Thursday:
Today was Carolyn's 21st birthday. Her dad (the same one who took me out to a nice dinner earlier this trip) was back in Shanghai and again took a small group of us to a very upscale traditional Chinese dinner. This restaurant was located inside a historical European style town house in the French concession. Few of these town houses still remain; awesome architecture and even better food- highlight of the meal was shark fin soup, 60$ a bowl and illegal in the United States because of the cruel way in which the sharks are caught and harvested only for their fins. After dinner we made our way to the a night club called Cloud 9, where Carolyn had reserved a table and bottle service to continue her birthday celebration. Cloud 9 sits atop the Grand Hyatt Shanghai, and from the 87th story it is the highest club/lounge in the world. Most of the wall space in the club is made up of gigantic windows so as to give a grand view of the city, it was unfortunately a foggy night however, so the view was less than ideal.
Friday:
8 a.m. - rise and shine and load up onto a charter bus heading for Nanjing - after a night of celebrating Carolyn's birthday this was not an easy task. If you don't already know - Nanjing is a very significant city to the Chinese people as it is the site of one of the most terrible tradgedies of World War II, the Nanjing Massacre. In December 1937- February 1938 invading Japanese forces marched on Nanjing, which was then the Chinese Capital. For the ensuing 11 weeks the Japanese unleashed a campaign of civilian terror, murder and rape that is virtually unrivaled- an estimated 300,000 thousand people were killed in this massacre. The busride to Nanjing is a short 4 hour trip, that needless to say I slept straight through. Once arriving in Nanjing, we immediately stopped at the Nanjing massacre memorial. Photography is not allowed here, which is unfortunate, as it is truly a breathtaking display somber memorial achitecture. The memorial also houses a museum, which is dedicated to the proof and continued remembrance of these attrocities, much like the Jewish Holocaust museum in Washington D.C..
After the memorial, we checked into our hotel, a very nice 4 star hotel near the hip 1912 district of Nanjing. We then rested for a few hours before heading to dinner and exploring the Qinhuai River area- an area filled with lively restaurants, souvenire shopping, colorfully lit chinese architecture, and completely packed with people.
Qinhaui River Area
Bridge lights in Qinhuai
Lights in Qinhuai
More lights...
Gate of the Qinhuai river area
Saturday:
Another 8 a.m. wake up call - luckily this time I had not been out the night before. We made our way to the Tai Ping Tian Guo History Museum. A very brief (and probably somewhat historically incorrcect) history of the Tai Ping Uprising - in the late 1800's western missionaries brought/forced christianity into China; as could be expected the reactions to these teachings were varied. One such reaction came from a man known as Hong Xiuquan, who after learning about christianity decided that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ and began a religious movement that gained many followers. Though initially peaceful, Hong and his fellow Tai Ping, meaning "great peace", eventual became militant rebellion against the Qing dynasty, redistributing land amongst the poor and taking an eventual stronghold in the mountains. The Tai Ping rebellion was eventually crushed by the Qing dynasty in 1864, but not without the loss of estimated millions of lives (yes millions, I know it seems crazy). The memorial for the rebellion is housed in a palace that was originally built for the first Ming emperor. While visiting I was most struck by the traditional chinese architecture of the palace (possibly because the Tai Ping museum was not translated to English so it was a little harder to appreciate). Pictures below.
Me and the Guys by the Pond - Ming Palace
Garden of Ming Palace
Ming Palace
After the Tai Ping museum and Palace we ate lunch and then ventured out to the memorial and burial sight for Dr. Sun Yat Sen. I will spare you the complete history lesson, but Sun Yat Sen is responsible for the break from Qing dynasty and formation of the Nationalist Peoples Party (Guomindang) in 1912. Later overthrown by Mao Zedong and the communist revolution the Guomindang exiled itself to Taiwan which they control to this day. The memorial to Sun Yat Sen is incredible- a series of giant staircases lead up the side of Purple Mountain - at the top of the mountain Sun Yat Sen is buried in a gigantic chinese style moselum. We for fortunate to have good weather this day - pictures below.
View from the bottom of the mountain looking up through the gates
Cute little kid- Loved us
Looking down from the top of Purple mountain
After the long day of sight seeing, a big group of us got together and went to dinner at a Japanese steakhouse in the 1912 district of Nanjing, a block or two away from our hotel. We had an incredible meal, all you can eat and drink for about 150 quai a person, equivalent to 30 bucks a head. Then it was off to a crazy Chinese techno club and back home again Sunday morning. All in all Nanjing is an incredible city, though it is much different than Shanghai. It is home to about 7.5 million people, considered small by Chinese standards, it is much cleaner, easier to traverse and has less visible poverty. Also, Nanjing is a more "Chinese" city than Shanghai as it has less ex-pats and foreigners and the people speak pure Mandarin, as opposed to the Shanghainese dialect. Below are a picture and video from the night out in Nanjing, enjoy.
Jake, Schlanger and I at the Japanese Steak house
Crowd in Mazzo I night club.
No comments:
Post a Comment