Staying with Dr. Bits!
Trip Start
Apr 20, 2010
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3
Trip End
May 04, 2010
Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Thursday, April 29, 2010
http://gknapp.blogspot.com/2010/05/china.html )
Back on the bus (something to be endured, not enjoyed) to Nanjing where we spent four more beautiful days seeing where Andrew and Brenda call home! It is always so much more enjoyable to stay with someone who is living in a city, instead of a hotel. You get to feel much more of what it's like to live there, not so much like a tourist. We enjoyed walking around and on Zijin Mountain, Lion Mountain, Xuanwu Lake and various temples. Zijin (Purple) mountain is a good hike up, where we were treated to wonderfully clear views in all directions of Nanjing. From that vantage, Andrew pointed out his triathlon route! At the base of the mountain are three sights to see, the Sun Yatsen Mausoleum, the Ming Xiaoling Tomb and the Linggu Temple. Sun Yatsen is considered to be the father of modern China and this very nice collection of buildings are to honor him. The Ming Xiaoling Tomb is marking the only Ming emperor to be buried outside of Beijing, again more nice and old architecture. The Linggu Temple is a bit newer, but still a beautifully detailed pagoda which are always fun to walk up. We spent one morning going to Jiming Temple, very beautiful and there was a vegan restaurant at the top of the complex! Another day we walked a bit on the old city wall then a nice loop through Xuanwu Lake where there were many locals all enjoying the beautiful day! We navigated the subway and bus to go and see Lion Mountain with Yuejiang Tower on top. In the midst of this, Andrew would bring us to his favorite restaurants and show us where he shops or hangs out. There were so many yummy foods we tried, a crepe item where she would break an egg on the cooking crepe, spread some special sauce, red pepper, green onions and place a cracker in the middle of, fold it all up and off you go! Or, warm red bean buns with fresh soy milk. Or more well prepared and yummy veggies then Matt could ever hope to get me to eat!
One interesting cultural difference Youngshoe told us about while we were walking in Huangshan was how Chinese celebrate birthdays. Unlike here, where we throw a party for the birthday kid or go out bar hopping with our buddies, in China, the children go and spend the day with their Mom. The idea is that your birthday is a day where your Mother went through a lot of pain to birth you and the Chinese spend the day celebrating their Mothers. What a nice idea, I never thought of it that way. Don’t worry Sebastian, we will celebrate your birthday they way that I am used to, but it is still a nice thought.
Our trip was wonderful! I must say that I think traveling with a 9month old is easier then traveling by bicycle. We are used to people staring at us; our bikes took us to some remote locations. Our experience is that people have been wonderfully helpful and caring while we are biking, and they were even more so with Sebastian. Sebastian is a lot easier to keep track of then two big bikes and all those panniers. He’s also a heck of a lot cuter then those dusty bikes. The citizens of China made us feel very welcome (albeit a bit overwhelmed at times) and we enjoyed our time visiting their country.
