Nanjing, China

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This past weekend , I went to Nanjing, China, which is the former capital of China. It was a very smoggy city and probably was not one of my favorites. It is one of the three hottest cities in China because it’s located in a valley and all the heat just gets stuck on top of you. When I got back, I took one of the best showers of my life.
We left Thursday afternoon after going to the Shanghai Municipal Museum. Our hostel was in the middle of the downtown Nanjing and right next to a Confucian Temple. There was also a lot of shopping about 5 minutes away. We had to stay in the room with the two guys, but it wasn’t too bad and felt a little like camp. The bathrooms were the squatter toilets, so I was not so excited about that. On the fourth floor, there was a lounge with couches, a bar, and a pool table. It was such a relaxed area and I wanted to stay there instead of sightseeing.
On Friday, we woke up early and got breakfast in the café upstairs. I ordered “French Toast” and the others ordered “American Breakfast.” The French toast was just French bread that was toasted with different spices poured on it. I definitely got what I ordered, but was very disappointed. I guess I’ll just have to wait until I get back to the states to get some real breakfast. After breakfast, we went to the Zhongshan Mountain National Park, also known as “Purple Mountain.” At first, we couldn’t see the mountain and thought that Nanjing was just making it up, but we certainly found it, and then hiked up about half of it.
First we saw the Beamless Hall, which was made with concrete and only one supporting beam. It was very impressive! There were wax figures depicting various events in Chinese history around the hall, as well as over 700 tablets listing the names of the soldiers who died in China. We went to a Buddhist temple, and it was one of the most beautiful places I have been to. Incense was sold and we could light it ourselves and place it in these huge grill-like structures and then meditate in the courtyard. There were many figures of various gods and there were kneeling benches in front of all of them. Everything was so ornate, especially the ceilings. I wanted to take more pictures, but felt a little disrespectful and decided not to.

Then we went to Dr. Sun Yat-Sen’s Memorial area and saw the Memorial Hall dedicated to him. There were not that many people in this area, but it was a very well done Memorial and I learned a lot about him and saw how much the Chinese idolized him and honored him. He is considered the father of China. When we went to his Mausoleum, we walked about 10 minutes to the gate, which we thought was the actual tomb. Once we got to the gate, we turned the corner and our jaws dropped. We realized we had only reached the gate and found out that we had 390 steps to climb to reach the actual tomb. After climbing, we rewarded ourselves with ice cream! We went inside the tomb and got to see his coffin, which had a figure of him laying on top of it with his arms crossed. Even though there were signs posted saying not to take pictures, after I saw other Chinese people doing it, I did it too.
After the mausoleum, we were very tired, but decided to see one more thing—the Ming Tomb area. The actual tomb was closed for renovations, but looked like it was probably the coolest thing in the park. We then went to the Sacred Avenue, which is lined with large stone animals. There were stone lions, camels, and elephants. There was also a stone unicorn, but it looked more like a tiger…without a horn. And there was a stone Chinese mythical animal ( I can’t remember the name now), but it looked a lot like a lion.
After the park, we decided to get a bus back to the hostel. This was such a disaster. We waited at the wrong stop for about an hour, and then tried to get two taxis, but were very unsuccessful. We ended up taking a random bus to a more populated area to find taxis. We got back about two hours later. We chilled in the awesome hostel for a bit more before going out shopping. According to the travel guide, we were located next to the “riotous shopping area,” which was pretty accurate. There were so many t-shirt shops and I wanted to buy one really badly. There was one where monkey was spelled “moniky” and another that talked about poop flinging. I see a lot of people wearing these shirts, but I wonder if they really know what they say. I couldn’t bring myself to buy any, but I did buy a Chinese painting. The shopping was the same as you see everywhere else—silk and plastic toys that spin and light up. It was not anything different from what I could get in Shanghai.
I didn’t sleep too well Friday night because everyone was out on the streets and there were gaps between the window and the frame in our room. I heard one of the guys sleep talking though. People were outside yelling, honking, and making all kinds of noise. It was an experience though.
On Saturday, we first went to the Nanjing Massacre Museum, which was definitely memorable. The following information could be misquoted—In December of 1937, the Japanese came into Nanjing and tormented the citizens. The tortured, raped, and killed in Nanjing during their stay until early 1938. About 3,000 people died during this short time. In the 1980’s a graveyard with very many bodies was found and excavated. They discovered that the bodies had been underground for about 60 years. They didn’t move the bodies, but rather unearthed them and then built this museum around the gravesite. We were breathing the same air as these skeletons. I had never seen a skeleton before and it was definitely a memorable experience. There were various kiosks around the bodies pointing out certain sets of bones, like a 5 year old boy whose skull was located near his rib cage. He head and body were separated before he died (I assume he died instantly then though). It was such an experience and I know I will never forget it. In the states, we just brushed over the Japanese invasion of China, but did not know to this graphic extent what happened.

The last thing we did was go to the President Palace, which was beautiful. The campus had lakes, meadows, stables, and even an air raid shelter. We saw the Vice President’s office, and the library of documents. All of the offices had the original furniture. We even got to see Dr. Sun’s residence. My favorite room was the Presidential meeting room, because it had a very long mahogany table with about 20 chairs around it. At one end of the room was a model of Nanjing that was very intricate. At the other end was a map that took up the entire wall and was covered with arrows and there was a Japanese flag on the very right side of it. We were definitely looking at their strategy and got to see how they planned their attacks! It was so exciting and I was so grateful that they left the map up there. I got a few pictures of it.

Overall, I had a great time in Nanjing and really enjoyed the hostel. The climate was very hot and I was very tired by the time we left. It’s amazing that I could look directly into the sun and not be affected by it. The layers and layers of pollution blocked ones view. Nanjing was definitely a more cultural experience and a great deviation from the Westernization of Shanghai. I learned a lot about China’s history and almost wished I went later when I knew a bit more, but have a great starting point for some independent research on China’s history.

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