Originally Posted by
jrkmsp
Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm being picked up on arrival and will be dropped off before I leave, so that should take care of that.
I guess the only other question worth asking is how far in advance I should plan to arrive at the airport. My flight to PVG is scheduled for a 7:35a deparutre. Is 6a early enough?
That's more than early enough and leaves enough time for any delays on the road (once you're outside the city, I've never had any traffic on this segment though) - and since you'll be leaving the city around 5.30am in that scenario, hardly any traffic in the city either. You might even want to plan to arrive a little bit later to give yourself some more sleep.
I like NKG airport, the new terminal is well designed and while the lounges certainly aren't great, they do their job just fine. As I'm in the *G camp, I'm using their lounges, but from what I got told, they're pretty much identical. For your time of the day probably not relevant, but the beer is properly cooled, and there are some hot food options during meal hour times.
All in all a better than your average Chinese airport experience. Nanjing really took some good decisions in the last few years. Metro is expanding fast, they've adapted a "light rail" system (Called the proper German Name, S-Bahn) for the outside areas incl the airport, and renovation in the city area has created much more "nice" areas to chill, walk and relax. Also, hotel prices are much lower than those in PEK/CAN/PVG, and there are enough choices including 2 Hiltons, Sheraton, Sofitel as well as several other "mid range" brands.
All in all, the former capital of China has plenty of things to do, all neatly packed in a not too crazy city area (but being bigger than smaller cities like Hangzhou and fairly international - going along with English alone is harder than in Shanghai for example, but it's not impossible if you don't mind some sign language
It's a great city to explore.