Your usual tourist traps would litter any typical QR Code Treasure Hunt route for Nanjing; Purple Mountain, Fuzimiao, the City Wall and some sort of stopover in Xinjiekou at some point.
Been there, done that.
Therefore, I attempt an alternative QR Code Treasure Hunt for our humble City; one that tries to avoid the crowds, and one that, I hope, captures the “real life” of the city.
You’re a weary tourist and you finally arrive in Nanjing, a city of over 9 million on the south bank of the Yangtze River. The guide books have spun you tales; those of a beauty, with broad European-style boulevards lined by plane trees, lakes girdled by public parks, imposing Ming Dynasty city gates and the triple-crested Purple Mountain poking through the mist to the east – as you’ve sped along on the high-sped train from nearby Shanghai and Suzhou.
You’re only here for a few hours, and you’ve got screenshots in Chinese of the names of the sights you want to see, metro lines to take and dishes to order at mealtime. You decide on alighting at the train station that you want to stop a while at the nearby Xuanwau Lake (it is on your list after all). You can see the usual old ladies, coupled-up, practising the foxtrot or some odd dance from Douyin.
All of a sudden, eating dumplings at a little shop near the Confucian Temple, climbing to the top of Zhonghua Gate, what your guidebook describes as a masterpiece of Ming engineering, doesn’t feel too appealing anymore. Your comfortable sofa and Netflix back home is starting to feel more welcoming than this. But something just out of the corner of your eye catches your attention. Stapled to a nearby tree, you notice an odd-looking leaflet. On the leaflet is a QR code that when scanned, simply says “Alternative Nanjing QR Code Treasure Hunt”.
There’s a beeping sound as the countdown begins. You must get to your next stop before the allocated time runs out and scan the next QR code. Your heart starts beating as the red-topped pinhead on your map drops to the west of the city centre. A list of directions are helpfully presented to you but after screenshotting them, they disappear from your screen. The countdown continues as two, no, three wasted minutes have passed. Better get a jog on as suddenly, things don’t seem as desolate and bleak as before.
To get to your first stop (and two stops in one!) the Nanjing QR Code Treasure Hunt has an interactive challenge, just for you. You’re challenged to scan a nearby sharing bike (ooo look another QR code!) and meander your way through Nanjing’s bustling intersections and vein-like alleys over to the Stone City Ruins Park. The challenge is to burn at least 200 calories before you get there!
After breathlessly arriving at Qingliang Men, and burning those calories, you look up in awe at Nanjing’s ancient City Wall… and here at least, it’s also free to enter and explore!
As you wander along atop of the city walls, overlooking the Qinhuai River to your left and the lush greenery of Qingliang Shan Park to your right, your phone beeps as the next QR code hunt flashes up, but this time with a choice: military history or temples. The lush and deep green of the woods entice you this time as you head through Qingliang Shan Park to the nearby temple.
Lucky for you, as you pass through a gingko tree valley overlooking the temple, it’s a good job you visited in Autumn; the crisp yellow leaves greet you by falling around you like confetti. You snap a quick photo as the next QR code loom up ahead, nailed to a tree. You quickly swipe close the trivia fact about the location as you check where the challenge is sending to you next.
Aptly named the “Jiangnan” stop on the Alternative Nanjing QR Code Treasure Hunt, you are encouraged to wander through Xiuqiu Park; real Jiangnan style here; near Yijiang Men, and take some photos of the boating lake (extra points for uploading to WeChat for a chance to win prizes; no thanks!).
You continue through the park across to Tianfei Temple (remember to bring cat biscuits, feed the temple cats for good fortune) and then the QR Treasure Hunt Challenge asks you to pop over to Yuejianglou. This is the most northern point of Jiangnan area, and comes complete with views over the Yangtze, and the City as a whole as the autumn sun sets over the city skyline. A follow-up challenge; take a photo with the nearby group of tourists wearing Hanfu!
Your phone pings one last time; your final stop and this time with a culinary delight challenge along the way. Your map pinpoints you down just off to the side of the cross-shaped centre of the city; Nantai Alley (南台巷). Final stop, but you must first eat either a warm bowl of the brothy and famed Duck Blood Vermicelli Soup (鸭血粉丝汤) or a steaming bamboo basket of Shrimp Soup Dumplings (虾肉汤包) on the way.
You manage to get out of the maze-like Xinjiekou Metro Station and upon weaving your way through crowds, beeping horns, music and loud voices blasted out of every restaurant, you arrive at your final destination. Littered along the angular Nantai Alley are numerous cocktail and whisky bars. If alcohol isn’t your friend, and your train back beckons fairly soon so maybe sit this one out, the QR Hunt recommends a latte at one of the nearby indie cafés. Sit back, people watch and soak up Nanjing’s mixture of old and new cultural delights. Your phone beeps one final time. You’ve won a prize! To find out more… swipe close.
