The trip started out on a low note when someone lifted my cell phone from my pocket on the way to the train station. Brian and I were meeting friends for dinner before we left, and the taxi pulled up next to two men who were selling tickets for something. I put the phone in my jacket pocket as I got out, said no to their offer and went around the back of the car to get my bag. I immediately felt something missing, but it was too late. The phone had already been powered off by the time we called it. So no more phone.
I didn't have much time to dwell on it, however, since our train was leaving soon. We met Niall at the station and took the sleeper train to Nanjing - we had bunks this time so it was an easy trip.
Once at the hostel we met up with David, who teaches in Zhengzhou. He had been stuck in nearby Hangzhou for several days due to the snow on the roads - and once he finally got out, what should have been a 4-hour bus ride to Nanjing ended up taking more like 28. The unusual winter storm everyone's been hearing about came just before the annual Spring Festival, the most important holiday in China. Over the course of about two weeks people make 2.37 billion journeys by car, train and plane, making it the single largest annual human migration in the world. The worst delays were in the south, however, with as many as 500,000 people stranded at the Guangzhou train station. One woman was trampled in a stampede. I was worried we'd run into similar delays, but we didn't have a single problem.
Our first day in Nanjing (photos here) we went to the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre. Over six weeks, starting on December 13, 1937, the Japanese army killed more than 300,000 soldiers and civilians, raped 20,000 women and destroyed the city, which was then the capital. Crazed Japanese soldiers would hold killing contests, dividing people into groups around a pit to be shot, beheaded or bayoneted. Two officers in particular couldn't agree on which of them had been the first to kill 100 people, so they set 150 as the new marker. Chinese people were conscripted to dispose of the bodies, then executed. You can find out more here.
We spent a few hours at the museum, which is on the site of a partially excavated mass grave. Maybe it was my overactive imagination, but as I was standing there reading about where we were it was like I could feel an energy under my feet. The thick layer of newfallen snow had an added effect, something so pure and untouched blanketing something so ugly.The next day we started at the Fuzi Confucian Temple, around the corner from the hostel, which was all dressed up for the Spring Festival. From there we went to Zhonghua Men, one of the original 13 gates built to encircle the city during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).
On the last day we made our way to Purple Mountain, which was a nice escape from the smog in the city. The Sun Yatsen Mausoleum is there, but we opted instead to see the Ming Xiaoling Tomb - belonging to Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang.
Tuesday morning we took the train a short two hours to Shanghai (photos here). I was there for a few days in August for my training seminar, but the hotel was out by the airport and there was no time for us to go downtown. At the hostel we met up with Sam, a friend from Tribune days, who took us on a walking tour down East Nanjing Road and along the Bund. We met his girlfriend Angel for dinner somewhere in the French Concession.
On Wednesday (New Year's Eve), we visited the Shanghai Museum, displaying thousands of years of Chinese painting, seals, coins, calligraphy, sculpture, costume and metalwork. Then we took the touristy Bund Sightseeing Tunnel across the Huangpu River to the Pudong New Area, which in the past 20 years has been transformed into a thriving financial and shopping district. We bypassed the Oriental Pearl Tower in favour of the Jinmao Tower, China's tallest building at 420 meters (although it's set to be surpassed by the 492-m Shanghai World Financial Center being constructed next door). The 53rd to 87th floors are occupied by the Hyatt, with an expensive bar at the top. From our table we watched fireworks explode all over the city... but the real fireworks wouldn't start until later.
Back at the hostel bar David spotted Yuko, a Japanese teacher he knows in Zhengzhou whom we had met in Qingdao back in November. She was in town for the night on her way back to Japan, so she joined us for dinner at a place called Peter's Tex-Mex. The Mexican food was decent, but more importantly they had the most amazing chocolate cake at a time I was really craving it.
We retired to the hostel, interrupting our card game just before midnight when the constant fireworks drew us outside. I don't have video, but here's an example someone took in Beijing:
So you can imagine what it was like on the ground. One woman told us that families might spend RMB 3,000-4,000 (US$418-557) on firecrackers, rockets, sparklers, etc. to scare away evil spirits as they usher in the new year. Not surprisingly, China is the world's largest manufacturer and exporter of fireworks (75%).
On New Year's Day we met up with Anna, also from Zhengzhou, and went to the Yuyuan Bazaar (above) for jiaozi (dumplings) before touring the famous Ming gardens, which were built from 1559 to 1577.
On Friday we visited the Propaganda Poster Art Centre, a small gallery displaying posters from 1949 to 1979. Deng Xiaoping discontinued their use in 1979 and many were destroyed, but some have survived. The gallery owner started collecting them 12 years ago and now has more than 5,000. The posters glorify Mao, demonize his opponents, urge support for the North Koreans in the Korean War and resistance against American imperialism, demand increased steel production and encourage the Chinese to support Vietnam protestors in the U.S. and fight for social justice around the world.
Not far from the gallery was the Site of the 1st National Congress of the CCP, where Mao, 11 other Chinese and two Russian observers met in July 1921 to establish party principles while authorities searched them out.
We spent our last day in Shanghai at the Jade Buddha Temple and the Shanghai Urban Planning Exhibition Hall, which contains historic photographs and a large scale plan of the city as well as exhibits on Shanghai real estate, transportation, tourism, airports and development in Pudong. We were left with just enough time to stand in line for fried dumplings at a very popular place we had passed the day before. Back at the hostel we said goodbye to Anna, who was staying a few more days, and David, who was catching a flight to Guangzhou, and headed to the train station.
The trip back was uneventful, but in the meantime Sam and Angel had flown up to Beijing for a few days, so I was able to see them, Angel's brother and sister-in-law for dinner Sunday night before they returned to Shanghai the next day.
So that was the trip - and I still have almost two weeks left before classes start! I figure I'll hang around here for a few days and probably go to Xi'an before the break ends.
(Also, the week before Nanjing we visited Dong Yue Miao, a Daoist temple in downtown Beijing. Photos are here.)
China Fun Fact: Tibet (pop. 2.8 million) received 4 million visitors last year.
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