Nanjing

Nanjing means South Capital

(Beijing means North Capital).

Nanjing was twice the capital of China. First in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and again as the capital of the People's Republic of China in the early part of the 20th century.

There is a highway tunnel under this lake. We drove through it when we came back to the train station the last day in Nanjing. Apparently they built it just to be different. Pretty cool.

Ray and I took the bullet train from Kunshan to Nanjing, two hours. It was very comfortable and fast. We met up with 4 of his friends - two from Liuzhou, two from college. His birthday was on the 5th of May, so he had lots of friends around for his big day.

Nanjing has many nice sites to visit, but it isn't really a touristy city. The first day that we toured around, we hardly saw any foreigners. It seemed I might be the only ET in Nanjing.

Ray and his friend Charles hadn't seen each other since college 3 years ago.

We visited a Chairman Mao museum and saw lots of buttons worn by the chinese people during his rein. Also many statues and pictures of Mao.

Nanjing had a 33km long city wall which was the longest city wall ever construced according to Lonely Planet. Most of the wall is still standing. Zhonghua gate had 4 rows of gates and could house 3000 soldiers.

Of course we had a nice meal in the evening. In Nanjing, they seem to really like duck. It was very tasty.

We also had big bone soup which I had in Liuzhou as well. The object is to suck the bone marrow out of the center of the bone using a straw. It's tasty!

I got up early one morning and went for a walk along the outside of the city wall which is all park area. I watched many people doing Tai Chi, playing badminton, and old men congregating to listen to their singing birds.

May 5th was Ray's 25th Birthday. It was a beautiful day and he got to spend it with many friends. We joined thousands and thousands of people who climbed ZiJin Shan to go to the Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum.

We waited for a long time and put up with lots of pushy, rude chinese people to get the honor of seeing his casket. Sun Yat Sen is known as the father of modern China.

It was a beautiful day for walking around and site seeing.

One of Ray's friends is also from Liuzhou like Ray and told us that there was a Luosefen (spicy snail soup noodles) restaurant in Nanjing. Ray loves Luosefen (me too) and he really misses it. So he was really looking forward to eating it for his birthday. Unfortunately when we got there we found that it was closed. The owners had gone back to Liuzhou for the holiday. Damn!

So instead, we had Duck Blood Noodles and Duck neck. It was good. As a treat we also had Vanilla Coke. Wow that was good!

Ray and his friends thought this sign was really funny. It says that it is an honor to stop at the red traffic light. Apparently the government says that there are 12 honors and 12 dis-honors. I didn't get them all but they are things like: honor your country, honor your parents, it's an honor to learn science, etc... stopping at red lights isn't on the official government list.

All vacations must come to an end, and so did this one. I had quite a trip home from Nanjing. Train one day, bus and plane the next day and bus again on the third day. Of course i could have just flown from Nanjing and taken a taxi all in one day but that would have been too easy. I need the practice of getting around on my own in China. I just may get a chance to do a lot more of it here soon.

Stay tuned.

Shanghai - Old and New

Old and New Shanghai

During the Chinese Labor holiday, I spent a couple of days in Shanghai with friends. During this trip I saw lots old things and lots of new things standing side by side.

Shanghai has a river running down the middle of it, the Huangpu River. Along the west side of the river is a famous street called the Bund.

Qiufeng and Xiaolong on the Bund, Shanghai. Pearl Tower in the background.

On the west side of the river is Pu Xi, the old city. In Pu Xi, you see a lot of old city with the new city rising in the background.

On the west side of the river is Pu Dong, the new side of the city. In 1990, PuDong was just boggy farmland providing vegetables to Shanghai markets. Now it is a growing city of sky scrapers. There are still a lot of old buildings in the city. And the background for these old buildings is the sky scrapers of the new city.

Looking down an old street in Pu Xi you can see Pearl Tower across the river in Pu Dong.

Everywhere you look in Shanghai you see old and new mixed together.

We went to the Nanjing Walking Street which is the main shopping area of Shanghai city center.

It was packed with people day and night. Lots of the neon China is famous for.

Domestic life in Shanghai. Drying laundry in Shanghai.

There is a trendy new shopping and dining area in Pu Xi called Xin Tian Di which means "new sky and earth".

This is a museum in Xin Tian Di. Looks very cool at night.

We even saw a super skinny Spider Man in Xin Tian Di.

We went to the Kia X-Games Asia 2007. It included BMX, Skate boarding, In-line skating, rock climbing, motor cross, a concert and other events.

