NANJING — The Chinese city of Nanjing in Jiangsu province is known for many things: Plum blossoms, duck delicacies and most recently, a train station that people say resembles a sanitary pad. 

Even though the authorities have said that Nanjing North station was designed to resemble plum blossoms, which draw visitors to the city in eastern China when they bloom in February and March every year, some people are seeing a completely different picture. 

The trending topic of “the design of Nanjing North Railway Station has been roasted” has received more than 589,000 views on Chinese blogging platform Weibo over the past five days since it was posted on Thursday (April 18).

One comment on Weibo read: "This is a giant sanitary pad. It's embarrassing to say it looks like a plum blossom." 

Chinese online users questioned how the architects missed the blatantly obvious design flaw: There were only four petals for the plum blossom.

One asked: “The designer said the inspiration is sourced from plum blossoms?? Don't plum blossoms have five petals?”

A Weibo user named “lensyoume” felt that the sanitary pad design was deliberate: “Plum blossoms usually have five petals, but there are also a small number of three-petal and six-petal ones.

"I have never heard of four-petal ones. Does the designer have some basic foundation of art? Who believes it! The designer must have done this on purpose."

Another said that the design was closer to a four-leaf clover: “The symbolism of the design of the North Station is (from a Chinese saying), ‘At the head of the Yangtze River, flowers bloom in Jinling'.

"To be honest, it is far-fetched to say that it is a ‘flower’. Personally, I think it is closer to the four-leaf clover that represents luck.”

Yet another Weibo user asked: “We can tell from one look that it’s a sanitary pad but the architects can’t?”

Online users took the chance to poke fun at the unfortunate sanitary pad resemblance. 

One quipped: “No matter how big the crowd is, it (the train station) can absorb everything and keep dry the entire day.”

A second user joked: “So does it count as side leakage if I leave the station?”

Another said: "I think we should take this chance to call for society to pay attention to period shaming. This design is ahead of its time."

Some people reasoned that the design of the building does not really matter because commuters will not be able to see the bird’s eye view of the building and that functionality matters more than the design.

One commented: “The overhead rendering of Nanjing North station does look a bit like a sanitary napkin.

"But I think there is no problem at all, because we will not have any chance to look down at Nanjing North station from the sky."

Another user said: “The first priority of a station is convenience and speed. There is no dispute about the function of the Nanjing North station.”

The preliminary design of the train station was approved by the government of Jiangsu province and the China State Railway Group, Chinese papers Nanjing Daily reported.

The media there reported that the construction of the station will begin in the first half of this year and will cost 20 billion yuan (S$3.75 billion).

China has a history of quirkly-looking buildings sparking online debates.

In 2012, the headquarters of state broadcaster CCTV in Beijing drew comparisons to boxer shorts and was nicknamed "the big underpants" due to its design.

The following year, the People's Daily headquarters in Beijing that was then still under construction was mocked online for being "phallic-looking".