. It turned out that it is currently under renovation and will not re-open until Dec. 12, 2007 – the 70th anniversary of the Rape of Nanjing.

As usual I took lots of pictures (over 300), and I put some of them on my Flickr photostream. The whole set can be viewed here. If you want to get out of Shanghai for the weekend this is a trip I would recommend you. From Shanghai Nanjing is easy to reach, either by car over the HuNing expressway, or by a 3-hour train ride.