48 Hours Left in Shanghai

Wow.

Nanjing Pictures

Full set here.

Nanjing was the capital of several governments of China, including the Taiping and Nationalist goverments. Its name actually means "Southern Capital" (just as Beijing means "Northern Capital".) The city is okay, I guess. There was nothing heart-stoppingly amazing about it, but I had a decent time. I think the main issue was that I wasn't motivated to do a whole hell of a lot, since I was by myself and had roughly 24 hours to spend there (thanks to a train delay).

First I went to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall, which commemorates the Japanese slaughter of over 300,000 Nanjing residents in 1937. The exhibits were tastefully done and really gave me a sense of what happened, which is what I wanted it's not an incident we hear much about in the West. But of course it still plays a huge role in Sino-Japanese relations today and, for me as a Jew, has parallels to the Holocaust. There is an excavated mass gravesite you can walk around, and there are various statues, which are done to look very ragged and horrifying, accompanied by poems and prose about that time.

After that I went to the mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yatsen, the founder of modern China. The memorial is up on Zijin Mountain (Purple-Gold Mountain) and is a pretty nice place. You have to climb up 392 stairs (some of which are pictured above) to get to his blue-and-white place of rest. You can circle around his body in a manner not unlike the way in which you can view Mao Zedong's body in Beijing. Around his mausoleum are some historical artifacts and facts about the man. Later on I went to the Presidential Palace, which has an interesting history. It's built on the site of a palace constructed as the seat of government for the Taiping rebels (another fascinating story I never learned about in America -- who wants to argue with a man who claims Jesus gave him a new set of internal organs?) In its current form it was the site where Dr. Sun was sworn in as president, and it's where Chiang Kaishek did his thing while he was in power. Pretty neat historical stuff. It's built in the style of a Ming Dynasty palace, with gardens, walkways, and everything. Check out the pictures, they're pretty neat.

At night I went to the Confucius Temple area, which contains a huge night market and is all lit up with neon. There's nothing spectacular about it -- I just have grown to enjoy night markets and neon, so when I heard these two things where there in abundance, I went to eat some snacks and take some pictures. Good times :-) After that I retreated to my hotel room, where I caught Spider-Man 3 (awesome) and Good Luck Chuck (which I thought I was going to hate but, surprisingly, didn't) on HBO before falling asleep.

Another thing I should mention is the train ride I took to/from Nanjing. It was so entirely comfortable that even when we were stuck on the tracks for 45 minutes outside a smaller city, I didn't mind. I just kept reading my book. It was the "first-class" train which means the seats were super wide and I had tons of leg room. Plus the cabin was nice and quiet since the ride wasn't that full. It was very relaxing; I almost didn't want to get off at Nanjing!

Well that's it for travelling in China! It's been a great year. In addition to Shanghai, I've been to Hangzhou, Beijing, Macau, Hong Kong, Huangshan, Zhuji, Shaoxing, Suzhou, Xizang (Tibet), Kunshan, Xi'an, and Nanjing. Wow. I think that's pretty damn impressive for just one year, and I feel really good about all I've been able to do. It's certainly far more travelling than I've done in the States.

My next big trip is ... you guessed it ... back home to America on Friday. Yup -- less than a week!! Can you believe it? I can't really ...

2008 in Pictures: Part 14

Date Taken: June 8th, 2008

The Nanpu Bridge in southern Shanghai. Traveling across this bridge provides an immensely beautiful view of the city, particularly as you enter from the western side by winding up a giant corkscrew ramp.



Date Taken: June 12th, 2008

Soccer!! The Dalian Shide (in white) take on the Shanghai Shenhua. Shanghai won, 3-1.



Date Taken: August 9th, 2008

A guardian of heaven on display at the Shanghai Museum, one of the country's most renowned collections of artifacts and history. It has over 120,000 pieces in its collection. And it's free! (The museum, that is -- not the guardian.) I think they did it that way to balance out the extreme lack-of-history in the rest of the city ;-)



Date Taken: August 10th, 2008

A Beijing opera performance!! Okay, so there's a little bit of history in Shanghai ;-)




Date Taken: August 18th, 2008

The Bank of China headquarters in downtown Hong Kong.



