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Today was really fun; we got up pretty early and ate
breakfast at the hotel. The food was insanely good
and we all stuffed our faces, as good Americans do.
We then boarded our not-so-high-end bus and traveled
around Nanjing city dodging the crowds of people
along the narrow roads. Nanjing is the capital of
the Jiang Su province, and it is known as the “stone
city.” The population is 6 million, the city flower
is the plum blossom, and the city tree is the pine.
Nanjing lies along the Yangzi River and is famous
for its salty duck dishes (that we experienced later
in the day).
Our first stop was
the tomb of Dr. Sun Yat Sen. The construction of the
tomb began in 1925 when he died. The mausoleum cost
150 million dollars to build, and consists of stone
statues carved in the JiangSu province. The actual
body was buried 5 meters below the actual tomb at
the top of the mountain.
Anyways, enough of
the boring stuff. After we hiked up the steps to the
burial site, we came out of the tomb and were
immediately bombarded by hundreds of Chinese school
kids. They all raced towards us and asked us in
almost distinguishable English to take pictures with
them. So for about thirty minutes we got true
celebrity treatments from swarms of eager young
Chinese children. Walking back down the steps to our
van seemed impossible when every 5 steps there were
groups of kids grabbing our arms and snapping
pictures. We finally made it back to the bus and
drove to the Ming tomb.
The Ming tomb was
really neat. It featured a famous pathway with 600
year old stone carvings of animals from the Ming
Dynasty. We climbed on the backs of some of them,
but later found a sign that said to keep off of
them. But, of course, Charles disregarded these
posted signs and stood on the back of a lion farther
up the path.
After the Ming
tomb, we ate lunch in Nanjing, and then traveled to
the famous YangZi River Bridge. Constructed in the
1960s, it was the first bridge to have been built by
the Chinese citizens themselves.
The next stop was
the Nanjing Massacre Museum and Memorial. The
Massacre of Nanjing, also called the Rape of Nanjing,
occurred in 1937. We visited the memorial site of
the brutal murders of 300,000 Nanjing citizens. We
got to see an actual site of the killings, complete
with preserved bones of 208 victims. Recent
technology allowed scientists to determine the sex
and age of all of the skeletons.
We then saw the
city wall of Nanjing, constructed during the Ming
Dynasty. At that time, the wall was the longest city
wall in China. Each stone in the wall was
individually constructed by artisans who signed
their names in each stone. Our tour guide informed
us that at that time, if a stone contained a slight
flaw, the carver would be executed. The view from
the top of the wall was very beautiful, overlooking
the YangZi River Bridge.
We then went back
to our hotel and relaxed a bit, then went to dinner.
The dinner we ate was very different from previous
meals, in that they served us each 16 small dishes
of different foods. These included sesame buns, duck
and rice noodle soup, dumplings, and steamed buns.
It was all really good, but none of us could finish
each dish. After dinner, we shopped in the streets
of Nanjing for a few hours. We all bought lots of
cheap DVDs. Charles bought around 75 of them, which
only cost $50. Anyways, we were all pretty much set
free and wandered around spending way too much
money- sorry parents.
So that concludes
our day, which was a fun-filled tour around Nanjing,
complete with stares and being stalked for pictures
by other teenagers.
Shoutouts:
Meredith says HELLO to her
mother, her father, Sara Marsico, and Emily
Schnieder.
Shannon says hey to her family
and wants to know what Dad wants from China, because
she can’t find any old maps on the streets…sorry
dad!
Everyone says hello to Murphy!!
We all wish she was here with us! |
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