Nanjing

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This week, a few colleagues and I had a unique opportunity to explore a new city. There was actually a Disney English conference held in Nanjing (about 2-hours' train ride on a high-speed train from Hangzhou) this past "weekend" and so three of us went to this and took advantage of the fact that it was in a new place as well.

Nanjing is a pretty interesting place. The 'jing' in Nanjing means capital, the same way that the 'jing' in Beijing does. Nan means south, Bei means north. So, I think you can piece that puzzle together on its status in the big-picture-Chicken that is China. Nanjing was actually founded in 495 BCE -- how about them apples? And that fact of China continues to blow my mind. My country's old buildings are 250 years old. China's are 2500 years old. Insane. Anyway, the biggest story in Nanjing is the Nanjing Massacre of 1937. There's a great controversy surrounding this story because, still to this day, Japan refuses to claim this particular attack. But, regardless, what took place was pretty atrocious. Nanjing was the decided capital of China at the time (it's switched off back and forth between Beijing and Nanjing for some time, evidently). In 1937, the Japanese took control of Shanghai and had advanced pretty far inland and came to Nanjing. Over the course of December 9-13, the Japanese launched a massive attack on Nanjing. But, rather than keeping the attack strictly military, they advanced on civilians as well. Some 300-340,000 people were killed, including the over-20,000 (some lists say 80,000) women who were violently raped and killed. The most disturbing part about the attack is that it became game-like for the Japanese soldiers with reports of competitions to see how many heads they could lob off with a single sword stroke. The record, evidently, was 22. Most poignant to me are the dates of this attack. This is not something that took place 2000 years ago.

China has a long, violent and intriguing history when you get into the stories. Growing up, I never felt at all interested nor compelled to explore Eastern history. It just never appealed to me. But what I've found is that being here, I realize that I am completely ignorant. There are histories and tales and legends and wonderful stories about even some of the most insignificant-seeming things around town. Bits of stone that you learn to be petrified wood, left from a forest that existed here thousands of years ago. There's such a deep connection and contact with the earth in general in that way. Because this history is SO ancient, it is difficult to not come to feel the rising from the earth and returning to the earth that this people has achieved time and time again. As such, I'm finding myself interested in the stories. And I'm glad to have had the opportunity to travel outside of Hangzhou for a spell as this has actually inspired me to see my own city in a new light. It's made me more curious about what else is here; what else I haven't been introduced to yet. So, it's bound to be a great Fall in that respect.

Anyway, the event itself in Nanjing was interesting enough. Mostly, we plodded from room to room attending presentations that the FTs of this particular center had arranged. It was great to see my peers stepping up and taking some pride in their work. This idea was developed by an FT and the center's SFT as an opportunity/excuse for other FTs in satellite cities (aka not-Shanghai) to get out and visit each other... bond a little. I talked at length with the center's SFT, and we collectively decided that Hangzhou Wulin is next. I'm already developing ideas on how to make this thing even better, based on the review sheets that I caught a glimpse of. The SFT in Nanjing is going to share more feedback with me, and I'm going to put my head together with that of my LLD tomorrow to get this thing going. I'm pretty excited.

That will mean that I will have multiple side-projects running at the same time. It'll be important, therefore, that I not allow myself to become overwhelmed. My other project finds me deeply involved with the marketing side of my center again as I am developing a pilot parent-communication program. If this program works, we have been asked to present it to Regional, and ultimately it will be integrated into Disney English across the whole of China... with my goofy chops narrating the boring 20-minute training video that all the lil FT monkeys will have to sit through mwahahaha.

Anyway, in other news I have another visitor fast approaching 😊 It's been fun to dig through and make a specific point to not be too repetitive of my mom's trip with this one. As important as I feel it to be for people to do the "China thing" when they visit here, I feel that it's equally as important for me to get a new experience out of the deal as well. So, this trip will likely sport some excellent outdoor adventures and the pair of us becoming one with nature... or something. That visit will be happening at the very end of this month/beginning of next. So, I will certainly keep you posted on that next great adventure.

Until then, I'm going to go hang my laundry in the rain (again... why must it rain every Thursday?) and carry on with my daily life that happens to be in China.



There are many more photos coming very soon. Check back for those 😊

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Photos

Xuanwu Lake
This gate to the lake was maybe 100 paces from the front door of our hotel. We really struck gold with how we ended up booking everything for this trip!

Xuanwu Flute Player
One thing I will continue to treasure about China is the spontaneous acts of music-making. Sometimes it is like dead cats being reborn out of a goose's backside... But occasionally it is THIS captivating and the sound of the flute reflected and captured everything you'd hope it would in this image.