Blogs from Nanjing, Jiangsu, China, Asia - page 3

19.4.14 Today we road 119km along main roads to Nanjing. Road was again excellent multi lane highway. Not much in the way of scenery. Weather was kind and we made it in 5.5 hours. A rest day tomorrow to explore this city of 9 million People'history. Having some problem with internet so another has downloaded a VPN which apparently will make access to Instagram, etc easier. Hopefully I will have more interesting news tomorrow.... read more

Geo: 32.05, 118.78Nanjing has been the capital many times in the past. In recent history, it was picked by the government of the Rebublic of China as the capital. However, when le communist party founded the People's Republic of China, they moved the capital to Beijing (because it seems that all goverment having Nanjing for capital city are short-lived). I let you have a look at the pictures and legends. Nanjing a été la capitale plusieurs fois dans le passé. Pour ce qui est de l'histoire récente, le gouvernement de la République Populaire de Chine en avait fait sa capitale mais quand le parti communiste a pris le pouvoir il a relocalisé le gouvernement à Pékin. Apparemment, les gouvernements qui s'installent à Nanjing ont une durée de vie relativement courte. Je vous laisse découvrir les ... read more

Geo: 32.05, 118.78Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty, is the only Ming emperor buried outside of Beijing. The mausoleum was build between 1381 and 1423 and the emperor was buried in 1398. A spiritual path leads to the mausoleum. The first section (615m) of the path is lined with 6 kind of stone animals: lions, Xiezhi, camels, elephants, qilin and horses (see picture's legend for more details). They are guarding the tomb and drive away evil spirits. The second part (250m) is flanked by a pair of baluster, two pairs of generals and two pairs of civil officers. They stand with great dignity and guard the tomb with their loyalty. Then you go through a serie of gates, the most relevant one is the Red gate which is the last one before the rectangular ... read more

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 ... read more

Hi All, We thought we'd do something different today instead of the usual temples and museums. We did have to take a taxi to get there but we did manage to get the bus back. We love travelling on the buses here in China, if you can get a seat that is! So it was off to the Yangtze River bridge today. A cracking example of China's former socialist power and it's also a good example of how much China has changed. Before the bridge was opened in 1968 there was no direct rail link between Beijing and Shanghai, now the high speed trains can do it in just under five hours. There is a delapidated museum, next to the delapidated park and playground, wih a statue of Mao and some half heated exibhits showing the ... read more