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My trip to Nanjing and Wuxi

Unbeknownst to most of you, the Chinese National Holiday was October 1st. Because of this, I received a little holiday trip from my school, which lasted from the 3rd through the 6th. There were two destinations, Nanjing and Wuxi. The first stop was Nanjing of Jiangsu province, a city that has been the capital during seven periods in Chinese history. Then there was the second stop, Wuxi, a city which is not extremely influential in the course of Chinese history, but is currently an up-and-coming modern commercial city. Our main purpose of visiting there was to go to Tai Lake.

Part I, Nanjing

Imperial Stele Pavilion

Our first stop was at a park that featured the aforementioned pavilion, originally created in the Qing Dynasty (this was the final dynasty in China).



Click here to view more pictures.

In my opinion, there was not a lot to this park. It just offers a nice place to take a little walk and enjoy the view of the Yangzi River, the largest river in Asia, and check out some poetry that had been carved into the riverside cliffs. Nothing wrong with that, but I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The Nationalists Headquarters, Heavenly Kingdom Museum and Zhanyuan Garden

This part was my favorite of the whole trip. As my title suggests, this site is really three attractions in one.

The entrance first moved us into the Nationalists headquarters, the same government that eventually fled mainland China and formed the Taiwan government.



To tell you the truth, I am surprised that the Chinese government preserved this headquarters, since obviously the Nationalists eventually became their enemy. Perhaps one reason is that Sun Yat-Sen, the short lived initial leader of the Nationalists, is generally revered as an inspiring Chinese person who helped overthrow the ineffectual Qing Dynasty. The same cannot be said of Chiang Kai-shek, who eventually became turned against the Communist Party, which in the end ensured his loss of power in mainland China.

Located in the midst of the headquarters is a tribute to the Heavenly Kingdom of Taiping.



The Heavenly Kingdom Taiping rebellion was a civil war fought against the Qing Dynasty, and was led by Hong Xiuquan, a man who believed he was none other than the second son of God and Jesus' brother. This was a strange war indeed. On the one hand, the Qing Dynasty's rulers were Manchu, not actually Chinese in descent, but they thoroughly embraced traditional Chinese customs. On the other hand, the leaders of the Heavenly Kigdom were actually composed of ethnic Chinese, but their habits were often far outside traditional Chinese society. For example, most Chinese are not religious, something that obviously wasn't true of the Heavenly Kingdom who made its scholars study the Bible. I'm sure that many Chinese ruminated on who to follow in this battle. Well regardless, it was a slaughter. Some experts believe that around twenty million people lost their lives by the time the Heavenly Kingdom was conquered. This is more than the total casualties of WWI.

The Zhanyuan Garden sort of floats among the other parts.



I believe, but don't quote me, it was originally constructed during the Qing Dynasty, but perhaps it was as early as the Ming. Regardless, it had been here for some time, and consequently whomever was the highest official in Nanjing at the time tended to use the area as their area of recluse. I cannot blame them. Like most Chinese gardens it is quite tranquil. I wish I could experience it with no other tourists while reading a book.

Click here to view more pictures from the headquarters, garden, etc.

A Little Stroll at Night

After dinner, we all took a little stroll downtown.



Apparently, there is a Confucian temples somewhere around here, but we didn't have time to go seek it out. To tell the truth, most of the Chinese didn't seem too concerned with the history. They mostly liked to walk around and window shop, which was slightly disappointing to me, but hey, beggers can't be choosers. I did however, like the boat ride we took.

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Gaochun Old Town

This old town dates back to the Qing and Ming Dynasty.



The powers-that-be decided that because of the holiday we should stay off of the beaten path of tourists. Hence, we arrived here, a place maybe two hours away by bus from Nanjing. It does have some historical value, but really it is quite minor. What is most interesting is the architecture, which is often very old and quite exquisite. I read one of the tourists signs that said this location was often used for scenes in movies and television. That made sense to me. Anyway, the historical section was basically one street. Along it were many vendors selling various food and snacks. There was a roasted nut that I quite enjoyed. The bags of live crabs kind of freaked me out, but then again, I'm a vegetarian.

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An Early Evening Stroll

After we returned to Nanjing, we were given some free time to wander. Josef, the German teacher, and I took a little stroll.



There isn't really much to report here. I think the pictures can speak for themselves.

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Dinner

Dinner on a Chinese trip seems to be something a little more special than what I am used to.



My hosts liked to have a big meal for both lunch and dinner every day. Each time they lasted for around two hours or more and consisted of fine traditional cuisine. I don't want to sound ungrateful, because I consider my hosts to be generous, but in truth the length about drove me mad by the end of the trip. I mean, four to five hours eating every day is a long time. And since much of the conversation was in Chinese, it meant Josef and I were a little out of the loop. The poor Japanese teacher, Mr. Nomoto, cannot understand Chinese or English well. I bet he was dying. The good news is that I have tasted many dishes that would otherwise be unavailable to me, vegetarian of course.

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Part II, Wuxi

Tai Lake

Tai Lake is on the outskirts of Wuxi, and like most famous lakes, it is a good place to relax.



Lake Tai is China's third largest lake, and is filled with several islands. Three of them I found out are supposed to be well known, but I only learned that after the fact. We happened to visit three of the islands. Could these have been the three islands? I do not know. Wherever I was, they seemed to be tourist traps for the most part because much of the traditional architecture has been recently built. Nevertheless, it is not often that I have the priveledge of traveling on boats and visiting islands. And there were a few parts that were quite impressive (check out the large Taoist statue amongst the photos in the link below).

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Downtown Wuxi

This was our last stop.



Before having dinner we were given about an hour or so to roam around. To tell you the truth, it wasn't that special of a downtown, just more big buildings and shopping centers. But if you aren't ready to stop looking at my pictures yet, I have left you one last link.

Click here for more pictures

Ok folks, that's about it. After dinner we head back to Shanghai. Overall, it was quite a fun little excursion.