Nanjing City Profile

Nanjing is a major cultural and educational center, so you’re sure to find a teaching job there. This pleasant city is also home to a healthy population of foreign teachers, so you won’t feel too isolated. Here’s a great tourist map of the city.

Population

8 million

Location

Nanjing is on China’s east coast, in Jiangsu province (just a few hours north of Shanghai).

Weather

Nanjing is hot and humid in summer, and is renowned for being one of the “furnaces” of China, but is wet much of the rest of the year. Winters are short but cold, with temperatures sinking below freezing. Spring and autumn are the most pleasant seasons.

Transportation

Nanjing has regular air connections to all major Chinese cities and daily flights to and from Hong Kong. The bus station, located west of the main train station, is a crazy place, so bring the name of your destination written in Chinese to be sure you get a ticket to the correct destination. Nanjing is a major stop on the Beijing-Shanghai train line, and other trains connect it to eastern cities. Boats connect Nanjing to Shanghai, Wuhan, and Chongqing. Taxis, trolleys, and buses are useful in getting around town, but bicycles are risky, given the chaos of the city streets.

Places of Interest

Interesting areas to visit include the Ming tombs and ruins, the tomb of Sun Yat-Sen, the Yangtse River bridge, the Chaotian Palace, and the Museum of History, which features a permanent exhibition on the Rape of Nanking.