Bing qi ling Nanjing
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Nanjing,
China
Saturday, August 30, 2008
On Wednesday morning we woke up in Nanjing and got an early start. We first got our McDonald's breakfast in a famous pedestrian shopping street with many stores and tchatchki stalls. On our way to McD's we heard a loud military-like chant and paused to see where it was coming from. Running down the street in formation and rhythmically chanting were a group of store employees. Apparently this is a morning routine to keep the up the fitness levels of a trendy clothing store's workers. I would find repulsive sweat to be detrimental to my sales abilities, but I'm pleased to see that they value exercise.
The main site in Nanjing is the Sun Yat Sen memorial, which we visited early to avoid hiking up the 300+ mountainside stairs in the mid-day heat. I wore a sports bra (who likes underwire perspiration?) and sneakers but most of the Chinese women were happy to clop up the steps in dresses, high heels and the ever-present umbrellas. They must think me monstrous in my gym apparel but of course they are the silly ones.
Anyway, as for the historic part, the memorial contains the tomb for the man who overthrew the Qing dynasty in 1911. It's very picturesque and Adam remarked that, from a design standpoint, parts of it resemble the Lincoln Memorial: inscriptions engraved on the wall and a statue of Sun Yat Sen seated in a throne-like chair. We respectfully looked around and admired the park grounds.
Nearby in the park was a separate tourist site for one of the Ming tombs. The really famous ones are outside Beijing and most tourists see them on their return trip from the Great Wall, but we had missed them and decided to see the tomb here. We had to pay an additional admission fee, but it was so tranquil inside that we instantly determined it was worth it. Leading up to the tomb was a pathway flanked by large animal sculptures that were intended to protect the tomb, and it was all very picturesque. The Ming tomb itself, however, is under construction, and the pisspoor Chinese signs failed to communicate this to us, so that was somewhat of a bummer.
So, about 24 hours after we'd arrived we returned to the airport to depart for Shanghai. It was too bad we didn't have more time to explore the city, especially since there weren't many foreigners around, but I was excited for Shanghai. Our train ride took all of 2 hours, which is unbelievably quick after spending 20 hours on a train about a day before.
Next post: Shanghai!