Date Taken: August 19th, 2008

Jen and me in front of the ruins of the St. Paul Cathedral in Macau.

Christmas Eve on Nanjing Dong Lu

To be fair, this place is lit up like a Christmas tree 365 days a year, so there's not too much special about tonight, except for the mutant Christmas trees that have taken root. That's all well and good, but ... where are the the 300-ft glowing menorahs?











And finally, an artsy touch-up courtesy of Picasa:



There's more: the full set is here. Damn, I love tripods.

2008 in Pictures: Part 13

Okay, I have to admit -- this blogging-every-day (more or less) thing is getting tough! I'm running out of steam to describe all these pictures. So I'm going to cut back on the descriptions (as I've been doing) and just let you enjoy the photos. That's more or less what this series is about anyway :-)

Oh and I booked my train tickets to/from Nanjing this Friday! So look forward to some pictures from there ;-)



Date Taken: May 30th, 2008

This is a view of Nanjing Dong Lu going out into The Bund and then Lujiazui, taken from the top floor of the Radisson Hotel in People's Square. I swear, sometimes I feel like I'm living in a spaceship!



Date Taken: May 30th, 2008

Serving baozi on Taikang Lu. When I get back to Austin I will go on a wild hunt for these delicious snacks. Failing that, I'll learn how to make them on my own. (Yeah, right.)



Date Taken: June 1st, 2008

DJ J Walk at The Shelter.



Date Taken: June 1st, 2008

That sure was a busy night! This is Second Hand Rose, a band from Northeastern China, playing at Windows Underground.



Date Taken: June 1st, 2008

A giant statue of Marx & Engels dominates this corner of Fuxing Park.



Date Taken: June 8th, 2008

Shot from the end of the main bar at The Shelter, when Robert Hood was there.

2008 in Pictures: Part 12

Date taken: May 1st, 2008

The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, the most famous landmark inside the Temple of Heaven park, Beijing.



Date taken: May 1st, 2008

The Houhai ("Back Sea") area of Beijing. Fun fact: Beijing is often considered an unlikely spot for a capital, because it is landlocked.



Date Taken: May 3rd, 2008

After a hard day of climbing the Great Wall of China, nothing takes the edge off like a little fried scorpion.



Date Taken: May 4th, 2008

A worker walks past some panda graffiti at the 798 (Qi Jiu Ba) Art District in Beijing.



Date Taken: May 4th, 2008

Duh :-)



Date Taken: May 22nd, 2008

My parents eating veggie food (and demonstrating their chopsticks skills!) at Gongdelin in Shanghai. My dad spent weeks practicing his chopsticks skills -- when I was home the week before, I watched while he meticulously plucked popcorn out of a bowl. I also realized why people find it difficult to eat rice w/chopsticks -- the rice we got from the Chinese restaurant at home was dry and not sticky, which made it difficult to hold.

Also worth mentioning: He was also able to successfully ask a waitress "哪儿有厕所?"



Date Taken: May 23rd, 2008

My parents in front of the Ohel Moishe synagogue in the Houngkou district, where tens of thousands of Jews lived while WWII raged. The place is lovingly kept up and has an amazing Holocaust memorial out back. Really impressive. Plus, the Chinese guard at the gate said "שָׁלוֹם" and "תודה רבה" to us :-)

Impressive, yes -- but can he sing the Four Questions? I think not!! Hmph.

Happy Birthday, Me!

Welcome to my first birthday in a foreign country :-) I feel quite strongly that it will be an excellent one. For those who don't know me, I'm 27 (but still feel like I'm five years old most days).

Bear in mind that although you'll likely read this on the 20th, my birthday is the 21st. Remember that Shanghai is half a day ahead of the US :-)

*blows kazoo*