Rail Hub · Nanjing South
Nanjing South opened in 2011 with 28 platforms and a footprint among the largest of any station on earth — the delta’s crossroads where Beijing–Shanghai speed meets the river cities.
Five corridors meet here: the Beijing–Shanghai high-speed line, the Shanghai–Nanjing intercity, Nanjing–Hangzhou, Nanjing–Anqing and the Shanghai–Wuhan–Chengdu route. In the 2023 summer season the station handled over 10 million passengers on more than 650 trains a day; the metro interchange below (Lines 1, 3, S1, S3) once served 102,300 people in a single day.
The building is the point: a 58,000-m² main waiting hall under a 456×216-m roof, 128 escalators and 130 elevators, and a “zero-distance” transfer hall where rail, metro, coaches and airport buses meet within about 600 m. Shanghai is roughly an hour away, Hangzhou the same, Beijing under four hours on the fastest trains.
Classic Nanjing station still sits on Xuanwu Lake — eight platforms, mostly conventional trains plus regional high-speed services — and remains the scenic arrival, with the Ming city wall and Purple Mountain in frame.
And then there is the river itself: the 1968 Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, the first double-deck road-rail bridge designed and built entirely by China, still carries trains across the water. A dozen newer crossings now share the load, but the old bridge remains the city’s engineering signature.
For itinerary math, Nanjing South is a gift: base yourself on Metro Line 1 or 3, and every arrival becomes a 20-minute transfer. Book Beijing–Shanghai trains at least a few days ahead in summer — the station’s scale hides how quickly 650 daily trains sell out.
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