Nantong Vistit, Jiangsu, China.

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June 27th 2008

Published: June 27th 2008

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The Ashworths

River view

Looking along the river moat towards the city centre.

Well, back from our ‘flying trip’ to Nantong, the city located on the northern banks of the Yangtze River, just north of Shanghai. Nantong is only a quick 2 1/2 hour train ride (which took us 3 1/2) south from Yancheng. It was a pleasant change to get some ‘cleaner’ air, from all the farm burning in Yancheng. We have been booking our accommodation from an internet site, which specializes in China accommodation. They have a good range of hotels, but unfortunately, the hotel information on the internet is a bit light-on, so we take a bit of a punt whenever we book a hotel. So far, so good. However, we did recommend our Xuzhou Hotel to a couple of other teachers from here, who were going to use Xuzhou as a stop-over on their way west, but the hotel wouldn’t accept any more foreigners. We were told the staff weren’t comfortable at not being able to speak English, so they have now banned foreigners from staying at their hotel. Good way to do business eh?

Nantong is a bit different from here, as they are close to the rivers edge. The old town itself has a natural river moat

Tai Chi group

Enjoying the fine day out was a group of seniors doing synchronized Tai Chi under the trees.

surrounding the old city centre, and is recognized as one of Chinas four most precious such moats. Because of the water and river bed, the train-line is way out of town, so the taxi ride cost RMB28, which is a long taxi fare in China. We found that overall, Nantong is a fairly rich area, with many more cars per head of population, and more people eating out in restaurants. The food was quite good, but much more expensive than we are used to paying. Anyway, that is what holidaying is all about, isn’t it - spending money.

There wasn’t much to see in Nantong, at least from the internet searches and travel books, so we only planned on a two night stop. On arrival at the train station, from past experience, we learned to buy your ticket for your return leg straight away, as seats on the trains can be a bit light on. You can’t buy a return ticket, and pre-purchase is only allowed no more than 5 days in advance (only 3 days for a bus trip). After getting the ticket, which was the 1600 hr train on the 26th (or so we thought at that

Days Catch

Many local men fished along the banks of the river moat. Here was one local we saw catch a nice sized fish, and he added it to his haul.

time) we headed off to our hotel and visit itinerary.

On the first afternoon, we didn’t do much but explored our local area and wandered into the town centre, which was about 1.5 km from our hotel. As we left the hotel, one of the staff came running after us to give us a Business Card with the hotel name in Chinese and a map on the back, for a taxi driver, if we got lost. They are very helpful towards foreigners and do try to please us. We walked around the river moat and through some narrow old streets, which are mostly under re-development. We found a Carrefour Supermarket, which is the French owner store and Betty-Anne wanted some decent cheese. Out of luck. They only stocked the local cheeses a, piece of Gouda and some sort of packaged Camembert. We opted from the latter, with beer and bikkies for afternoon tea. You get used to drinking the room temperature beers, so you don’t have to worry about refrigeration, but from time to time, it is still good to have a cold beer.

We found the City Museum, and flagged that for another visit (or so we

Textile Craft Museum

The building was quite old and contained some relic furniture, too.

also thought). Anyway, the next day we took off on foot. We walked along the river moat looking for a couple of Pagodas, which were marked on our map. One was a listed tourist attraction. Along the way through the park, it was a pleasant walk, watching the locals enjoying the fine day. Some were fishing, grandmas’ were out with the little ones, some older folks were doing Tai Chi, many others just wandering or enjoying the park. We came across a Textiles Museum, which we knew nothing about. This was an old building complex but there were ladies inside practicing or learning the old skills. Nantong is famous for its use of blue for printed fabrics. We looked at some of the old machinery and a lot of their wonderful printings. Pity they cost so much to buy, as they had printed bags, hats, cloths and tableware.

We did find our first Pagoda, which we found quite interesting. Either side of the Buddha statue, they had the “10 Departments of Hell”. We didn’t take any photos of these, not just because the writing was in Chinese, but they were really gruesome displays, and you would end up with

Ancient Weaving Loom

This was one of the old style weaving looms they used to make the fabric prior to dyeing.

nightmares for weeks. If they intended to scare the locals into behaving, it worked on us! No wonder they had the donations bins so prominent - maybe you could help buy your salvation if you erred against one of their sins, but you certainly wouldn’t want to end up like the graphics - just tying this brings vivid images back to mind. Honest, I’ll be good.

