Qinhuai District (Old South City)

Qinhuai District takes its name from the river that defined Nanjing's pleasure-and-commerce quarter for centuries. The district contains the most substantial surviving stretches of Ming Nanjing's urban heritage: Zhonghua Gate (Zhonghuamen) — the largest pre-modern city gate in China — anchors the south end, with the Ming city walls running east and west from there.

Zhonghua Gate is itself a fortress complex — three nested concentric gate structures designed to trap attackers between successive walls, with twenty-seven sub-chambers along the wall thickness for archers and infantry. Visitors can climb onto the wall and walk substantial sections; the eastern segment from Zhonghua Gate to Dongshuiguan East Water Gate is open continuously and offers some of the most evocative Nanjing-history views.

Laomendong (Old East Gate Neighbourhood), renovated and re-opened in 2014, is a pedestrian heritage-retail district modelled on similar successful renewals in Shanghai's Tianzifang and Hangzhou's Hefang Street. Critics observe that the renovation favoured commerce over preservation; the surviving authentic alley life is in the surrounding blocks rather than within the renovated zone.

The Bailuzhou Park, on an island in the southern Qinhuai canal, is a quieter classical garden of moderate size — an excellent escape from the Confucius Temple crowds without leaving the historical district.