Once we reached Nanjing at around 9.45am, driver Zhou was there waiting for us. Driver Zhou was a really nice person and I thank Fei Manager for helping us with the transport arrangement. It really made our trip so much easier!
Picture taken at Nanjing train station.
First place we went to was to fill out tummy and we headed to our first destination, Xuanwu Lake. For those who has been to Hangzhou’s West Lake, there is no comparison here. Xuanwu Lake is just another normal lake to us and since I have seen the best in Jiuzhaigou, no other scenery amazes me anymore. But we had a lot of fun taking pictures here with EC’s new Nikon D300 camera. Since this is the first time he is using it, he has not learnt about the functionalities yet.
Here are some pictures taken at Xuanwu Lake.
We checked into our budget hotel before heading to 1912 for lunch, a place which is similar to Shanghai’s Xintiandi. Hotel only cost us RMB200 per room, very cheap, clean and tidy. Here are some pictures taken at 1912.
After lunch, we went to the Presidential Palace (总统府) to explore the headquarters of past emperors and later, the Nationalist government. This is probably one the few places in China where the flag of the Republic of China (Kuomintang) still flies.
We took a lot of pictures here...
After visiting the Presidential Palace, we went to Confucius Temple （夫子庙）. Initially, we thought this is a temple, but then we found out that this place is like Shanghai’s Cheng Huang Miao, where it is a place full of restaurants and shopping. There is really a Confucius Temple where it used to be an examination center for Jiangsu province.
We took a subway to the final place for the day, Hunan Road Pedestrian Street (步行街), where we had dinner. After dinner, we walked back to hotel and shopped a little along the way. We were all very exhausted by the end of the day but me and Nicole still went out for a hair wash at 10pm that night because the hotel we stayed does not have anymore hair dryers to spare.
Day 2 started off with an early McDonalds breakfast before heading to the Monument of the 1937 Nanjing Massacre (江东门南京大屠杀纪念馆). This place memorializes the hundreds of thousands of Chinese who died at the hands of Japanese during WWII and features the excavated mass burial site.
It’s kinda scary in there and at one time, all of us had goose bumps. I believe this place is truly haunted with all the unrest souls who was raped and killed during that time. Harrowing but worthwhile as we get the chance to understand the history. Did not take photos while inside the monument because we are not allowed to.
Our last destination was Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum （中山陵）located at Purple Mountain. Since we have purchased the entrance ticket, we walked up to the top where the tomb was. Exhausting… and the weather felt like summer when it’s supposed to be cooling autumn!
We also took the shuttle ‘train’ around the hill to the musical fountain area.
Since we need to make sure we get to the train station by 4.30pm, we headed back to the city, had lunch and went to Nanjing train station. Took a couple of pictures here before boarding the 4.27pm train heading back to Shanghai.
When we reached Shanghai, we contacted Winston who was still busy working on a Sunday for dinner. We had a sumptuos Vietnamese cuisine for dinner.
Overall, the fun part of this trip is not about Nanjing city… Nanjing is not a place where I will make a second visit, unlike Beijing. The best part about this trip was traveling with my friends. We laughed a lot and experiment a lot with photo taking. It was really enjoyable.
3 comments:
After your photo from photofunia, i wonder if this is also some effects...ha..ha..a...ha....
I am just kidding, of course i know these are real as i have been there too.
Explorer... may i know who are you? Can't get into your blog as it is not shared to public.
To me, Nanjing is a city rich of history, but not scenery. One time visit should be enough la.
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