Nanjing, the mourning city

We took our first over night trip over to Nanjing, 2 hours away on a high speed train. Reaching maximum speed up to 300km/h (186mph), it was a smooth ride, and for the first time, we have a feel of the magnitude of MEGA structures in China. The size of the train station was comparable to an airport to accommodate for the large crowd that will be traveling annually during Chunyun, or the  traveling season during Chinese New year.

those platforms just seems to go on for ever, imagine this place crowded with people once a year!

Anyways, Nanjing is supposedly the second largest city in the general area after Shanghai. Upon arrival though, it really didn't have the busy atmosphere like Shanghai, instead the mood was much more laid back: a lot less car horns, and much less hawkers trying to get you to buy everything from laser pointers to fake watches.

Perhaps its the old history behind the city, with many tombs around, the remnants of the old Kuomintang party and memorials from the Japanese invasion, it's just hard for a city to be as lively as Shanghai. Or perhaps it was a combination of this and my ties with the Taiwan vs China issue.

Our first stop was the Presidential Palace. Once the capital of China under Kuomintang's ruling, this palace in Nanjing is the equivalent of White House in the US. Sitting almost at the center of the city, the architecture style of the building stood out with characters, in the same time when horses was still used, you may find hand rolled elevators and porcelain toilets in the inside of the building.

the president's office, i tried to look for secret passages but produced no results

back in the days, servants will live here and prepare horses for the officials when asked to

entrance of the Presidential Palace, note the absence of a flag

right outside the palace's garden is the bustling city center of Nanjing

motto for a good citizen: loyal to your country, loving to all and be a peaceful, reputable person. Something many have forgotten

The bunker under the palace, actually used during the Japanese invasion when they bombed the city, picture a few hundred people cramped here for a few hours

After the palace, we moved towards the memorial for the Massacre site, there were mixed feelings; The memorial site radiated with Chinese patriotism and anti-Japanese sentiments. But coming as a "by-stander" it just seemed like a lot of these were over-done, there were graphic photographs inside, and some kids were legitimately scared. Overall though, the presentation was very good, it guided the visitors through the history happening back then, I would say it's worth a visit, and for those who has been to the Holocaust museum in DC, I would say this one is a doppelganger in China with its own twist at the end.

the memorial site for the Nanjing Massacre  (for more info if you wanted)

Inside the museum, a portrait of Japan apologizing to the Republic of China. Rare occasion where you see the flag of my country flying with other "Big Dogs". (Only in occasion like this you will see Taiwanese flags, typical Chinese diplomatic bullying)

To lighten the mood up for the night, we were introduced to what I understood as a young people's favorite hang-out - A "board game room". It was a cramped apartment room in the middle of closed cramming schools (it wad during Chinese Winter vacation, so no one is studying, and yes Chinese people enjoy lives too) and all we did was play board games (duh). We paid by the person, and we could stay there as long as we wanted, they provide some free drinks, and we could also bring our own. Twas a neat atmosphere, people minded their own businesses and there was still enough freedom for us to be loud, I wonder why they don't have places like these in the US...

some hipster clock i couldn't read

adding "club" always make a place look fancy

The next day was reserved for hiking, we walked all over Purple Gold Mountain where they burried people that had nice views....
To start off, we paid a visit to the tomb of Sun-Yat Sen (as Georege Washington is to you as to me, and I don't see him every day on  the money I use), skipped the mausoleum of an Emperor from the Ming Dynasty because we couldn't afford the ticket, apparently it was a big deal though...

at the entrance of the tomb. I realized everything could be turned into a cheery place in China

on the way up, there's a pot with shell damages during the Japanese bombing, left here to remind people to hate the Japanese

view after 392 stairs (no i didnt count it) before finally entering to see the dead guy his statue

 After the tomb, we started our way up to the peak, with the cable cart, but it had just rained before we got on, so the good news was there's no one else on the mountain but the bad news was the terrible fog. Spoiled the nice view, but I'd like to think we just got a special version of the mountain for the day.

entering misty mountain

At the end of the ride, there's nothing to see guys!

here's a close up at the top of the mountain. noice

luckily, we found this laughing Buddha to keep our spirit up on the way down

So the weather kinda left a grey spot on the trip, but worry not, the next day we headed out to a hot spring resort town. This resort town was really one of a kind, not only did we have to be cramped like sardines on the bus there,there were almost no signs of this place while on the 1 hour ride. I keep thinking we must have gotten on a random bus that was taking us out of Nanjing and then boom, a random town out of no where pops up and we arrived, threw off the bus with the remaining people clearly going to a better place than us.

the only real sign of this resort town, found carved in a random tile by the bus stop

Regardless, we DID find the right place and it was great, we were there during off season so we got a sweet discount. At the end of the day after all out skin were wrinkled, we were able to rest in the resort's lounge to get "massages". Some lady led 6 of us, all guys, into one room and was suggesting us to all stay there to get a "full service"...
Negotiations didn't go well obviously.... however, they did offer us watermelon before we leave so it was all good....

as you can tell, i gained a couple of more ribs

they should have just offered the watermelons, then we might have gotten the massages

 All in all, Nanjing was quite filled with surprises, and there's definitely more to the city than tombs and fogs. I soon discovered after we left, this gate that we hand went in one night, Zhonghua Gate is the most complex gate structure, and one of the longest gate in the world, according to our friend Wiki (but still).

entrance of the gate, impressive you say?

view of the gate from the top, you may see vaguely the length of the wall

here's a lady catching a break while waiting for the bus, how they rest like this, i dunno, but i definitely have much more to learn...

 Anyhow, as usual, here's the crew. Next up should be the New Year trip and some of my spring break memoirs from Guilin and Fenghuang. School has started so I'd like to say I will have more time, but probably not. Just be patient and all the entry will arrive eventually.

Let's see what's next!