I guess I haven't posted since I came back from Nanjing. As to be expected, some stuff happened since then. Most of it not too exciting, just trying new local food I never had before. Pictured on the right is Ox spine soup. I know if you saw that in the States, you'd think "That's an odd name - I wonder what's really in it?"

This is China. It's an ox spine, dummy.

I did make it to Shaoxing, which only leaves Ningbo on the list of "cities nearby I can easily travel to" list. Shaoxing isn't exactly a tourist town, but it is nice enough. It is perhaps the "oldest" city in China I've been to, in that there a sections that look trapped in time. Walking through there is like flashing back several centuries. I mostly went to visit a friend and see the nice and shiny EF school that was just built there. I can say with confidence that it is significantly more shiny than our EF. I have building envy, if that's a thing. Other sights in Shaoxing are Yu the Great's Grave (Didn't go - heard the "great" thing is an exaggeration. Maybe "Yu the Not Bad") , and Lu Xun's house. Who's Lu Xun? I don't know, some dead Chinese author. Anyway he has a museum and it's surrounded by some old timey markets. Denis and I checked out the museum by pulling the ol' foreigner trick - just walk through the door with confidence, and if anyone stops you, reply with "ting bu dong". You can go anywhere you want, moreso if you have a suit. Also there were boats.

Boats!

We had the Halloween party at work, which was really cool and made me miss Halloween at home. My job was to make/be in the Haunted House. We were supposed to build a tunnel, but they weren't able to get boxes big enough. Apparently nobody has fridgerators in China. So the few boxes we did have I turned up vertically, and got to be a "creepy moving wall that followed you". It worked, and combined with Emelia as "dead person in a coffin" and Jane as "mysterious hands that grab you", we promptly scared the shit out of some kids. There was crying, which I am very proud of.

Anyway, here's some pictures of some people, with more to probably come at a later date. Speaking of dates, the end of my contract is fast approaching. I'll be headed back to the States at some point soon, after a few detours throughout Asia. One in particular I'm very excited about.

See you all soon!

 

Serious time.

I'm having trouble coming up with words for this one, but I'll try my best. Perhaps the main "attraction", if you want to call it that in Nanjing is the museum/memorial of the rape of Nanjing. I learned a lot about what happened there, and gained more perspective than "The Japanese did some terrible things to some city during WWII".

First what I didn't realize is that this event wasn't over a long period. What I thought was the Japanese took Nanjing, held it until the end of WWII, and in general the soldiers didn't really have any respect for the residents. The numbers cited were the totals over the several years this happened. Not true.






The Chinese cite 300,000 people died, but the international estimate is "more than 200,000". Honestly it doesn't really matter, they're pretty staggering numbers either way. More staggering is that the actual thing happened over the course of 6 weeks. That's around 5000-6000 people, a day being killed. Pretty messed up.

What I like about China, in general, is that there is no "political correctness", or "censored for children". This was in full force here. There are many skeletons strewn about, with markings on them indicating their death by bayonet, crushing, bullet, etc.. It's not behind a plexiglass wall, or a photo, it's right there, on display, and you're breathing the same air.





Something very odd I noticed is that here, people were very quiet and respectful. That is incredibly unlike China. Usually people are talking loud, yelling into their phone, spitting on the ground, throwing litter about, or letting their child piss on the floor. Here, that didn't happen. It was an odd thing and kind of a reverse culture shock. TIL the Chinese have the ability to behave this way, and I wish they would do it more.





There were several poignant parts of the exhibit, and the bones in the pics so far certainly speak for themselves. A few other points were interesting, though. First they had a wall of photos containing victims and testimonials, which is to be expected. They also had former Japanese soldiers speaking of the terrible things that happened there, and asked for forgiveness. I was glad to see that really displayed well, given China's contentious relationship. There was also a giant wall engraved with the names of every known victim. It was very dark in there, and we weren't even supposed to take photos - so the one I got was the best I could do.

As selfish as it sounds, the whole magnitude of the thing didn't hit me until about halfway in. This is where they had diaries and other writings from Americans, Germans, British, and other foreigners that remained in the city to help the civilians. Before it was this foreign event that didn't really seem relevant, but seeing how they wrote, in a language I could understand and in a style of writing that was relatable... well it was something else.

By far the most impressive part of this place was "The Wall of Testimony". At least maybe that's it's name. That's what I'm calling it. It is this absolutely massive, 3 story tall wall, 3 binders deep, sorted alphabetically. Inside are folders containing thousands of pages, each testimonies from actual people, with their own writing, drawings, you name it. And you could look and touch anything you wanted. This was beyond amazing. Any doubters out there, simply visit here.







At the very end, they had a segment about the end of the war, and how they appreciate the help from all the Allied powers. They had all the various flags flying, with statements of thanks addressed to the various nations. In addition, they had their leaders saying how we should never forget history, but at the same time exercise forgiveness and promote peace.