Ray has scoped out all the Dairy Queens in every city he has every been to.

He got me to try a Green Tea and Chocolate Blizzard. There are some things about China I may never get used to. Green Tea ice cream is just wierd.

In Shanghai, you will see a traditional Chinese Tea House selling the same green tea that has been drank in China for centuries. And, just across the street, you might see Dairy Queen selling Green Tea ice cream. The old and the new are everywhere around you in Shanghai.

Qi Bao (七宝）Snack Street - Shanghai

Qi Bao Snack Street in Shanghai was a fantastic memory of the Chinese holiday.

I really got a taste of Chinese people on holiday. Chinese people are a dichotomy. They are some of the nicest, kindest, most friendly and helpful people I have ever met in my life and they can also be the rudest when they are in crowds. Why do they think they need to push and shove and cut in line? I got to stand in lots of lines during the holiday and got to experience lots of rude and pushy people. They were really driving me crazy.

Qi Bao Snack Street was really cool. So many cool foods that I had never seen or tried before. My friends and I tried lots of fun snacks. And there are many more that I didn't try. I would love to go back again some day and try some more.

Big spicy shrimp or langostine (lobsters without claws). I had these a couple of times during the holiday. Ray and I both really like spicy food. So these were just right.
Candied fruit on skewers.

Any kind of a bird on a stick! Didn't try these yet, but I will, someday... Chicken feet and other bird parts wrapped in banana leaves and other things.

More Chicken Feet. I really don't understand the Chinese obsession with Chicken feet. I've tried them several times, and they can spice them so that they taste pretty good, but it's just skin. And if you think about where those feet have been,... I don't get it! They have this thing with human feet being dirty and disgusting. I kind of get it with the squat toilets and dirty streets and all that. I just recently learned that it is a huge insult to cross your legs and point your foot at or show the bottom of your foot to another person. But do they think chicken's feet are cleaner than human feet?
While we're on the topic of chickens, these are apparently chickens baked in clay or mud. Didn't try this yet either. How long ago were they put in the mud and stuck in the fire to burn. I'm sure the red paper is for luck.
I think this was pork. The chinese eat every part of every animal. Usually it's cooked, but this didn't looked cooked. This window wasn't too crowded but I definitely saw people eating this stuff.

Just another people shot. A day in the life of a foreigner in china. Blonde highlights kind of stick out in a crowd like this. I feel like ET in a crowd.

A beautiful river and old chinese architecture.

Look at all the people on the bridge. Being on that bridge was like being at a rock concert.

When you are in China on a national holiday, you will experience some amazing sights.

I will definitely check out any snack street I come across in my future travels thru China.

A Train Ride in China

My First Long Haul Train Ride In China

(April 29th - May 7th, 2007)

Travelling in China during a holiday weekend is quite an experience.

There are only two 1-week holidays in China and it seems that most Chinese want to travel during these two weeks. Many chinese work at least 6 days a week and long days without overtime pay or weekends or holidays. So, when they do get a chance to have a holiday, they want to do something fun.

All the transportation routes are packed, and getting tickets can be a nightmare. They schedule extra trains and buses. There are crowds everywhere. I wanted to experience the real china, so I decided to take the train to Shanghai with my friend Qiufeng. I'd heard nightmare stories about the trains, but I wanted to experience it for myself. It wasn't so bad.

At first we were only able to get a hard seat ticket for 24 hours. That would have been torture, but it could be even worse. Some people can only get "standing tickets" which means you don't have a seat at all. You have to stand or sit on the floor or your luggage or stand in the aisles...for 24 hours!!! My friend's Dad works for the train station and helped us get sleeper tickets. There are different levels of sleeper tickets. Cabins with 2 or 4 beds and hard sleepers are with about 60 beds in one cabin.

That's where we ended up. In the hard sleepers there are 3 levels, bottom bunk is the most desirable. No climbing and you can sit up in bed and look out the window. No privacy, but quite convenient. Middle bunks are ok and in the top bunks where we were, you can't really sit up straight.

One interesting thing about the train is that the toilets on the train are the easiest squat toilets to use in China. As my friend Mike pointed out. The secret to squat toilets is "three point stance". In other words, the easiest way to do it is to hold onto or lean on something. Anyway, in the toilets or "closet pots" on the train, they give you a handy handle to hold onto.

But we survived with the help of a good book and lots of junk food.

It was the start of a good chinese adventure.