Nanjing


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March 31st 2012
Published: March 31st 2012
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This past weekend, Lauren and I headed out to Nanjing. This is the city I studied at four years ago while I was a student at University of Arizona. A lot changes in China in four years however…



Nanjing is now the location of China’s second tallest building, the Greenland Financial Center. When I was a student, the project had barely begun. Now the building stands quite impressively just off the shores of the center city lake XuanWu.



The area around Nanjing Shifan Daxue where I used to live and study has become quite the collegiate experience. Tons of new bars, international cafes, and restaurants have opened up, playing the role of refuge for the hundreds of new foreign students that now hang out around town. The University of Arizona program has expanded, and John’s Hopkins University has set up a prestigious program not far away, flooding the area with students.



We stayed at a hostel just outside the gates to my old school after arriving on Friday night. We grabbed some lunch at my old hangout Skyways before checking out the Confucius Temple area known as Fuzimiao. The entire area is lit up at night with thousands of lights everywhere creating a brilliantly bright atmosphere along the canal-side streets. Lauren did some shopping at the many street vendors who sell everything from watches to bags and dresses, and we grabbed some snacks from the local markets as well.



Saturday morning we got up and met our friends Jason and Kathleen for a day of fun in the city. We cruised around to all the old hotspots during the day before meeting with another friend of ours (Emma) for dinner at a Korean BBQ restaurant. It was great to see everyone again, and it was nice to be able to show Lauren around my former Chinese hometown.



We had a great time, but it was a very sentimental experience for me as it was my first time back to the city since my good friend Morgan passed away while on his second semester there. It felt very incomplete to see the city without him being part of the group, but it was great to reminisce about all the great memories we had with him. We all still miss him every day…


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5th April 2012

Nanjing
Glad you were able to go back and see the changes that have occurred. While I am sorry for your loss, as I remember Jason & Kathleen telling us about this horrible situation.

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