China 2013 Day 17

---

So we are now starting the last leg of our journey. It's incredible how the time has flown.

We wake in Nanjing, but we will not spend too much time in this city of 4 million with its wealth of history. Breakfast at the hotel, which makes a few concessions to Westen tastes but is mostly Asian. My new experience for the day is Mung bean porridge, which turns out to be fine with milk.

On the bus with Jack as tour guide. It is overcast but mild. As we drive through the city, we garner impressions of Nanjing. In some indefinably way, it feels old. It has lots of older, faded buildings, many falling into decrepitude. There are frequent vacant lots where buildings have clearly had to be knocked down. At the same time, lots of construction is under way, including massive complexes of identical condo buildings.

Nanjing spans both sides of the Yangzi. First stop is the old Yangzi bridge, the first bridge to unite the city's two halves. Started by the Soviets, the Chinese had to take over the project and complete it when the two communist countries fell out in the 1960s. We take an elevator to a viewing platform where we have a bird's eye view of the two-level bridge. These days heavier traffic takes one of the two other more modern bridges.

Descending back to ground floor, we are led to a little shop in the corner of the building that specializes in "inside painting". This is the technique that involves inserting a special paintbrush into an object like a glass sphere or bottle and drawing a design or scene from the inside. Painstaking work and the results are beautiful. No one is in the mood for buying, however, because the objects are relatively heavy and fragile.

Nanjing is a city of universities and has an academic tradition dating back millennia. Our next stop is the Confucius square in the heart of the old city, where in the days of the emperors, examinations were conducted to staff important government positions. We wander about the area, filled with stores selling food, clothing and souvenirs. It is mercifully not nearly as crowded as similar shopping areas we have visited in the big cities. A river runs through the centre, built up with stone work like a canal, and with a couple of picturesque stone bridges. On one side of a long building, there is an exfended frieze of golden dragons stretching along the river that is striking. Nanjing's famous sycamore trees line the streets.

Next is lunch. Good rice and stuff. Highlights are the chicken soup and a stuffed sweet and sour eggplant dish. I avoided rice like the plague while on the cruise ship but am ready to eat it again.

Our final stop in Nanjing is the Sun Yat Sen mausoleum. Dr. Sen is revered as the father of modern China. He was the driving force behind the revolutionary movement that eventually brought the communists to power, although Sen himself was no communist, but rather a reformer inspired to some extent by the ideals of western democracy. He would probably be apalled at his gigantic mausoleum, worthy of an emperor in scale. Part of a huge inner-city park that sprawls across Nanjing's Jhongshang or Purple Mountain, it consists of a series of staircases up the mountain, the final flight composed of 392 steps because China's population at the time of Sun's death was 392 million. At the top is Sun's resting place in a stone pagoda, surmounted by a large statute of the man, seated and looking pensive. There is a small garden surrounding the mausoleum.

The intrepid ones who have conquered the steps descend to join the loafers at the bottom. On the walk out of the park, a McDonald's is spotted near the bus parking lot, and everyone decides to have a coffee or hot chocolate. The coffee is hot and a lot stronger than McDonald's back home, but that's ok.

Time to head for Suzhou, about a two-hour drive. It's an uneventful drive with one rest stop. I work on the blog the entire time.

Once in Suzhou, Jack's home town, we drive directly to the old city to enjoy a boat ride on the canal. Suzhou was dubbed the "Venice of the East" by no less an authority than Marco Polo because of the picturesque canal that circles the old quarter. It's a delightful little up-and-back ride, and we enjoy the sight of 500-year-old buildings lining the canal, lit up by lights. We spy a guy fishing (only allowed after sunset, Jack tells us) and a woman washing a chicken in the canal.

After the ride, we have an opportunity to visit the quaint little shops crowded into the maze of streets in this ancient part of the city. There are lots of pubs and restaurants, too, and some are advertising a Halloween party tonight! We had almost forgotten. On one street, a DQ is spotted and quickly becomes packed with Canadians eager for soft ice cream treats.

We reach our hotel about 9:30. It is a Pan-Pacific hotel modeled after an ancient Chinese fortress and it has the weirdest layout I have ever encountered. Reception is on the 3rd floor, our rooms on the 2nd, but you have to ascend to the 3rd in order to take the elevators back to street level. Our rooms are very nice. I hear that some of the stalwarts are heading out for drinks, but Vi and I are content to shower and watch an old Jackie Chan movie on TV. His energy soon has our heads nodding.

---