Family visit IV: Nanjing
After Beijing, Jinan and Qufu, our next stop was Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu province. In Nanjing we experienced crazy weather: the first day was unbearably hot and humid, and the second day was cold and rainy.
The first day we decided to visit the Purple Mountain area. It is a huge park in a mountain with many different things to see. The most famous is the mausoleum of Sun Yat-Sen, the first president of the Republic of China at the beginning of the 20th century. Like the Confucius Temple in Qufu, the mausoleum of Sun Yat-Sen is also a very important place for Chinese people and as it was Sunday, it was packed. There were even school trips! To reach the actual mausoleum you have to climb a lot of stairs, and the view from the top must be amazing on clear days. The two times I’ve been there it was foggy.
So many stairs, and it was so hot! The ice cream sellers were having a great day though.
After the mausoleum we visited another spot in the same area: the mausoleum of the first Ming dynasty emperor (who died in 1398 AD). I had never been here before and although the entrance ticket is quite expensive (70 RMB), I quite liked it. Partly because it was not too crowded, but also because some parts of the mausoleum complex were not restored at all. In many cases, in China restoring means knocking everything down and building it from scratch again, and adding a layer of bright red paint so it looks even newer. It was a nice surprise to find something untouched, with greenery growing all over, and it reminded me of the temples in Cambodia.
You don’t really get to see the tomb itsef, which supposedly is in the hill behind the mausoleum. Actually, I don’t know if the tomb has been found and opened.
Another part of the mausoleum complex is the Sacred Way, over 1.5 km long and with many stone statues of different animals and warriors/ministers that protect the way to the tomb.
After quite a long walk, crossing a park, to get to the subway, we headed to the city centre, the area around Fuzimiao. It is a very touristy area, lively and with many shops and restaurants. The type of place locals never go to, haha.
There were some guys with rickshaws.
It is possible to ride a boat along the river here.
The second day the weather changed, as I said above. It was cold! I think it was the only day we really needed to use the jackets. We visited the Jiming Temple and it was lovely, even in the rain. I loved the bright yellow buildings and the pagoda. I didn’t love so much the profusion of shops selling super expensive Buddhist trinkets. From the back door of the temple you can access directly the Nanjing city wall and that is what we did. This city wall is one of the best preserved in China. Most cities had their walls torn down in the 50s. After walking for almost 2 km on the wall, we left through another gate and went to have lunch in one of my favourite restaurants, Bellagio. It’s a pity we don’t have this restaurant in Suzhou yet!
When buying the entrance ticket you get 3 incense sticks for free.
The temple seen from the city wall.
There are many more things to see in Nanjing, like all the museums, the Presidential Palace and the Massacre memorial, but we didn’t have more time. Our Nanjing visit ended after lunch and we headed to the train station to get to our next destination: Shanghai.
Lovely visit. For some reason I fell in love with Nanjing – I just loved everything about it. Glad you had a good time and looking forward to your post about Shanghai.
Nanjing is a nice city! Although too hot in the summer for me!
I must admit I do not like the heat either.
I am currently working with a woman here in Australia from Shanghia, love reading your posts of your travels and the cultural experiences of your visits. Thank you for sharing.
Hehe, thank you! The next post will be about her hometown!
Haha, even student trips to the mausoleum on Sunday! It is an ancient and sacred site after all, very important in China’s history. That coat of red paint to make something look new is interesting… I always thought it was just because red is an auspicious colour… :D
Oh yes, red is auspicious. the colour used in many palaces, etc. It could be any colour but I said red because I was thinking about the Temple of Heaven in Beijing… always looks like it was just painted, haha.
Nanjing was definitely one of my favourite cities in China to visit, great to hear you enjoyed it too :)
Nanjing has indeed a lot of interesting sites to visit! And it is quite close to Suzhou so for me it’s very convenient!
Wish we had seen half as much as you in Nanjing with our great tour… all we saw was the mausoleum and ofc Fuzimiao. The Mausoleum was nice but Fuzimiao was a realy nightmare.
Oh yeah, your tour from hell hahaha. Was Fuzimiao very crowded? Not really much to see there…
It was so crowded and that was also the only day without rain with around +28 degrees celsius
I loved the unrestored section, too.
It was a nice change from the usual over-restoring!
Nanjing is one of my favorite cities! I did not know about that mausoleum of the 1st Ming Dynasty emperor — will have to check it out!
Check it out next time you go! It’s not far from the Sun Yat-Sen mausoleum. I think the official name is Ming Xiaoling mausoleum.