明孝陵

The Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is the joint burial site of the Hongwu Emperor and Empress Ma. Inscribed as World Heritage in 2003, it helped establish a layout used by later imperial tombs. Highlights include the stone-animal Sacred Way and the Fangcheng-Minglou complex.

中山陵

The Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum forms a formal axis along the Zhongshan Mountain through archways, tomb passages, wide steps and sacrificial halls. Built during the Republic of China, it combines modern public memorial architecture with traditional Chinese forms; the long ascent, scale changes, and views back to Nanjing together constitute a preset ritual process.

南京城墙与中华门

The Nanjing Ming City Wall conforms to the boundaries of mountains, rivers and palaces. It is not a regular rectangle. It is a brick defense system with outstanding preservation scale. The Zhonghua Gate contains multiple barbican and hidden soldier spaces, while other open sections present different relationships with lakes and communities. The city wall is not a continuous open trail along its entire length, so it is more reasonable to choose a section for an in-depth experience.

南京博物院

Nanjing Museum presents the history of Jiangsu and China through archaeology, calligraphy and painting, crafts, intangible cultural heritage and special exhibitions. The main museum during the Republic of China and subsequent expansions together constitute a museum group rather than a single exhibition. The collections provide key background for various periods of Nanjing's capital city, and it is more effective to choose a theme to delve deeper into than to rush through all the collections.

南京中国近代史遗址博物馆（总统府）

The presidential palace complex superimposes multiple histories such as the royal palace of the Ming Dynasty, the official offices of the Qing Dynasty, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Provisional Government of the Republic of China and the National Government. Office areas, gardens and exhibition halls explain why this place has repeatedly become a political center; it should be understood as an architectural landscape that is constantly transformed and reused, rather than the story of a single regime.