Nanjing Lukou (NKG) Airport Guide 2026 — Metro S1, Terminals, Visa-Free Entry & Transit Tips

Nanjing Lukou (NKG) — The Complete 2026 Airport Guide

Nanjing Lukou does one thing brilliantly: its S1 airport metro drops you at Nanjing South, one of China’s largest high-speed-rail stations — so NKG is really the front door to the whole Yangtze Delta, with Shanghai barely an hour on from there. The catch in 2026 is the entry rules, which now split sharply by passport. Most EU, UK and Canadian travellers walk in visa-free for 30 days; Americans still can’t, and have to lean on the 240-hour transit scheme instead.

Last verified: July 2026. Fares, terminal assignments and China’s entry rules change often — confirm the specifics on your ticket and at official signage before you travel.

Quick reference

Why NKG is really a gateway to the Yangtze Delta

Nanjing is the historic capital of China — the Ming dynasty ran the country from here, and the world’s longest surviving city wall still rings the old town. But for a traveller landing at Lukou, the single most useful fact is geographic: the airport’s own metro line, Line S1, runs straight to Nanjing South Railway Station (Nanjingnan), one of the busiest high-speed-rail hubs in Asia. From that one station, bullet trains reach Shanghai in about an hour, Hangzhou and Suzhou in under 90 minutes, and Beijing in roughly three and a half to four and a half hours.

That changes how you should think about NKG. If your real destination is Shanghai or the wider Yangtze Delta, a cheap fare into Nanjing plus a ¥7 metro ride and a high-speed train can beat flying into a congested Shanghai airport. And under the 240-hour transit scheme, the entire delta — Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang and Anhui — counts as one region you can roam freely. Nanjing itself repays a day or two, but treat Lukou as a launch pad and it earns its keep.

Two terminals, a few minutes apart

Lukou has two terminals, and unlike sprawling hubs where a wrong guess means a shuttle-bus odyssey, T1 and T2 here are linked and only a few minutes’ walk apart — a rare piece of good news. The split is by airline, not by domestic-versus-international alone:

• Terminal 2 handles every international and Hong Kong / Macau / Taiwan flight, plus the domestic operations of China Eastern and Juneyao Air. It is the bigger, newer building (opened 2014) and the one most foreign visitors use.
• Terminal 1 (renovated and reopened in 2020) handles most other domestic carriers — the likes of Air China, China Southern, Hainan and the low-cost lines.

If you’re arriving from abroad you’ll land at T2 and clear immigration there. If you’re connecting onto a domestic flight, check which terminal your onward carrier uses; the walk between them is short and signposted, and there’s a free shuttle if you’d rather ride.

Getting into Nanjing

The airport is about 35 km out, so the transfer matters. The metro is the honest default — cheap, fast enough, and it lands you at the high-speed-rail station where you probably want to be anyway.

The S1 metro (Airport Line) — take it

Line S1, also called the Airport Line or Ninggao Line, connects Lukou directly to Nanjing South Railway Station. The whole trip is a flat ¥7 and takes about 35 minutes, with trains roughly every 10–15 minutes. From Nanjing South you transfer — for free within the metro system if you tap the same card — onto Metro Line 1 or Line 3 for the city centre around Xinjiekou, another 15–20 minutes on. Budget around 50 minutes airport-to-downtown all in.

Two things to know. The S1 does not run around the clock — the first train is about 06:00 and the last leaves the airport around 22:00 (late-evening times drift, so check the platform clock). And Nanjing South is a genuine high-speed-rail interchange, so if you’re carrying straight on to Shanghai or Suzhou you don’t even need to enter the city — ride S1, walk to the train hall, and go.

Buses and taxis

Airport buses run to a couple of city districts for about ¥20, taking around 45 minutes, but they’re roughly hourly and less flexible than the metro — worth it only if a route drops you near your door. A taxi to central Nanjing runs about ¥130 on the meter for a ~35-minute ride; make sure the meter is running rather than agreeing a flat price at the rank. Didi, China’s ride-hailing app, is usually a little cheaper at around ¥100, but you’ll need the app installed and a working payment method linked before you can summon a car.

The cashless reality: sort your payments before you land

This is the thing first-time visitors underestimate, so handle it before you fly. Everyday China runs on two mobile-payment apps — Alipay and WeChat Pay — and QR codes, not cash or contactless bank cards. Taxis, the metro top-up, street food, convenience stores: all expect a scan.

The fix is straightforward now: both Alipay and WeChat Pay let you link an overseas Visa or Mastercard directly in the app, so you pay by QR like a local. Set this up at home, not at the airport gate. Cash (renminbi, ¥) is still legally accepted everywhere and there are ATMs in the arrivals hall if you want a backup, but paying cash increasingly earns a puzzled look and a hunt for change. An eSIM or a local SIM to keep those apps online is the other essential — see the practicalities section.

