Nanjing

“Not all those who wander are lost.”

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

I'd like to apologize to all who read my blog for waiting so long before this update! I've been very busy this past week with midterms in language class and a presentation in my business ethics class. I've certainly waited too long to make this post about Nanjing, so I may not be able to give you as in-depth a narrative as I would like, but I will try my best.

Nanjing is a city located roughly 2 hours to the northwest of Shanghai (by train, all stops included). Like many other cities in China, Nanjing has a rich history, from the beauty of the walls to the terrors of the 1937 massacre. During the trip I had the chance to visit the Zhongshan Mountain area, which is not only very pretty, but also houses the resting place of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Republic of China and often referred to as the father of the nation.

The Tomb of Dr. Sun Yat-sen

The Zhongshan Mountain area is composed of several distinct areas. The first is the tomb shown above and is free to see for all who visit. This being the case, it was by far the most crowded area. Luckily, I don't think the area was nearly as crowded as it would have been had we visited on a holiday. The crowd really wasn't too bad. To get to the tomb, it is said you first have to climb 300 steps, but I can tell you that unless you first recruit someone to carry you to the point from where this picture was taken, you will be climbing far more than 300 steps.

The next area we visited was the Lingu Temple portion of the park, which was probably my favorite portion. The two main attractions here were a large pagoda and a Buddhist temple. We first arrived at the temple, which looked largely unimpressive from the outside, but upon entering felt much larger than it had first appeared. There were several areas for you to light incense or purchase a red ribbon, which is said to bring luck and prosperity to you and your family.

Lighting incense from red candles

A tree made of luck

Further inside the temple, the chants of Buddhist priests could be heard originating from a basement below the tourist area. The walls of the temple were adorned with golden statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. All of these things combined with the fact that the temple was almost completely devoid of people made this a very peaceful area.

Statue from the temple

We next made our way to the pagoda which was also said to be in this area of the park. The hike there was an amazing walk through a forested area dotted with statues, many of which seemed broken or neglected in some way. Once again, people were few and far between in this area of the park - a very unusual occurrence in China. When we arrived at the pagoda, which was 9 stories tall, we resolved to climb to the top (260 stairs exactly!). From there, we had a spectacular view of the surrounding area. One entrepreneurial spirit had taken the liberty of setting up a kiosk on the top floor where you could buy or rent binoculars.

The tower

Our final Zhongshan Mountain destination that day was Xiaoling tomb area. I don't recall seeing a tomb in this portion of the park, and I'm not certain whose tomb it was supposed to be, but it was still a really great area. We were there primarily to see the animal statues which line the primary walking path in this area of the park. It was pretty cool to see, but there really isn't too much to say about it. Pictures say much more than words in this situation, so I'm going to go ahead and direct you to my photo set: CLICK HERE!

Our last day in Nanjing we decided to try and see the walls which run throughout the city. The walls of Nanjing were built during the late 14th century and was one of the largest system of city walls constructed in China. Even more impressive is the fact that many of these walls still exist in Nanjing and have been well preserved. I know that this doesn't exactly sound impressive on the surface, but you have to consider that in the past century of growth, the Chinese haven't really had any qualms about tearing down old structures to make room for their massive growth spike.

The portion of the wall that we visited didn't allow us to go to the top of the wall and walk around, which you can do in some areas, but they instead wrapped around a lake, where we were able to rent a boat for an hour and sail around. The boat itself was incredibly slow, and got even slower after running for around 10 minutes. Luckily, we found out that restarting the engine brought it back up to speed. We're still not sure if this was an intentional trick to make us late (which would cause us to lose our 100 RMB deposit), or if it was just a design flaw. Both seem equally likely. After docking our boat, we made our way to a nearby park and walked around for a couple of hours before getting ready to leave the city.

Once again, I want to apologize for taking so long to update my blog with this post! Hopefully this won't be the case with the next (which will most likely be about my day trip to Suzhou, which I visited just the past Monday).