NANJINGNOW

First, an introduction to this section.

This webpage (hopefully, soon it will be a series of webpages) is devoted to those small, easy to miss alleys which make up a staggeringly large portion of Nanjing. These small streets contain everything from the mundane but useful to the shockingly interesting, or at least delicious. If nothing else, readers will not be so nervous about walking down dark alleyways anymore.

Most students at Nanda and Nanshida should be familiar with 南阴阳营 (nan2yin1yang2ying2), the small street parallel to 汉口西路 (han4kou3 xi2lu4) and across from Behind the Wall. At first glance, 南阴阳营 looks like a much smaller, more pedestrian, and slightly dirtier version of many other places around Nanjing. It also feels much more “Chinese” and a bit less developed than other areas, as some places on this road sell live chickens. Undoubtedly, this has earned it the nickname ‘Bird Flu Alley’. Think of this as an affectionate jibe, this writer seriously doubts that anyone will get sick just by walking down this street.

If one walks down this road once, it is extremely easy to miss or downright ignore a lot of interesting spots. Along this road, one can find good restaurants, late night dining, useful services, totally random stores, and enough street food to keep the money conscious student happy for a long time. In other words, this is China, miniaturized into a 300 meter section of road and placed somewhat randomly in the middle of Nanjing.

The real beef noodles, bitch

If food is one’s greatest motivation, then there are many local spots where everything from a quick lunch to drunken munchies can be found, and at a very reasonable price. To start with, there is 正宗西北牛肉拉面 (zheng4zong1 xi1bei3 niu2rou4 la1mian4) near 上海路 (shang4hai3 lu4). Despite the small size, many students at Nanda swear that the noodles here are the best around, which would certainly agree with the name of the restaurant – these are the real northwest beef noodles. For lunch or dinner, a large bowl of noodles will cost you under ten yuan, making this restaurant a good choice for anyone who is worried that their money evaporates here faster than they can seem to control. As a bonus, an English menu is also available.

Drunken Salvation

Down the street from the noodle shop is Nanjing’s answer to the drunken munchies: 哈尔滨水饺 (ha1er3bin1 shui3jiao4). The owner of this shop had either the insight or good luck to keep it open twenty four hours a day. Therefore, for those stumbling back from the bar at four in the morning, sketchy street food is no longer the only option. Harbin Shuijiao has a very wide variety for such a small restaurant; including all sorts of beef, chicken, lamb, and vegetable flavors. Most varieties of dumplings sell for less than 4 kuai a ‘liang’, meaning that you can spend about 30 yuan and have a late night feast of 40 to 50 dumplings. (A ‘liang’ is six dumplings.) As a bonus, beer is available inside the restaurant, meaning that there is no need to sober up before one is absolutely certain that they have to.

Another dumpling restaurant worth noting along Bird Flu Alley is 好信水饺 (hao3xin4shui3jiao4). Unlike Harbin Shuijiao, this restaurant is not open twenty four hours, and the inside cannot seat a large number of people. The restaurant itself is quite easy to miss, if not for the giant green sign over the door. However, they have many interesting flavors of dumplings which generally cannot be found in other restaurants. For example, there are salty egg, bamboo chute, and all sorts of vegetable and meat dumplings.

A More Formal Side of Dining, Perhaps

For something to eat besides noodles and dumplings, there is a small restaurant next to Haoxin called 方记饭馆 (fang1ji4 fan4guan3). All in all, this is just a sit down Chinese restaurant with a nice variety of homestyle and more complicated foods. There is basically the same food here that you can find in many other restaurants in Nanjing, but if in the area, this is a good place to sit down and enjoy a good meal. Prices are quite low, three or four people can eat a good meal with many dishes for under 50 kuai.

European Tech, and Environmentally Friendly?

On the non-edible and more practical side of things, there is a very professional and trust worthy dry cleaner in this area called 依丽洁干洗连锁 (yi1li2jie2 gan1xi3 lian2suo3). In this writer’s experience, this shop dry cleaned an especially dirty suit, and had it ready on time and with no problems. A former room mate frequented this shop for over two years, and never had any trouble. To dry clean a suit takes three days, two if a rush job is requested and costs less than forty kuai. This shop can also dry clean rugs and sheets, for all those out there who live in a non-dormitory environment and want to get those nasty beer stains off their decorations. Cost varies based on size, and overall a rug should take five days to clean.

On the totally random side of things, there is a small Korean supermarket called 双好食品 (shuang1hao3 shi2pin3) for all those out there who want to get their hands on some non-Chinese but still Asian ingredients. Not knowing Korean, this writer was a little lost in the store, but there are a very large variety of products available including ramen, spices, ginger, dried fish, and even packaged galbi strips. Prices are not low, but then again, one cannot honestly expect to get foreign or imported food for a low price in this city.

Are these the only places to go in Bird Flu Alley? The answer – hell no. These are merely the places that this writer has experience with, there is also a Western looking restaurant, a store which sells pillows and shoes (hey, both are useful), a shoe cleaners, coffee shops, Korean restaurants, a public toilet (also useful), another dry cleaners, small convenient stores, loads of street food, and everything else that you would expect to find walking around Nanjing. Bird Flu Alley is truly one of those easy-to-overlook, invaluable-to-know places in the city.