Zhongshan Avenue

the funeral road of 1929

LandmarkGulou, Yihe Road and Xinjiekou

ZHONGSHAN AVENUE (THE FUNERAL ROAD OF 1929) · ZHONGSHAN DADAO

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VERIFIED2026.09.24

Gulou, Yihe Road and Xinjiekou · 32.053°N 118.779°E

No ticketing

The spine of Republican Nanjing, and the reason three of this city's main roads are all called Zhongshan. According to the municipal records office, quoting the official gazetteer of Nanjing place names, the Nationalist government built a road in 1928 specifically to carry Sun Yat-sen's coffin from the Yangtze wharf to his mausoleum on Purple Mountain; its first name was the Funeral Procession Avenue, and in 1929 it was renamed Zhongshan Avenue after him. In 1930 it was divided at two points - the Drum Tower and Xinjiekou - into Zhongshan North Road (5,600 m from Zhongshan Wharf to Gulou Square), Zhongshan Road (1,739.2 m, Gulou to Xinjiekou) and Zhongshan East Road (4,061 m, Xinjiekou to Zhongshan Gate), each 40 m wide.

Before you goBe clear what this is and is not. It is a working arterial road 40 m wide, with buses, bikes and the whole city crossing it, not a heritage walk: the pleasure is the corridor of plane trees and the occasional Republican ministry behind a wall. Do not repeat the line that Nanjing's plane trees all date from 1929. The Zhongshan Mausoleum authority, which manages the most famous of them, states that the 1929-31 planting laid the first canopy on Lingyuan Road, and that the city replanted and extended the same species along main roads through the 1950s, so most of what shades you today comes from that later period. If you want the avenue at its best, the section that reads as it was meant to is Zhongshan East Road out towards Zhongshan Gate, and its continuation, Lingyuan Road, in the Purple Mountain scenic area - not the commercial middle. Something wrong here? Tell us →

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AdmissionNo ticketingFree; it is a public road

IDNone

LandmarkZhongshan Avenue (the funeral road of 1929) (中山大道：中山北路 — 中山路 — 中山东路)

AddressZhongshan North Road, Zhongshan Road and Zhongshan East Road, Nanjing - from Zhongshan Wharf via Gulou Square and Xinjiekou to Zhongshan Gate (南京中山北路 — 中山路 — 中山东路，中山码头经鼓楼广场、新街口至中山门)Source ↗Navigate ↗

EntranceThe named stretch inside this district is Zhongshan Road, the 1.7 km between Gulou Square and Xinjiekou, walkable in twenty-five minutes; Gulou and Xinjiekou metro stations sit at its two ends

Last verified 2026-09-24

Paying on site

Nothing to buy; it is a road

Language

Street signage is bilingual as standard in Nanjing; there is no interpretation on the street itself

How to visit

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