Weekend in Nanjing

After weeks of wanting to, we finally made it to Nanjing for the weekend. Nanjing, which literally translates to "South Capital," is full of history, some of it tragic. Yesterday afternoon, we set out for a long walk through the city, stopping for people-watching and coffee breaks along the way (see the dueling Costa Coffee vs. Starbucks stores in the photo album.) Our walk took us to a portion of the old city walls, built during the Ming Dynasty. What was left was open for wandering around and felt very untouched (especially the incredibly steep stairs leading down to the road!) From there, we headed up to Purple Mountain, home of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen's mausoleum. Viewed by many Chinese as the founder of modern China, he's interred in a marble tomb 300 long steps up the mountain. Not a bad view for a resting place! We finished that night off with some delicious Korean food.

Today, we enjoyed our hotel breakfast buffet (now the third time since being in China that I've had cereal and milk. Yum. Also, they sprinkled a little cinnamon on the cappuccinos. Excellent.) Following that, we visited the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre, a difficult but essential stop on any city tour. Nanjing was invaded by Japanese soldiers in 1937 and over the period of a couple of weeks, 300,000 Chinese were killed. The museum pays tribute to them and also is home to a mass grave of thousands of the victims. Though the museum eludes to the difficult history between the two countries, it does urge visitors to work for lasting peace. From there... off to the train station and back to real life.

More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/4420.

The Newly Reopened Bund!

The Bund, the area of Shanghai just west of the river, has been under construction since we got here in August. It's one of the city's most iconic spots and has been getting a face-lift for the World Expo (which is set to open on May 1.) It finally reopened to pedestrian traffic this month and is an awesome expanse of walking paths overlooking the river and facing the PuDong skyline. Jeff and I went on Sunday to check it out. It happened to be pouring rain and incredibly foggy, but was still worth seeing. More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/4399.

Shao Mai

I figured that it's been a while since I'd posted about food. So, here's another treat: Shao Mai, steamed dumplings stuffed with rice and pork, can be bought from street vendors. (This batch came from right outside of our school gates.) They cost 4 kuai (about 60 cents) for eight. They're best eaten warm and served with vinegar.

Rainy Days

Someone told me recently that Shanghai has the same average number of overcast days as Seattle. Not sure if that's true, but it's sure felt true recently. Nonetheless, we ventured out into the rain yesterday and Jeff snapped this shot of the sea of umbrellas on Nanjing Road. A little weather is no match for the crowds!

Spring in Hangzhou

Final trip recap: Before heading  back to Shanghai, we spent one more night in Hangzhou and enjoyed a beautiful Monday off wandering around. We've been to Hangzhou a few times by now, but were able to find parts of the city that we'd yet to explore. These included the Qinghefang Old Street, which was full of street vendors and colorful stalls (including the portrait artists picture above) and the maze-like Xihu Tiandi, which is a series of coffee shops and restaurants connected by bridges jutting out onto West Lake.

 

The weather was absolutely perfect, leading to one of the prettiest days we've had all year. More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/4293.

Country Roads

Third installment of the trip recap: Before leaving the mountains, we had a delicious feast (mostly of veggies and tofu) at Mr. Cheng's restaurant. His daughter joined us for the whole meal and had fun teaching us Chinese words and correcting our pronunciation. From there, we hopped on a bus to Hangzhou. The four-hour ride, largely through Anhui Province, was beautiful. Canola fields were in full bloom on both sides of the road, often terraced up the mountains, interspersed with fields of tea.

 

More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/4258.

On the Mountain Top

Here's the second installment of our trip recap: In Tongkou, we stayed at the Sinotrans Hotel, which was a large, mountain-lodge-y feeling kind of place. It was the perfect launchpad for exploring the mountains, which we did on Sunday. We took a bus to the base of the mountain and then a cable car up. The cable car ride was eight minutes long, traveling up, down, and over multiple peaks. Shortly before we got to the top of Huangshan (the Yellow Mountain), we were completely enveloped in fog. The mist stayed with us throughout our few hours of hiking around the peaks, which made for mystical (pun intended) views of nearby peaks and trees.The sun was starting to peak through and burn off the fog by the time we headed down from the mountain, giving us a few gorgeous parting shots.

 

More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/4094.

Emerald Valley

Weekend Trip Recap Part I: We started our trip with a night in Hangzhou, at the eccentrically decorated Milan hotel (carpeted doors and walls?) From there, we took a bus to the city of Tongxi, at the foot of the Yellow Mountain area. The ride was smooth, with the exception of the three people throwing up the whole way in the seats in front of us. (Something they ate?) From Tongxi, we got on a minibus to Tongkou, which sits near the entrance gate to the mountains. We showed the bus driver our hotel information there. He responded by pulling to the curb and telling us to get out soon after we'd gotten into town. We were confused, as our hotel was nowhere in site, but then we saw that we'd been dropped in front of "Mr. Cheng's Restaurant," with its welcoming "English Speaking Tourist Information" sign. Mr. Cheng himself came right out to help us and before long, he'd gotten us bus tickets for our return trip, driven us to our hotel, and taken us to the Emerald Valley scenic area.

 

The valley was beautiful. It was the site of some of the filming of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and had great hiking through the mountains, along some of the clearest water I've seen in China. There were sparkling blue pools of water and waterfalls every few meters. Along certain bridges and gates, padlocks were hanging. These were put up by couples who, following tradition, threw the key away so their love will always be locked in place there.

 

We finished the day with a great dinner (and Huangshan Beer) at Mr. Cheng's. More pictures here: http://hsinchina.shutterfly.com/4024?size=All&startIndex=0 and more of the trip to come soon.

 

Misty Mountain Memories

We're back from our weekend trip to the mountains. The trip was wonderful - excellent weather, fairly smooth transportation, great hiking, good food... I have lots of pictures to wade through and upload, which I'll do over the next few days. In the meantime, enjoy this shot that we took from the top of one of the peaks. It was so misty while we were up there that we got only occasional glimpses of the surrounding peaks. This matched the images that I'd seen in paintings of the area and added to the mystique of the experience.

Off to Huangshan!

Monday is "Tomb Sweeping Day" in China, a national holiday meant for getting together with family and remembering loved ones who've died. (And, quite literally, cleaning off their graves and offering gifts.) It's a national holiday, which means our first day off of the semester. We're celebrating by heading to Huangshan, China's "Yellow Mountain." Huangshan is part of a mountain range in nearby Anhui province that is the subject of many iconic paintings and images.

 

To get there, we're taking a train to Hangzhou tonight and will then take a four-hour bus ride from there to the town of Tangkou tomorrow. Not a bad place to celebrate Easter!

 

(Picture stolen from wikimedia.org.)