Monday Afternoon...

...and I'm still tired as ever. 3 Days in Wuxi (无锡) followed by 2 days in Nanjing (南京）has me kinda exhausted. I woke up at 10:00 am which is fine. I'll use today to recover and slowly start my workout routine again. I won't be traveling for another week. I'll use it to just workout and study which actually sounds like a nice way to spend the week. Time to explain how I spent my weekend...

Well I didn't workout at all if that is what you're wondering. I did walk a lot and read a lot of Chinese. I was able to practice Chinese and ask questions. Instead of vocabulary this time I was able to fix some of my weird sentence structure that I still have problems with in Chinese. Having some sort of native teacher, language partner or whatever to help you learn any language helps.

So much good, not spicy, food.

Took the metro from Shanghai to the station, then the station to Nanjing. About a 2 hour trip. We then went to eat some delicious food. (See above) I wish I could remember the name but there were some soy sauce like veggies, nice BBQ pork, toasted fish, Grandma's Tofu, Mango Ice Cream and white rice. (I think we ate this first... I'm not sure).

Walking around Nanjing was quite nice as there are a lot of different "feels" to Nanjing. Where in Shanghai you feel a very modern style everywhere you go and Wuxi you get the growing river town feel. Nanjing you get a very nice or beautiful feeling to it. The side walks are bigger for those that are walking. Everywhere you go there is a road for cars, a road for scooters and a side walk for people which makes it so there isn't much congestion on any and less of a risk for those walking.

When night time comes Nanjing (as most Chinese cities do) have lights everywhere from the poles, to trees, and, of course, on the great big sky scrapers. There were some Christmas decorations but its less so because they celebrate Christmas and more so because they are marketing something. Along the river that we walked the pleasant lights went along the river in a grand strobe like motion making the transition from day to night quite nice.

船, a boat

The boats (which are just called 船 not 轮船）are always a nice sight as they have a very old feel to them. Whether they are tourist or fishing boats I don't know. In Nanjing they seemed like tourist boats but in Wuxi I saw both tourist and fishing boats. In Shanghai you usually just see big transport boats (which are called 轮船）and not these tiny nice boats.

Some apartment buildings.

秦淮河 Qinhuai River

秦淮河 Qinhuai River

The river that we walked along is actually a famous river called the Qinhuai River which has a some history to it. Many songs and stories are told about it but now a days you can get nice snacks, food, and see some nice sights along it. Click Here for the Wikipedia link to Qinhuai River Page A personal thought is you can find other entrances to it which are less used and have less people. Its way more peaceful and nicer than the tourist heavy areas. Also if you go there when they turn on the lights its pretty cool to see as well.

孩子在牛上。A kid on a bull.

"City Wall" in Nanjing

Another cool place that we saw, but were a little late to get to, was the City Wall of Nanjing. I haven't seen a real castle in real life so this was cool to see how big the wall was and how it was designed. Its right next to the Qinhuai River but the stairs leading to the top do close. Next time I go, if there is a next time, I will get some pictures from the top. Again there is some history to it but I'll let the Wikipedia page for the City Wall of Nanjing tell you the interesting history of it.

Bad picture because it was night. "Horse Dragon"

I forgot the name of this.

Then as the night winded down we walked towards the busier, modern part of Nanjing and ate at a wonton soup place. I think that is what it was. The noodles and wonton were good but the "soup" was just a chicken broth with chicken bones in it. I wasn't a fan of it. My language buddy said if you add 辣椒 to the noodles that it tasted really good but I didn't want spicy food this time.

Train stations in China are huge.

桔子酒店:请选 "Orange Hotel: Please Stay"

The second day I didn't get any pictures but we did go to the Memorial Hall of the Victims of Nanjing Massacre which was interesting for many reasons. I was the only foreigner, it was huge, there was a lot to read and see. From videos, pictures, skeletons, weapons and detailed explanations of what happened before, during and after the massacre. In the morning we had KFC for breakfast and I believe we had "toasted fish" for lunch. Then headed back to Shanghai. Overall it was a great trip and I got to see another city in China.

How was your guys' weekend?

-Jonah

"Its okay to learn new things, as long as you're willing to accept you don't know everything"

Music: Creedence Clearwater Revival