I think this is particularly important, considering the saber rattling China and Japan are doing right now, I think they need to listen to their own advice. Overall it was the highlight of the trip for me, and I was impressed it wasn't filled with in-your-face nationalism. In fact, it seemed to have a pretty good attitude about it. This guy sums it up pretty well:

"Test Tube Infant" - Awesome.

We did a lot in Nanjing, and I don't want to write a novel. So go go go!

Upon arrival, it was nice to see a subway system. Once more, they give you cute little blue tokens to use. At 2 RMB a piece (30 cents), it's pretty cheap too. Not to mention they would make really cool poker chips.

Our hostel was a bit of an ordeal to find, because it was inside another building complex. It looked like an old military base, with all sorts of gates and guard buildings. We walk in and eventually find a sign, in front of a path into the woods. For serious? After walking this path, it opens up into a bar with a pond and a cat chilling out.

I like this place.

I'm there, promise.

It had the added convenience of being very far from the road, but not very far from the train tracks. I slept through them, but on occasion the train would rumble on by to wake everyone up. Bastard train drivers! But it was in a great location and cheap. Can't beat that.

The first night was some walking about the street markets near the Confucian Temple. That's where we found the aforementioned bunny pastries. It was pretty late, so onto day two.

Pictured - the best thing ever.

Day two was a trip to Purple Mountain. There was Dr. Sun Yat Sen's memorial, which is pretty far up this gorram mountain. The Chinese really like their stairs. Afterwards we took a boat out onto the lake. Our navy man Sean was our Captain, and only managed to beach the boat once. That evening was dinner at a genuine German beer garden, which was pretty much the best thing ever.

The next day we went to the park, I got to feed/hold pigeons, another museum where I'm not really sure what was about, and a walk along the city wall of Nanjing. Quite pretty, that is. After we went to see the actual Confucius's Temple, and I got drunk on another boat. Well, tipsy I guess. I bothered the driver with questions such as "Can you make this boat go really fast?" and "Can Sean drive?" That night we had Indian food, which was amazing but Guru in Cincinnati is still better. The final full day was the Rape of Nanjing Museum, but like I said that deserves it's own entry. The next morning we went to an exhibit about the Taiping Rebellion, something you've probably never heard of. But 20 million people died, and the rebels controlled about half of China at one point. They also blew up the Death Star.

Godamn rebels.

I went to Nanjing this weekend. It has stuff like bunny shaped baked goods.

It's National Holiday in China, marking the end date of the Republic of China (AKA Taiwan), and the founding of the People's Republic of China (AKA, the current government). I guess before it didn't belong to the people? Well, whatever. Go big red.

Regardless of circumstances, I get a week off of work, so yay to whomever. Myself and 4 others decided to pop up to see Nanjing, aka the south capital. Seriously, that's what it translates to. Beijing means north capital. Not very inventive with names, the Chinese.

Perhaps known as the actual capital of China during the ROC years (1912-1949), and best known as the place where the Japanese got a bit nasty during WWII. AKA The Rape of Nanjing. Twas a bad time. I went to the Memorial/Museum, but I'd rather do a separate entry just on that to keep this one more upbeat. It's not good.

Anyway, modern Nanjing has a rep as a cool place. I will say this - it was cleaner than Hangzhou, but not as pretty. Does that make sense? Maybe it was just the weather, but the sky was more blue. Overall I honestly didn't care for Nanjing all that much. I mean, the trip was fun. But I wouldn't want to live there. It just seems, somehow, to have less character than Hangzhou. The subway's nice though. The next blog post will be about what we actually did there, but for now, I have to give the finger to Nanjing.

You sit on a flowery throne of lies

On three separate occasions, I/we got cheated pretty badly. I'm used to haggling in China. Honestly I love it. You negotiate, talk everything back and forth, get what you want, you both have a laugh, and go on your way. In Nanjing it's like that, except for the part when you get what you want. I had a nice conversation with a dumpling lady in Chinese that went as follows:

Meat dumplings please.
I only have two left.
No problem, two is fine.
2 RMB, thank you!
<bite>
These are cabbage dumplings.
Oh, I guess I had none left.
Soo... can I have my money back?
No you cannot!.

Other scams were a cab driver suddenly wanting the fare to mean "per person" instead of total. We overpaid a small amount because when we told him to get bent, he of course wouldn't give us change. And a guy who took money for a SIM card we didn't want, and refused to refund it.

So overall, I find Nanjing people to be more rude. Also the girls were not as cute as in Hangzhou/Shanghai. There, I said it Nanjing. Step it up, you're lacking behind in my stupid Chinese city ranking system. I'm on the internet, it's kind of a big deal.

Right, except nobody in Nanjing can see this.