Our Week in Words and Pictures

Here's a recap of the rest of our break.

Monday - A Walk to the River

Being so close to the Yangtze River and not yet having made a trip to see it, we decided to make the hour-long walk. However, about 30 minutes into our walk, we saw this and decided that we could take a detour.

We soon discovered that what we had seen was the Yuejiang Tower, a structure with both ancient and modern historical value. It was built by the first Ming emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, but also later used by Sun Yat-Sen as an overlook to the Yangtze River. Needless to say, the view is spectacular from the top.
After spending a few hours at Yuejiang Tower, we decided to venture next door to the Jinghai Temple that we had seen from atop the tower.
Once again, we were impressed, but I'll let you do your own reading on this amazing complex.

Finally, after a five hour delay, we arrived at the Yangtze River.It was worth the walk, but our tired feet only let us stay there a few minutes before we searched the map for a bus that would take us back home.

Tuesday - the Zoo and Library Revisited
We left early in the morning to make our way to the zoo, excited to see what animals China had to offer. To be modest in expression, though, our excitement very quickly turned to sadness as we saw the conditions of the zoo. Perhaps it's the culture gap, but the only fitting word that I can come up with to describe that zoo is "prison camp." The zoo itself was beautiful, but the cages the animals kept in could hardly have been more dismal.

After the zoo, we took the subway to the Nanjing Library, this time with our passports. The English literature selection was pretty scarce, but we did come home with two books: The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot and A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman by Ida Pruitt. This one, however, was quite tempting.
For dinner, we went to a dinner party that Kiersten's kindergarten principal was having at a large, nice restaurant. It turned out being a lot of fun, even though we were surrounded by more than one drunk person. We drank orange juice, and this is what we ate (not a complete list):

• eight cold dishes, including intestine and jellyfish
  
• marinated shrimp with chopped pepper and mushroom
  
• black pepper "cowboy" bone (beef)
  
• ginger and onion fried crab
  
• goose feet in abalone sauce
  
• shrimp skin wraps
  
• streaked pork with pointed pepper and smoked bean curd
  
• "treasure" fish in bean sauce
  
• stir-fried seasonal vegetables
  
• some very good dessert
  
• assorted fresh fruit
  

Wednesday - Stay home and relax

We stayed home and relaxed.

Thursday - Return to Purple Mountain
For less than 50 cents in the U.S., Kiersten and I spent Thursday morning and afternoon exploring the unexplored on Purple Mountain. This began with a stop at the botanical gardens. To our surprise, we discovered perhaps Nanjing's best kept secret. They called it "Bridge World," but we call it fun.
That was followed by a trip to Cherry Blossom Hill, which we will certainly have to revisit come cherry blossom season.
We then took a stroll down the 600-year old stone animal path, which leads up to the first Ming emperor's tomb. Our day ended with a tour through the Soong Meiling Palace. Now, it is back to school for both Kiersten and I, but we are very much looking forward to spending many more weekends exploring the yet unexplored of Nanjing.