Ageing 2 years in less than three months
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2010
1
13
32
Trip End
Feb 01, 2011
Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, China
Thursday, May 20, 2010
The photos are from our weekend in Nanjing, which proved to be a far more successful and comprehensive visit than last time. We visited a 14th Century defensive gate, walked along part of the ancient city walls, and went to a memorial to the Nanjing massacre where 300,000 innocent people were slaughtered by the Japanese army in 1937. The memorial was probably my favourite part of the weekend despite it being deeply disturbing, and I came away with a humbling sense of sobriety a greater affinity with the Chinese people. This was another occasion where the barriers that usually keep people apart such as language, culture, and race, were transcended by stronger and more permanent basic human qualities, in this case the abhorrence of cruelty and sorrow for the dead. The memorial did a lot to harness this sense of solidarity, and turned what could easily have been a cheap and emotive piece of propaganda into a genuine human tribute and a commendable appeal for a peaceful future.
Other than that we also found time to visit an enormous English language book shop, eat a curry, and walk around Confucius Temple, the area we were staying in. It was a very lively little neighbourhood with outdoor markets, street food, and luminous lanterns strewn across the banks of the canals. I wish my camera was better with night shots, but you just about get the idea. And if anyone is curious, there were no panda sightings this time round, but I did get myself a t-shirt with a panda on it, which is basically the same thing.
