My husband and I have just arrived back from our Nanjing trip and this trip has certainly had highs and lows. There were moments where I felt like there was likely to be a camera crew pop up and tell us that we had been "punked", however this didn't happen.
The Moon festival occured at the end of the third week of the school year and as induction had been 2 weeks that means I have worked a total of 5 weeks, and so a break was evidentally deserved. I darted onto my e-bike as soon as I could from work and made it home 10 minutes earlier than I'd believed I could, so far so good. We grabbed out bags and headed to curb to hail a cab. There was only one problem. It appeared that there was some of form cab exodus from our area. After 20 minutes of hanging in the street and hoping and no cabs materialised. Adam raced to grab the e-bike keys and we sped to the station.
I hate being late following an incident where my alarm was so quiet I didn't hear it and had to rearrange a flight... I stopped checking the time after we got on the bike as I just didn't want to know. We'd been lucky to even get train tickets as it was so busy with people travelling home and I did not want to miss this train. I hopped of the bike and as Adam locked it up I walked speedily across the road and proceeded to miss judge the height of the curb and land sprawled infront of the bus stop. I speedily raised my head and scanned the area Meerkat style to ascertain as to how many people had seen my oh so elegant walking and praying Adam hadn't. No such luck. The great news is that I hadn't needed to rush we still had 30 minutes before our train departed. The not so great news is that not only did my knee hurt like crazy and I was wobbly, but I had ripped open the knee of my right trouser leg. I know rips are in for jeans, not chinos.
The train was uneventful and the queu for a taxi insane, but we made it to the hotel without me managing to injure myself further. It was nice to be in a hotel rather than a youth hostel for a change and I made use of both the pool and the gym despite my angry knee which I am still trying to persuade it is happy.
The concierge was sadly lacking at the hotel. They were there, but not very good at their job. We asked for a taxi to Purple Mountain, a well known site in Nanjing and they looked terribly confused. We eventually got some level of understanding and purchased a map for 5RMB and got a cab. We hadn't been in the cab long when the driver began trying to communicate with us and in the end phoned a friend who explained that due to traffic we were taking a different route. As we were on the freeway there was nothing we could do and just sat back and went with it. The cab cost 80RMB instead of the predicted 30RMB and after getting out at a busy junction we discovered we were not in the part of Purple Mountain we had asked to be dropped off at. Great.
Purple mountain has several options of places to see and things to do. We found ourselves roughly in the middle of the monuments, tombs and places to see. We started at Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum and then continued onto the Ming tombs before heading to the most ancient chair lifts possibly in existence for a climb past the observatory to the top peak and the big Buddha. With the temperature being around 30 degrees, the sun beating down and the humidity high it was not exactly the most pleasant day to be walking and hiking. I also got to the point where as much as I like the architecture the buildings were reminiscent of many others we have seen and I was glad to return to the hotel in less than half the time it took us to get to the mountain, enjoy my hotel bath robe and the pool.
Our hotel was a 5 minute walk from the Confucius Temple in Nanjing which China has awarded "AAAAA" for tourism. It must be good! The temple is surrounded by 3 small alleys that home to shops selling tourist items, beautiful crafts and the most spectacular crystals. The wider streets surrounding the temple area have larger, newer Chinese chain stores and of course the ever popular KFC. There is a section of water directly infront of the temple and there are numerous boats offering trips up and down the water. The temple itself is marketed exceptionally well. They have stunning lights that project classic Chinese images onto the pavement infront. Performers dance in traditional costumees outside and inside you can see far more superior performances as well as stunning statues, ancient tablets and other artifacts. The atmosphere is great in the temple area and just as lively during the day, but perhaps more beautiful by night with the excellent lighting.
As our hotel offered a late checkout we decided to split the last day into two trips. We went back towards the Confucius Temple in the morning to take a boat ride and stumbled upon a garden that also housed several really interesting exhibitions including conflict in Nanjing and artwotk. It was a meagre 30RMB to entrer and we were really impressed by the amount there was to see and it was well cared for. The garden wasn't as spectacular as the gardens in Suzhou, but when you put the garden and exhibitions together it was very impressive. The boat ride on the other hand was not anything to write home about.
After a lunch break at the hotel we asked the concierge to get us a taxi to the massacre museum. Sadly we ended up at a monument and nowhere near the museum at all. We saw as much as we could where we were and learnt something about the strength of the communist party in Nanjing, but were rather disappointed to not be where we wanted to be.
To round off our trip we had no problems getting to the train stationm, some issues trying to explain to a man he was in my seat and not to sit in Adam's. Then we had the pleasure of a man in front watching a loud movie with no headphones and actually snoring in a way that you only ever hear in comedies. Of course we needed 1 final problem to end our adventure and that was the taxi driver having no clue where our apartment complex was or the street it was on and so had to phone a friend.
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