Well over 5km across, with its downtown area concentrated on the northern bank of the Yong River , Nanning is a blandly user-friendly city, its streets dusty, hot and planted with exotic trees. The bulk of the city's accommodation and attractions are in the vicinity of Chaoyang Lu , Nanning's main thoroughfare, which runs for 2km south from the train station , through the city centre and down to a complicated riverside traffic intersection associated with the Yongjiang Bridge . Roughly parallel with Chaoyang Lu but somewhat shorter, easterly Xinmin Lu cuts through the more modern part of town, linked to Chaoyang Lu by, amongst others, Minzhu Lu , Minsheng Lu and Minzu Dadao.

Nanning's main long-distance bus station is just down from the train station on Chaoyang Lu, with another depot two blocks east on You'ai Nan Lu. Both are large, busy and handle traffic from all over the province, though there's also a western bus station across town on Beida Lu, where arrivals from the Yunnan/Vietnam borders might find themselves - bus #8 or #10 will get you to the train station area from here. You'll also end up outside the Chaoyang Lu bus station if you caught the CAAC bus (¥10) from the international airport , 35km southwest of Nanning - taking a taxi costs around ¥100. In the city itself, a taxi trip shouldn't cost more than ¥15, and Chaoyang Lu is covered along its length by city bus #6.