The city's broken and meandering Ming walls are still a useful means of orientation, and the main streets run across town between gates in the city wall. The big gate in the north, now marked by a huge traffic circle and massive flyovers, is Zhongyang Men . To the northeast of here, outside the city wall, is the train station , while inside the wall, running due south from Zhongyang Men, the city's main street (called Zhongyang Lu, then Zhongshan Lu, then Zhongshan Nan Lu), runs for 10km before emerging through the southern wall west of Zhonghua Men . Moving from north to south, this street passes two of the city's major intersections, first crossing Beijing Lu in the Gulou area, before traversing Zhongshan Dong Lu at Xinjiekou , from where Zhongshan Dong Lu runs east to Zhongshan Men , the major gate in the eastern wall. South of Xinjiekou (a kilometre or two before Zhonghua Men) is another important commercial and tourist centre, growing in fashion, called Fuzi Miao.

Outside the city wall, many of the historic sites are on Zijin Shan to the east, while fringing it to the northwest is the Yangzi River , crossed by the Yangzi River Bridge.