How do I get from the airport to Nanjing?

Metro Line S1 departs from below Terminal 2 at Nanjing Lukou Airport, 35 km south of the city center. Trains leave every 8-12 minutes between roughly 6:00am and 10:45pm. The ride to Nanjing South Railway Station takes 35 minutes and costs 7 CNY ($1.05). From Nanjing South, transfer to Line 1 northbound. Fifteen minutes later, you're at Xinjiekou, the commercial district where most first-time visitors end up staying. Total fare, 9 CNY. The S1 cars run half-empty outside rush hour, air-conditioned cold enough that you'll want a layer, and quiet enough to hear your own luggage wheels on the polished floor. Signs and announcements come in both Mandarin and English. Ticket machines accept Alipay and WeChat Pay but not Visa or Mastercard, so bring 10-yuan notes or coins if you haven't set up Chinese mobile payment before landing.

After the last S1 departure around 10:45pm, road transport is all that remains. The official taxi queue sits at the ground-floor exit of Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, with metered fares starting at 11 CNY for the first 3 km. A ride to Xinjiekou typically shows 120-150 CNY ($18-22) on the meter, with 10-15 CNY in expressway tolls on top. Budget 45-60 minutes depending on time of night. Didi, China's dominant ride-hailing app, tends to run 10-15% cheaper for the same route, but you need either a Chinese phone number or a pre-configured international Didi account. That said, Didi and foreign phone numbers are a hit-or-miss combination. Without the app, the taxi queue at NKG works fine. About half the cabs smell like cigarette smoke. Crack a window. Drivers rarely speak English, so have your hotel's Chinese name and address saved on your phone screen before you join the line.

Several airport shuttle bus routes depart from outside the arrivals hall. Route 1 heads north to Nanjing Main Railway Station (Nanjing Zhan) for 20 CNY ($3). The ride takes 60-75 minutes through Jiangning district's wide, tree-lined southern suburbs, then slows near Zhonghua Men gate where traffic thickens. Buses leave roughly every 30 minutes until about 11pm. That route makes sense only if your hotel sits near Xuanwu Lake or the old Ming-era walls north of the Qinhuai River. For Xinjiekou or anywhere along Line 1, the metro is both faster and cheaper. Before leaving NKG, sort out connectivity. Nanjing runs on Baidu Maps and Amap (Gaode), not Google Maps, which is blocked behind the firewall. An eSIM activated before departure or a local SIM from the airport convenience store will keep your navigation and translation apps alive when you surface at Nanjing South, a station with 28 platforms spread across three levels.

Nanjing's climate runs humid in every season. September and October currently bring temperatures around 22°C with frequent light drizzle, the kind that fogs your glasses the moment you step from air conditioning into open air. Between June and August, Nanjing is one of China's traditional 'Three Furnaces' alongside Wuhan and Chongqing. Highs push past 38°C. The wet heat sits on your skin before you've walked 50 meters from the station exit. Winter arrivals from December through February face 0-5°C and a damp cold that cuts deeper than the number suggests. Regardless of season, the transfer walk from the S1 platform to Line 1 at Nanjing South takes about 8 minutes through an underground corridor lined with bakeries and milk-tea shops. The smell of egg tarts from the Holiland bakery counter tells you you're heading the right direction toward Line 1's platforms.