My first visit to China

Fuzimiao - Confucius Temple - at night!

It was exactly 2 years ago, on October 15th 2018, that I woke up in China. It would be my first time in China, and some trip it was. I came for business, as usual :). 6 months later I will be back with my fiancee for a longer stay with some more cities to visit.

I landed the day before at Shanghai Pudong International Airport. Shanghai was not my main destination however. Nanjing was where I was headed to. Luckily, my Singaporean colleague Nelson equipped me with some very thorough and very needed instructions on how to take a Taxi from Shanghai Pudong to Shanghai Hongqiao from where I would take the fast train to Nanjing. I also received thorough instructions on how to buy the train ticket with my passport. Thanks Nelson! That saved me!

Hongqiao train station looked more like an airport with a very modern and shiny central area with plenty of shops and restaurants. From here one could go down to the platforms only a few minutes before the train arrives. Everyone paid for their ticket with an ID and no one could enter the station without the ID and the ticket and there were plenty of CCTV cameras with face recognition. This may sound like too much for some people, but I actually preferred it this way. I didn't need to double check is my wallet in place and I wouldn't need to worry about taking a nap on the train with all my belongings.

The station was as modern as it gets!

The train was fast!

With Nanjing being only 300 kilometres away and with the train occasionally reaching 300 km/h it didn't take long to reach Nanjing! Just a bit over 2 hours. One more adventurous Taxi ride from the station and I will be on my way! That night I didn't see much of Nanjing! After a very long overnight flight without much sleep I just had some very light and healthy meal at a restaurant under the hotel, lots of water and I was ready to catch up with sleep - tomorrow will see me wake up early and do 21 miles of walking - which I know since I allow Google to track my movement and then I can access it in my history. This works even in China, at least with a foreign phone and a data roaming package.

I managed to forget what I ate! Looks like a vegan dish with roasted butternut squash and some edamame! It wasn't bad!

A promising view!

The meal was good, the view was promising and the sleep was deep after staying up for some 12 hours beyond my usual bedtime. I woke up before dawn and before breakfast time! Luckily for me, the staff at the reception agreed to open up the swimming pool for me. A swim was exactly what was needed after a long deep 8 hours sleep. Especially for someone who doesn't sleep that much. After the hotel breakfast I would hit the road and walk. Walk as much as I could. I mostly walked, to tire myself well so that I could adjust to the 8 hour time zone difference better.

The day started with a walk through the neighborhood. Busy streets left a strong impression on me. They were planted with big trees resembling chestnuts and had separate lanes for electric scooters. As the time was passing more and more people were walking and many of them were eating breakfast as they were moving. I headed in the direction of the Nanjing wall. That's not the Great Wall of China but a very impressive 600 year-old city wall encircling 55 square kilometres. From 14th century when it was built up until 17th century it was the greatest city wall in the world. A lot of it is preserved with some impressive gates.

As I walked towards it I could visit various neighborhoods and various streets. I would look a bit in the back streets, sometimes to discover a school with the morning playing of the national anthem and sometimes to discover an ancient housing block which looked as if being prepared for demolition.

Nanjing looked tempting at dawn.

I started my day with something to eat at the hotel.

Everyone seemed to be munching down on something.

Boulevards of Nanjing looked this empty only at dawn.

Interesting electric scooter cover for the cold days.

More statement scooter covers! Cuteness seems to be the theme!

I was never too good at deselecting photos.

Chinese taxi and another proof of my deselection skills at work.

Don't know what this is but seems like state sponsored graffiti.

Seems to be about the recent addition to the People's Liberation Army Navy: an aircraft career!

Ready for renovation: This was probably a very cool housing block during the early days of the PRC.

Bicycles - I thought I would see more. Perhaps this was "China as it used to be".

More and more people were walking around and soon I was also able to purchase a Chinese breakfast pancake. No photo taken here, but a quick google search tells me this was Jian Bing. I just pointed a finger at one of them and I gave way too much money to the humble old lady that was making them. She smiled at me and gave most of my money back. It was a fun experience and a great second breakfast for an avid walker.

It wasn't long until I managed to reach one of the more famous gates of the Nanjing wall!

After paying to enter I could enjoy the views and do a bit more of walking. Interesting to see where also groups of local people preparing for some kind of a performance half way between folklore and martial arts. Another interesting item were signs in Chinese and English instructing people to behave well on their visits. Some of the translations were a bit unusual.

In front of the Zhonghua gate of Nanjing wall or "Gate of China"

Zhonghua gate is 600 years old and the stones are still original. Creation of the wall marked the rise of Ming dinasty, the first dinasty to have Nanjing as a capital.

Beautiful vista from the Nanjing city wall.

View of the wall half a year later in 2019 when it was decorated on the occasion of lantern festival.

More of the 2019 lantern festival.

