Touristing

Nanjing is not quite as sticky as Hefei (and in all fairness, Hefei cooled down quite a bit after a rainstorm). The bus ride here was uneventful, although I had a little difficulty hailing a cab near the bus station (many of the cabs right at the station are stubborn, and won't pull their flag without knowing how far you are going. Not far enough? Get out.), but with a couple blocks of walking, I got one. Nanjing looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.

I was greeted at the gate of 东南大学 (Southeast University. For those literally minded, it's actually Eastsouth University) by my H's father and was whisked up to his apartment to meet his wife. They stuffed my pockets with snacks (duck gizzards, pork breast jerky, and watermelon seeds--all in cute little packages) and gave me a map of the city. Wow--am I centrally located. I never would have uncovered the university hotel on my own (the one in Hefei was in the Lonely Planet. So three cheers for the local connection!

After orienting me and talking about how long I have known their son (dang--he is an old friend. It hadn't struck me earlier.) they walked me over to the university guest house. They made sure everything in my room worked and left me to my own devices.

I became quickly even more happy about the arrangements as I compared my new map to the Lonely Planet. There's a big new tourist development a ten minute walk away, the library is directly across the street from that, and the CBD is right around the corner. Dang!

In the afternoon a primary school classmate of H came to meet me and walked me around the neighborhood a bit more, then whisked me off to the city wall. After a quick dinner (it's truly amazing how different noodles can be), I grabbed a beer and hit the sack.

Today I almost got my legs walked off: but in a good way. We thoroughly explored the historic sites of 紫金山 (Purple Gold Mountain). The first Ming emperor and Sun Yatsen are both buried there, and there is a temple and a variety of other sites: including an amusement park (I think it was called the 'slide park') that would be legally impossible to have in the US. The slides that I saw were a variety of dangerous looking bridges over a pond. Each had a little cargo netting underneath to catch the kiddies if they fell out of the various torture devices.

Both tombs, one 80 years old, the other 600, were interesting in their own way. And as usual, as you'll see from the photos, I spent as much time watching the people as I did the scenery.

Tao was a great tour guide, and dropped me at the city museum when he had to go to work. Tomorrow morning is my last library meeting. I'm on my own in the afternoon, then on Tuesday we will ride bikes through the old part of town. I'm going to get spoiled from all the company. And the duck gizzards.

Click here for more Purple Gold Mountain photos.