Next we were off to the Tianning Pagoda, which was the tourist attraction. We saw a large roadside sign, so thought this would be easy to find. Not so. The Pagoda was not only tucked in behind this enormous school compound, it was in the middle of a Hutong village complex. It did take quite some time to figure out how to get to the Pagoda, and even some of the locals we asked directions from, didn’t know where it was. In the end, we did find it and it was worth the searching, if you like looking at Pagodas and statues.

We then headed off for the Kite Museum, which was in the city, but again, not on the maps or tourist information. Eventually we found the museum with the help

Blue dyed pattern

One of the manny patterns used in this blue dye technique.

of a few college students, but it was closed for the lunch siesta period. Oh well, off to a restaurant for a lovely lunch. There is always someone who knows a bit of English and they will come and chat and help us order, which means we get delicious food compatible to the western stomach. Although on one meal we had, which was similar to the Japanese Tepanyaki style, we did get pigs innards and ate a couple before we realized what we were eating. The smell of the cooking of the chicken guts was a bit off-putting, but luckily they were for the people sitting beside us.

The Kite Museum was great, but they didn’t sell any kites, which was a bit disappointing. One of the purposes to visit this Museum was to hopefully buy a good kite. No matter, we’ll find one in Yancheng, as there are sellers at the local parks on Sundays. After that, we were off to visit Wolf Mountain, and another Pagoda. This one, you had to walk up 5 million steps to get to the top of the hill, but we lucked out and jagged a cable car ride down, which we

Temple Pagoda

This is the small Pagoda at the Temple alongside the river moat park.

didn’t even know existed. Got the last ride of the day with the staff as they were shutting up shop and going home. We cheer up a lot of locals, as they seem to have a good laugh at our expense, but we don’t mind, we joke along and laugh with them. They know “hello” and we know “Nihoa” (hello) and “Xiexie” (thank you). Everyone laughs a lot.

On the morning of our departure, we headed off to the City Museum and to find a little Pagoda which we saw from our hotel. When we got to the Museum, there were about 50 police swarming over the place, standing in groups, and a staffer said that the Museum wasn’t open today. He suggested we visit the Nantong Museum which was just over the river. We had walked passed this building complex, but there were no signs and we didn’t know what it was. This was a different Museum, as its founder, Zhang Jian, was a Nantong local who got fairly high in the Party, before returning and setting up industries in his local area. He was also a scholar, and put a lot of money into education facilities in

Good guy

Amongst the displays were some good guys, but we didn't photograph the gruesome stuff.

Nantong. He established the first Museum open to the public in China, in 1905. The museum has been built on with new facilities, but his original house with furniture, is part of the complex. There is an extensive park area alongside of the river moat, which forms part of the museum grounds.

When we got to the railway station, we had about one hour to wait. At that time we were glancing at the tickets for our return journey, and realized that the date on the tickets for the trip back to Yancheng, was the 24th, not the 26th. What the Railway attendant had done, was give us a train ticket for the date we arrived, not when we wanted to leave. Damn. You really need to check and double-check everything. Anyway, while Betty-Anne watched the bags and gritted her teeth in frustrations, Graeme went back down to the ticket office to get new tickets - No seats available on the train. One thing he had learned, probably from his Council days, was not to accept ‘no’ for an answer. After about 40 minutes of ‘negotiating’ pleasantly with the rail officials, and them affirming that there were no available

Tianning Pagoda

Hidden in the middle of the Hutong village, amongst the maze of narrow lanes, we found the Pagoda.

seats left on this train, they took Graeme back to his bags, where we were told to wait until called for boarding. The Station Master then followed us to the Platform, told our storey to the train/Platform boss, who then took us onto an empty carriage and said we could sit there. Not only was that carriage totally empty, but so was the carriage behind us - but they were adamant that there were no seats left on the train. Once the train started moving, everyone else on the train spread out into the two empty carriages and everyone had a comfortable 2 1/2 hour trip back to Yancheng.

It did leave us wondering about the ticketing system, but surely there was a reason for keeping two empty carriages! Lesson learnt.

Well, just for something different, we are now off to Nanjing, Wuxi and Suzhou, and will be back in Yancheng late on the 7th.

Until next time.

Graeme & Betty-Anne

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