York In Nanjing 2026

Nanjing Part 1

Big City, Bigger Personality

Greetings from Nanjing! The city of good food, good vibes, but most importantly, home to one of China’s best hospitals for Chinese Medicine: Jiangsu Provincial Hospital for Chinese Medicine. I’m York, an up-and-coming TCM practitioner currently in my fifth and final year of my studies at RMIT. For the final semester, I have been fortunate enough to be completing my placement in at the Jiangsu Provincial Hospital here in Nanjing. In the span of just 4 months, I will be following a wide variety of doctors across the departments at the hospital, from the busy treatment rooms of the acupuncture floor, to the quieter yet busy specialist inpatient wards. Having heard from past students (including Lotus Palm director, Steven himself) how life-changing this experience can be, I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of experiences and stories I will come across in these few months. In writing this short blog series, I hope to bring some insight into the TCM world from one of the world’s leading Chinese medicine hospitals, as well as snippets of daily life and culture from a city that is always in motion.

Stepping off the plane and out of the airport at the end of June, the first thing anyone would notice is just how uncomfortably hot and humid it is this time of year.

Having just flown in from the chill of Melbourne’s early winter, I could feel my clothes getting progressively stickier with every step towards the DiDi (China’s most popular ride-share provider) pickup zone. Little did I know, my battle with the local ecosystem had only just begun…. Within seconds of walking up to the pickup zone, I was swarmed with what I could only describe as scam-share drivers, each offering to match or beat the prices that are offered on the DiDi app, while being off-the-grid and untraceable.

Having an obviously Asian appearance and being able to somewhat understand Mandarin, it took a certain level of active ignorance, on top of firmly pushing through the hoard, to survive until the pre-booked DiDi arrived. I could only imagine what it would be like for people who didn’t come prepared. Although such services also exist in Melbourne, the ones here in Nanjing felt more difficult to push away. Yet once they knew there was no chance, they would leave and none of the others would bother you again. Once aboard the DiDi, I finally breathed a sigh of relief.. only to discover that the roads in China are on a whole other level of chaos… but that is a story for another time.

The Jin Xing Lou Hotel, my primary residence for the first few weeks to get settled in. From the outside it seemed quite unassuming, simply like just another building at the Hanzhongmen campus of Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine. Stepping in, you’re greeted by a beautiful calico guarding the door. You could almost feel the might of its ancestors as it stares down the driveway… almost… Then the next moment you find a new fur friend at your feet saying hello. Awesome start. Unfortunately, the hotel seemed like it had lost some of it’s lustre, which grew more evident after seeing the promotional videos played during breakfast.

However, that’s not to say the place is terrible. The service was great, rooms kept clean, and apart from the lights being kept off to save electricity, the atmosphere and vibe were quite good. Probably the most life changing part is…. The breakfast. I honestly don’t think I can go back to whatever I used to have in Melbourne, because a selection of steamed buns and goodies, congee with pickled vegetables, and freshly made soy milk every morning is VERY hard to beat. Even outside the hotel, breakfast options are plentiful, affordable, and almost guaranteed to be made fresh daily. It really makes me wonder why we don’t have anything close to this in Melbourne, and how we’re content with hot breakfast options that are either unhealthy or unaffordable to have every day. Truly, some food for thought.

The last thing I want to touch on for this first part of the blog is one of the biggest things that positively surprised me in the first few days here.

Similar to Japan’s public transport infrastructure, the public transport services in Nanjing have been flawless. From ticketing to timeliness, the entire process is the most user-friendly I have used and I would say to be on par, if not better, than the JR rail system.

Tickets are easily accessible through Alipay, one-time tokens, or rechargeable cards like the Myki or Suica. From 6 am until just after midnight, the train services are at least once every ten minutes at off-peak and at most once every 2-3 minutes during peak hours. I never have to worry about missing a train because the services are so frequent. Meanwhile in Melbourne, missing a train could be the difference between getting there a bit early or being late 20+ minutes. On top of that, in my 3 weeks here so far, not once has was a train delayed, late or otherwise disrupted.

Staff clean and maintain the station, platforms, and trains around the clock, so much so that every train and every station is remarkably clean even with the sheer volume of people that use the service. Rarely will there be an escalator or lift out of service for longer than a day, and there is always security on site to ensure safe travels, even at late hours of the night. To say I am impressed is an understatement, and while I do appreciate the fact that public transport is the primary mode of transport for the vast majority of the population here in Nanjing (and therefore easier to have proper funding), it is such a stark contrast w ith the public transport services in Australia that I can’t understand how we can let our infrastructure and services become so sub-par. I have a feeling I will be finding it hard to adjust after returning to Melbourne’s PTV, especially with how much more it costs to travel. For this, only time will tell….

There is so much more to discuss about my experiences in Nanjing so far, even in a short span of just 3 weeks. Keep an eye out for the next entry to this blog series where I will share some more snippets of daily life and discuss my first impressions of the medical system in Nanjing. I look forward to sharing more with you all, and hope this has been an interesting read! Will catch you in the next one!

York
Future TCM Doctor, Traveller, & Photographer