Nanjing in Winter: The BEST Food + Maple Mountain Walks

Hello! Today we are heading to Nanjing for the weekend. I saw some posts on Xiaohongshu of the beautiful maple trees and the lovely autumn colours of Nanjing, so we're heading there to see if we can see some of the leaves before winter starts. Let's go! Miu and I have come back to Nanjing to eat some duck. So it's quite cold but we are heading to popular duck place now. It is around lunchtime so it might be a bit too busy but we'll see. We are now approaching the duck place and I don't see a queue. So we've just been to Zhangyuan which is a famous duck place here in Nanjing and this time we've got a quarter of a duck and we're going to share it and I'm very excited to eat it. Now that we've got the duck we are on our way to find some pan-fried beef dumplings which are also famous from Nanjing and I haven't had these ones yet so I think I'm more excited to try these than the duck. Now this place has a really long queue. This place is crazy busy we've been walking around for ages trying to find somewhere to sit to eat and so we've sat on a table with a couple of girls but it's absolute chaos. It's very very busy. It's really hot. This dumpling is so juicy and it's so delicious but it's very very hot. So juicy. So now I'm gonna try the duck. Delicious. Actually I've mostly filled myself up on the beef dumplings now so I think I'll take a little bit. So soft. Delicious. So this restaurant is very famous for their beef pan-fried dumplings but the queue is massive. Actually we only waited around 20 minutes it wasn't too bad but getting in and finding a seat that's the real challenge. So we were squished on a table with some strangers which is totally fine but it's not a relaxing eating experience but for me the food definitely worth it. We are at Qixia Mountain and it's well known for its maple trees although we're a little bit late in the season for the maple trees this year. There are still some leaves on the ground so hopefully we'll still see something but it's very cold today. So Mew has made me walk to the top of this mountain and usually it's me making him climb the mountains but this time he made me do it but it's beautiful. We have just arrived at our hotel in Nanjing. Today we are staying in a Hampton by Hilton. This was really cheap because it was a super last minute trip. I think 350 RMB but I'll show you what we've got for that. Pretty decent room, we've got a corner room. We've got the mirror as you come in, nice and big. We couldn't figure out how to turn the lights on but never mind. Closet, bathroom, we have a big shower, vanity and then a view by the loo. Very nice. We have a small dining area, TV, that's the bed. Not bad, actually reminds me of the hotel room we stayed in when we were in Taichung. This morning we've come over to Niushoushan in Nanjing. Now we came here two, three years ago but it was very, very hot and we had a train to catch so we didn't spend as much time here as we wanted to. So today we're back, we've got the whole day. We've come here early, it opens at 8 30 in the morning. We arrive around nine o'clock and I'm excited to spend the whole day here because last time we didn't see as much as we wanted to. The nature here is really beautiful. There are some ducks in there playing around but it's very relaxing here and you can hear very peaceful music as we walk around. I found so many trees where the leaves are orange and it's just so beautiful. Definitely recommend that you save one day to explore everywhere in this park because it's just a nice blend of the culture and nature. Yeah, it's very balanced I'd say between culture and nature. You could easily spend a whole day here. It's worth spending one day here. Yeah, that was the mistake we made the first time we came to Nanjing. We only had a few hours here and yeah, we didn't get to see hardly anything. There are some flowers! So I can see some beautiful pink flowers and I think they're camellias but I'm not an expert in flowers so if you know more about flowers than me please let us know in the comments. Are these camellias? We are only on the fourth floor out of nine of the pagoda and already the views are pretty panoramic. They are incredible. Each floor has beautiful murals and paintings depicting different buddhist scenes. This is the breathtaking fooding palace and we're about to go inside. We're just going to get the fish food so we can feed the fish. Fish are so big, they don't want it. They want something big. That white one's so beautiful. They're still attracting a lot more fish here. Oh, don't you know I'm a pro fisherman? Are you having fun, Mango? Attracted lots of fish by there. Attracted lots of fish, yeah, because you're so attractive. Thank you. When you come here, don't forget to feed the fish. The regular ticket entrance price is 160 RMB per person. A pro tip if you are coming here, try and book online early so you can pre-book tickets on Dianping and you can get 15 RMB quite off per person which is a really good deal. So definitely try and do that and also then you get to skip the queues because it can get very busy here. Luckily today was quite quiet but I know national holidays and during peak times it can be quite busy so try and book your tickets before coming. Thank you for watching. Don't forget to like, comment and subscribe. Until next time, bye-bye.