Thorn Tree travel forum

1

Hmmm I would definitely recommend Huangshan, but I'm not sure about that since you say she's afraid of heights. I think you might consider going to the villages in that area instead: Xidi and Hongcun are the most well-known and touristy, but also look at woolf135's thread for more off-the-beaten-path suggestions.
Another suggestion might be to explore the Zhoushan islands, especially the ones OTHER THAN Putuoshan.
As for daytrips from Nanjing, some suggestions are: Suzhou, Wuxi (not that interesting though)... I thought Yixing is the teapot place, not Dingshan?
You might also want to have a look at my VirtualTourist travel pages for photos and more ideas.
Cheers!

2

We lived near Nanjing and when relatives visited we took them to Suzhou - as a 2 night trip rather than day trip. My mum is a keen gardener and my wife was keen on Silk. We liked the small "Master of the Nets Garden" best. Our 8yr old son was only really interested in the lights at Shi Lu and motorcycle taxis!

All our Chinese polytech students & friends recommended we visit their home towns in Jiangsu and Yangzhou is one we would have liked to go to. We did go to Zhengjiang - on the Yangzte river and train line. The small island in the river and the temple were interesting.

We spent a lot of weekend time in Nanjing with friends and our "tourist" highlights were Fuzimiao (by night), Drum Tower, the peaceful Mochou lake & garden and Zhonghuamen gate (castle). Purple mountain was also a reasonable place to find some areas to walk in. We later heard that after 5pm there were no entrance fees but not all parts of the area was open.

Where we lived, one of the nearby "attractions" was Maoshan - a hill (maybe 1000' high IIRC) with a temple. But we never got there either.

Some friends did a day trip from Nanjing to Yixing. It was a long day but they enjoyed it and bought some teapots.

With the new D... trains, it is about 2hrs ride between Shanghai & Nanjing in "soft seat comfort".

We kept a blog (of sorts): http://www.avon-tech-solutions.co.nz/china_blog.html

My favourite food was/is "gong bao ji ding". I was taught by a local hotel restaurant chef to cook it using chicken, egg whites, peanuts, some chilli, garlic and bamboo shoots. I enjoyed the variations that every restaurant had. One Nanjing "specialty" is Osmanthus duck.

Have fun!

Cheers
Neil

3

huangshan + huizhou villages and then hangzhou in 8 days would be nice, or go down as far as Wuyuan if you are liking the way the villages are going. It's not very off the beaten track, but it's convenient and fun

4

Ah yes, Yangzhou and Zhenjiang would be nice, relatively "off-the-beaten-path" compared to Suzhou. I liked Yangzhou pretty much myself, except I would recommend that you do NOT visit on a weekend!
Cheers!

5

Yeah, you'll probably want to plan a getaway. With the east-west subway line, a couple of crosstown tunnels, old neighborhoods coming down, myriad new office/apartment/shopping blocks going up and the ubiquitous road repairs, Nanjing is, quite frankly, one big traffic-snarled construction site at the moment. Oh, and the aforementioned "peaceful Mochou lake and garden" is also being rebuilt. The in-town oases remain Purple Mountain and the park surrounding the expansive Xuanwu Lake. Unless you're a hard-core collector or dead-set on seeing where they come from, there's not much point in taking the time to go to Yixing; you'll find bazillions of teapots/sets for sale at Fuzi Miao in NJ.

Yangzhou is great: it's a noisy, touristy town with lots of expensive admissions tickets, but no doubt Jiang Zemin makes sure his hometown doesn't lack for development money and the direction to make sure things stay pretty tasteful and don't get too out of hand. The old city is hanging on and you can get lost in the alleys for hours. Bonus points for the canals running through the city.

Quote

---

My favourite food was/is "gong bao ji ding". I was taught by a local hotel restaurant chef to cook it using chicken, egg whites,
peanuts, some chilli, garlic and bamboo shoots. I enjoyed the variations that every restaurant had.

---

It must say something about Nanjing's local cuisine that the poster's favorite dish in town is Guizhou/Sichuan's most famous export.

One fun place to try is Nanjing Da Pai Dan; basically an old-timey theme restaurant with an easy-to-navigate menu, stations where you can see/point/order and all sorts of local/regional faves like Shizitou meatballs and the ubiquitous soupy dumplings.

6

I like the Da Pai Dang as well. Especially when they have the evening performances.
Cheers!