Entry: visa-free, 240-hour transit and the online arrival card

China’s entry rules have loosened dramatically, but they split by passport, so know which lane is yours.

• 30-day visa-free (EU, UK, Canada and more), through 31 December 2026. China has extended its unilateral visa-free scheme so that ordinary-passport holders from all 27 EU states, the UK, Canada and a long list of others can enter for up to 30 days for tourism, business, family visits or transit — no visa, no application. The 30 days can’t be extended in-country. This is the simplest path and covers most European and Canadian readers.
• United States: not on that list — use the 240-hour transit instead. US passport holders still need either a full visa or the 240-hour (10-day) visa-free transit scheme. Nanjing Lukou is an eligible port for it. The conditions: you must be transiting to a third country or region (not back to where you came from), hold a confirmed onward ticket, and stay within the permitted zone — for Nanjing that’s the whole Yangtze River Delta (Jiangsu, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Anhui), so Suzhou, Hangzhou and Shanghai are all fair game on the same permit.
• The arrival card is now online. Since 20 November 2025 China uses a digital arrival card. File it up to 72 hours before you land via the National Immigration Administration website, the “NIA 12367” app, or the WeChat / Alipay mini-program. If you don’t, you can still scan a QR code or use a paper form at the immigration hall on arrival — but doing it in advance saves a queue.
• Fingerprints and a photo at the desk. At immigration, officers photograph you and scan your fingerprints as part of standard entry processing for most adult foreign arrivals. It takes seconds; just have your passport and onward details ready.

Lounges

Lukou’s lounges are concentrated in Terminal 2, which is good news since that’s where international passengers are. Several are on the Priority Pass network, including the First Class Lounge (V7) and a couple of the CIP / VIP lounges — expect a simple hot-and-cold buffet, snacks and drinks rather than a flagship spread. If you’re flying China Eastern in a premium cabin you’ll be pointed to its own lounge in T2.

Priority Pass and pay-in lounge access here changes hands and rebrands more often than at Western hubs, and access can be split between the domestic and international sides of security, so check your specific Priority Pass app entry for the current T2 lounge and its location rather than trusting an old saved listing.

Connections and minimum times

Because T1 and T2 adjoin, connecting at Lukou is far less fraught than at split-terminal megahubs — but China’s process has its own steps. A domestic-to-domestic connection within the same terminal is quick. The one to plan for is any connection that crosses the border in either direction.

Arriving international, connecting to a domestic flight: you clear immigration (with fingerprints and the arrival card), collect your checked bag, clear customs, then re-check the bag and go back through domestic security. That’s true even if it’s a single ticket — China doesn’t through-check bags across the border the way some countries do. Give yourself a comfortable buffer; treat two to two and a half hours as sensible rather than the bare minimum, more if you land in a bank of international arrivals.

Lukou doesn’t publish a single headline minimum connecting time the way the mega-hubs do, so lean on your ticketing airline’s figure and pad it. A purely domestic connection can work on well under an hour here; a border-crossing one should not be cut fine.

Food, money and Wi-Fi

Food: skip the international chains and eat local — Nanjing’s own dishes are the reward. Look for salted duck (the city’s signature), duck-blood-and-vermicelli soup, and Jiangsu-style noodles in the terminal restaurants; a proper sit-down meal runs roughly ¥40–70, a noodle bowl or snack far less. Both terminals have the usual coffee and fast-food options airside if you just want something quick.

Money & SIM: there are ATMs and currency counters in arrivals, but as above, the real currency here is a card linked to Alipay or WeChat Pay. Buy a travel eSIM before you fly (ideally one that routes around the Great Firewall) or pick up a local SIM on arrival — you need mobile data for payments, maps and ride-hailing to work at all.

Practicalities: free airport Wi-Fi is available (registration usually needs a phone number, so having a working SIM helps); T2 has the fuller set of shops, food and services; and left-luggage, pharmacies and information desks are in both terminals.

Long layover: is Nanjing worth leaving the airport for?

If you have most of a day and you’re entitled to enter — visa-free, on a visa, or on the 240-hour transit — the answer is a clear yes. Nanjing is one of China’s great historic cities and it’s genuinely walkable in patches.

The highlights cluster: the Ming City Wall (the longest surviving city wall in the world, walkable in stretches), the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum and Ming Xiaoling tomb on forested Purple Mountain, the lantern-lit Confucius Temple (Fuzimiao) and Qinhuai River quarter for evening food and boats, and the sobering Nanjing Massacre Memorial. From the airport, ride S1 to Nanjing South and change to the metro — the centre is about 50 minutes out. With a full 240-hour window you can just as easily hop a bullet train to Suzhou’s gardens or Shanghai and come back. For a short layover, though, stay airside: the border round-trip and the 35 km each way eat any window under about six hours.

Frequently asked questions

At a glance

Before you fly

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