toastykitten (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
toastykitten) wrote2006-12-06 10:57 pm
toastykitten) wrote2006-12-06 10:57 pm
nanjing
My notes for the first day in Nanjing is really short. I know we got introduced to Leslie, a tour guide and native of Nanjing who would accompany us throughout the tour. He looked like this Taiwanese singer/actor that I used to think was cute. He was fairly young - only a year older than me, actually, and he talked a lot about how much he loved his mom. It got my parents clapping, as he went on and on about filial piety, and made me and my sisters roll our eyes.
In Nanjing we visited Sun Yat-Sen's mausoleum. You had to climb something like three hundred steps to get to it. Did I mention how many tripping hazards China has? There's no such thing as "wheelchair accessible". I tripped over everything - in restaurants, random rooms would be slightly raised a few inches over the actual floor, for no reason I could discern - it wasn't for aesthetics, that's for sure. It drove me crazy.
Sun Yat-Sen's body is actually up there in the mausoleum. There are also a couple of pots that were shot at by the Japanese. The holes were never mended, to remind us of what the Japanese did. Here, we were informed that any Japanese person visiting Nanjing is required by the government to visit all the memorial sites. Hence, no Japanese ever visit Nanjing.
I know we went to a jade place. That was boring. And expensive. I note in my journal that the funny thing about all the government-sponsored tourist shops is that they all seem to be staffed by young women. Shortage of females in China? Not in these shops - they outnumber male staff 10 to 1. And they are so, so pushy. They will not physically let go of you until you purchase something. I had to do a lot of ducking to avoid being caught in their clutches.
We also went to visit the Yangtze, I think, which is actually called something else in Cantonese. I don't remember what it's called. The weather was starting to get cold, so our pictures didn't come out that well. In the building where we stopped, we met a government-paid artist who painted stuff inside crystal balls. It's a lot prettier than I'm making it sound. My parents bought a few.
Next day is WuXi, where we'll go to Taihu, a great lake.
In Nanjing we visited Sun Yat-Sen's mausoleum. You had to climb something like three hundred steps to get to it. Did I mention how many tripping hazards China has? There's no such thing as "wheelchair accessible". I tripped over everything - in restaurants, random rooms would be slightly raised a few inches over the actual floor, for no reason I could discern - it wasn't for aesthetics, that's for sure. It drove me crazy.
Sun Yat-Sen's body is actually up there in the mausoleum. There are also a couple of pots that were shot at by the Japanese. The holes were never mended, to remind us of what the Japanese did. Here, we were informed that any Japanese person visiting Nanjing is required by the government to visit all the memorial sites. Hence, no Japanese ever visit Nanjing.
I know we went to a jade place. That was boring. And expensive. I note in my journal that the funny thing about all the government-sponsored tourist shops is that they all seem to be staffed by young women. Shortage of females in China? Not in these shops - they outnumber male staff 10 to 1. And they are so, so pushy. They will not physically let go of you until you purchase something. I had to do a lot of ducking to avoid being caught in their clutches.
We also went to visit the Yangtze, I think, which is actually called something else in Cantonese. I don't remember what it's called. The weather was starting to get cold, so our pictures didn't come out that well. In the building where we stopped, we met a government-paid artist who painted stuff inside crystal balls. It's a lot prettier than I'm making it sound. My parents bought a few.
Next day is WuXi, where we'll go to Taihu, a great lake.