First Date with Nanjing

When we arrived on Sunday night, it was cold and rainy. By the time we boarded the train to Suzhou on Wednesday, it was a fond farewell to Nanjing.

Since I've missed a few days, i'll be short on words and put in some pix to tell the tale :-)

First cold rainy night, we cabbed it to the Confucius Temple area, which has come a long (touristy) way from being an educational institution imparting Confucian teachings. The presence of many locals as well as tourist groups led by tour guides with loudhailers at that time of day confirmed that this is a "night" attraction. Interestingly, the cinema there was showing "Confucius" the movie starring Hong Kong star Chow Yun Fatt.

Monday morning was much better weather-wise. We finally saw the sun and made our way to the Purple Mountain. This was the last week of the International Plum Blossom Festival 2010. It's a breath of fresh air getting to highland away from the polluted city. However, a guide said that the plum blossom blooms were not as great this year; it rained the first two weeks of the month-long festival. And I thought the blossoms were wonderful already! At the Purple Mountain, one should also see the Ming Tomb of the first emperor of that dynasty and its Sacred Way (lined with stone statues of civil and warrior officials and various animals). This was the pioneer that influenced the layout of later Ming and Qing tombs found outside Beijing. We spent half a day there and barely visited half the attractions on Purple Mountain; one can imagine why the locals enjoy a leisurely summer day retreat to these environs.

After much exercise on Monday, we sought some muscular reprieve at the Presidential Palace in Nanjing city on Tuesday. The sunny weather bolstered our spirits after the wet welcome to this ancient capital to six dynasties a few days earlier. The Presidential Palace is a place for history lovers. It has been occupied by at least six noteworthy personages in their generation, all the way from Prince Han of the Ming dynasty, through to Sun Yat Sen, through to Chiang Kai Shek. Sun Yat Sen is held in very high esteem here, seeing as he is the "Father of modern China". There was a nice, educational exhibition dedicated to telling his story, with photos, English captions and some artefacts. There was more to see and savour slowly, but we had to rush through the sprawling grounds towards our next destination of the day.

Next after modern China history was a hark to the more distant past -- Zhonghua Gate of the Ming dynasty. This is a huge gate set within the southern city walls, the largest of its kind in China. In fact, during the first Ming emperor's reign, these city walls were the most extensive in the world. There are interesting details on the design and function of the gateways, citadels and portcullises. Were we seriously expecting muscular reprieve with this? I thought the hike up to the Ming Tomb the day before was the most strenuous on this trip. But the climb up the ramp to the top of the wall was another workout. I wonder about the horses who had to carry generals in full armour up the steep incline; they must be very strong animals!