Have a Travel: Nanjing Edition

This weekend was the Tomb Sweeping Holiday. A bunch of us (Brian, Chris, Denis, Nicole and myself) all traveled to Nanjing for the weekend.

Migrant workers use the holidays to go home and spend time with family, and often carry very large loads, much like this man above. I did not pack quite as heavily. . .

We got first class tickets on the "fast" train, which was indeed fast; taking only two hours to get to Nanjing with no stops in between.

On the train, we had a little photo shoot:


Caption: Someone gave me a puppy!

Caption: Kenny G took my puppy.

Views from the 39th floor of the Sofitel Nanjing.



I found some cycling on TV.

My hotel room.



The bathtub was glorious. In one three day weekend, I took six baths.

As I sat in the bath, on one or more occasions, I had time to reflect on exactly where I was, what I was doing, and how, for the last eight months, I have been providing for myself. I felt really proud and accomplished to be able to provide myself with such nice amenities. The work has been hard, and being away from everyone and everything I know and love has also been hard, so finding ways to reward myself has been a key component of maintaining a healthy balance.

Hunan food street in Nanjing. We ate Indian, Thai, Korean, and of course McDonalds.

The pattern on a Korean pencil bag I purchased.

Everywhere I go, there is a choco-bear that needs eating.

The Nanjing Massacre Memorial. It was a Saturday. It was a holiday weekend. It was busy.

As you may or may not know, the city of Nanjing was the site of a terrible massacre during the Japanese invasion of China. In only a few weeks, over 300,000 people were murdered in horrendous ways.

The city now has a wonderful memorial museum and park, in the likes of the Holocaust museum in D.C. It was a strange experience going through the museum. There were tons of people and lots of small children on field-trips. There were some undertones of propaganda throughout, and the pressure to raise the nationalist spirit in the face of this tragedy was apparent. Being a sociologist, I found analyzing the context of the museum and its attendants slightly more interesting than the museum itself, and it shed a lot of light on the multiple layers that exist within every social arena.

The most notable part of the museum was where some skeletal remains had been exhumed and examined. I must admit that my interest in forensic anthropology comes from a TV show (Bones), but it was pretty cool to see the way the field is actually used.

By the end of the museum, we were all pretty much ready to leave and move on to happier endeavors.

Such as: the bird and pet market




This bird was trained to say "Ni Hao". I have a video. I will try to find a way to post it.


These are not pets. They are fruits.

These are pets. They are puppies.

Look at that face!

That was the puppy that Kenny G took from me. You would be sad too.

being a holiday weekend, the crowds were all over the city. Here they are roaming around the pet market. We all kept asking ourselves when they were going to leave to sweep the tombs . . .


The two pictures above were taken within a five minute walk of each other. This is the incredible nature of rapidly developing China.

Our second day was spent in a huge, and I mean gigantic, park that is right outside of the city. We happened to be in the city during the time of the plum and cherry blossoms, which were incredible to see.

The Ming Tomb Tablet.









The cherry blossom petals were all over the place. When the wind picked up, it looked like it was snowing.







We took the chair lift up to the top of the mountain in the park. It was a really long chair lift, taking about 30 minutes to get to the top, with a half-way stop in the middle.



Then, we went to the lake that was also part of the same park.

And the city wall that surrounded one side of the lake. It was a lot like the city wall in Xi'an, only the weather was a lot nicer!

This woman did not choose the pest footwear . . .

Nanjing from the City Wall
I found a dog with the same color hair as me! I wanted to take it home sooo badly.

Under a plum blossom tree

We took the train back on monday, after a lazy morning at Starbucks. We were rushing to make it on the train, but I had to stop to take a picture of the crowds. It really was quite impressive.


I really enjoyed my time in Nanjing, and I enjoyed spending time with friends who will not be returning next year. I had a lot of time to think about the reality of my life here in China. I truly approciate the life I am living and I think I will have a hard time letting it go when that time finally comes. Good thing it won't be for another year!

Zaijian!