Nanjing a sombre history

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Nanjing was the location of a notorious atrocity in the war between China and Japan. This is known as the Nanjing massacre (1937) in which over 300,000 Chinese people were killed. This figure is the Chinese figure, the Japanese would not agree. Despite continuing disagreement, many Japanese former soldiers have made important contributions to the museum. The English captions in the museum were excellent and it was easy to follow the story of the Japanese invasion from Shanghai, through Suzhou and other towns to Nanjing. I understood the story better having some idea about the geography of the city. The purple mountain had a few mentions. The museum was busy, but I noticed that the Chinese visitors were a lot quieter than normal, no doubt because of the subject. The museum's displays are very detailed and there is also modern sculpture in the grounds and the excavated remains from one burial site.

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