lights, camera...

Thanks for the feedback on the blog. It has been a fun way to track my trip and it is even more fun knowing that I'm not talking to myself. It makes it a little less lonely over here. It is surprising how isolated you can feel in a city of 8 million.

Speaking of 8 million, at least 5 million were on the move this weekend - most of them by subway. For once I had the advantage, using size to gain some much needed space on the subway. I would have taken picture but I couldn't extract my camera from my purse. It was exactly as I imagined it would be - doors to the subway open unleashing a flood of people in all directions, people stacked in face-to-armpit, fighting for that last little space. And to ensure the whole group gets into the same car, one only has to lean very hard against all the people to create space. 

We all headed out on Saturday for a full day of sightseeing. My goals was to see the South Gate. I've added a Nanjing map on the links for your reading pleasure. I've attempted to add in some helpful graphics to follow along but given my limited experience with the free editing software I downloaded, it looks like a three year old drew on the map. However, you get the basic idea.

We started at the top of the map (orange star) at the downtown campus and took #78 to the corner of the short horizontal road leading to the subway station. That little road is Hunan Road. We rode the sardine can south to the end (red dot) and then walked back up to the Zhonghua Gate (South Gate) and Confucius Temple. I am happy to report that at no time did we get lost. I even managed to match up some Chinese characters on a sign to my map - big step in conquering navigation around here.

South Gate is incredible. It is a series on walls and rooms - more like a castle than a wall. This is the view from outside the wall.

I would like to draw your attention to a couple thing in the above picture. Dude is taking his dog AND his birds for a walk. I'll elaborate another day on that phenomena. He is also outfitted in a very traditional Mao/Communist jacket and hat.

Each stone was cut to weigh 15-20 kg and inscribed with different characters and words. I guess they had a bit of time on their hands back in the Ming day.

So after we explored the wall, we set out to find Confucius Temple. I was under the false impression that it was a pagoda style temple. Instead we found this...

I think the space has changed since Confucius time - unless Confucius created the temple of shopping. I don't think I've ever seen so many people in one area. And the shopping!!

I hope to come back here a) on a weekday and b) at night. It is supposed to be incredible at night.

Back to the map: We met our Chinese student, Amy, outside one of the temple gates and headed back to the subway (red line) to go for supper (flower). If you want to eat in China, you either need pictures or a Chinese person. Anything else and you are taking your chances. Supper was relatively uneventful except for the fight over the token chicken foot in one of our dishes.

After dinner we took a walk back to Hunan Street (pink line). Hunan street is impressive during the day...

but at night it puts the Griswolds to shame. What a light show. This is what I've been waiting to see.

Today I'm off to the market and then I need to get a little work done. I forget that I'm not on holidays.

All in all, a good sight seeing day yesterday and a successful venture beyond bus #78.