Already the first taste of Nanjing was impressive - old walls were not world's biggest for 300 years without a reason. Nanjing was the first capital of Ming dynasty and served as a capital of many later dynasties. Nanjing means the southern capital and Nanjing was capital of China even before Beijing, meaning the northern capital. The difference was less than half a century, but it tells a lot. The city has over 8 million inhabitants - making it a second tier city by modern Chinese standards and quite a big one by anyone else's standards. The structure of the inner streets behind the walls of Nanjing even served as a prototype for the Forbidden City of Beijing. Not much of the original inner city is left, but a lot of history is still preserved through temples, gardens, parks and canals. There is more to Nanjing then just sampling ancient China and modern China of the beaten path. One can visit the Presidential Palace - place from which Republican China was ruled between 1912 and 1937 and there is even a modern, somewhat commercial resurrection of the Republican architecture around the so called 1912 Street. It's not bad if you like expensive restaurants and upscale (feel free to read this as posh or snob) night clubs. A little bit more interesting and only a bit more affordable is the area around the Zhongshua gate (Gate of China), a kind of a resurrection of the medieval China. Better than both options is to explore temples and gardens in the less commercial downtown. Particularly around Fuzimiao, the central spot of Nanjing. The very area around the Fuzimiao, or Confucius Temple in Chinese, is well lit and beautiful at night. It it also a big walking and shoping area. Having said that, it is by all means commercial but still has a huge appeal. The place does attract crowds of tourists, but it still feels good. If nothing else, most tourists are domestic tourists, and any foreign visitor will rather feel like an attraction. Having mentioned local tourists, it seems that Chinese tourists at home and Chinese tourists in Thailand don't come from the same country. To draw a parallel it is kind of like encountering British tourists in Magaluf and then encountering British tourists in Cornwall. People from the same country may sometimes seem as if they come from another planet.

Away from the tourist sites one can simply experience Chinese life, the way traffic and anything else works, visit the huge park around Xuanwu lake where locals chill or just explore the way traffic is organised or eat numerous local delicacies. Namely the Nanjing duck!

Still, one place has to be visited - it is not a pleasant but rather sombre experience - it is the Nanjing Massacre Memorial. Unfortunately Nanjing had a dark moment during the Japanese ocupation. In December of 1937 it is estimated that 300 000 people were killed brutally in Nanjing, with many more being subjected to torture, rape, hunger and other torments. Nanjing Massacre Memorial captures both the history around those times and that sad moment very well. It's a place that makes one think.

Ultimately, the last place to visit is the Purple Mountain and Sun-Yat-Sen Mausoleum. Purple mountain is a beautiful park forest which also hosts the botanical gardens and the aforementioned mausoleum. Apart from the mausoleum itself, which is a testament of the architecture of the short lived Republican China, one can also visit an exhibition about Sun-Yat-Sen and his life and his philosophy which is still shaping China in a way, in spite of communism taking over in the end. Another place to visit is Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. More about the Purple Mountain and other sites can be found on the cityofnanjing.com. It is also a place with photos which somehow happen to be far better than mine.

I didn't visit all of these places in a day, but rather also when I came back in half a years time with Kriszti.

I still did quite a lot of walking, especially in the green areas. I only had one day for sightseeing as I had work to do afterwards, but it was good to be in China, and I did come back quickly. Below are some more photos - some from that trip and some are Nanjing photos from the trip with Kriszti where besides Nanjing we also visited Shanghai, Yangzhou, Hangzhou and Suzhou! The other cities do deserve separate blog posts. Until then more photos of Nanjing:

View from one of the gates of the Nanjing wall. Old meets modern and there are plenty of canals.

Nanjing Botanical garden.

Tree lined Nanjing boulevards - also visible a separate e-scooter lane. Great gardening.

Local communist party HQ

Bilingual book sales

Street life in one of the back streets. Commerce is everywhere and so is food.

Modern living quarters close to the old center

Next to the wall and in the city center there are plenty of parks with water and green areas. This photo is from the vicinity of Bailuzhou park

One of the eateries around Fuzimiao, these places are affrodable and allow you to just point at your food. Be sure to have a translation app with you.

Fuzimiao area during rain.

Another Fuzimiao eatery - all are really very good

On my way I stumbled upon a hospital - it looked quite nice and reassuring

Some of the statues in front of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial

Sad inscriptions under some of the statues

Outside of the Nanjing Massacre Memorial

Inside the Nanjing Massacre memorial - makes you think

A piece of 1930's - the presidential palace

Presidential desk

Garden of the silk weaving museum

Another room in the presidential palace

Bit of an appetizer on my walking day lunch. Freshly made and absolutely delicious. Edamame were great and the chili was hot!

Main dish - beef

Garden of the silk weaving museum

Fuzimiao entrance

Roasted chestnuts at Fuzimiao

One of the canals near Fuzimiao

Business dinner with the Chinese - quite a feast, especially yam pure cooked together with bull's head

Lunch at the company cantine

As simple as it gets, but one of the best meals ever. Handmade noodles in broth with beef and an egg, by a Muslim Chinese noodle specialist residing inside the plant which I visited.

Approaching the Nanjing South train station

Crabs sold at Nanjing South

Nanjing South - another train station that looks like an airport

Goodies at the train station bakery

Seats in the business class of the bullet train - only tickets left by the time I purchased mine.

Beautiful Xuanwu lake - great park to spend time in after a long haul flight

Asian classic - Koji's in a pond in a garden

Xuanwu lake continues to amaze

Not an uncommon site around lake Xuanwu

Entering the lantern festival - worth to be here during one

Lantern Festival

We stumbled upon Lantern Festival when we wanted to find the Bailuzhou park

Lantern Festival was quite impressive

More Lanterns

Who is this guy?

More of just how great Lantern Festival was!

We later took a boat ride along the Fuzimiao and it included a visit to the Lantern Festival, but I would recommend visiting both on foot and by boat.