Nanjing Day 1

5:49am: Arrive at Nanjing half a zombie. Don't remember much, was still sleeping. Once we got to the hotel a few of us went up to a room to freshen up. Felt much better after that. For breakfast we had Chinese food, oh yay. My favorite thing in the morning!

Katie, Rachel, Heather at breakfast:

 9:00am: Leave for Linggu Temple. I fell asleep on the bus, of course. The temple claims to be 'the best Buddhist temple in the world.' Not sure if I agree... (after Laos it's hard to compare). It was built during the Ling dynasty (502-557) (oh and I totally knew that off the top of my head, did NOT look at the information packet they gave us). The temple is in the middle of this big park with tons of trees. It almost reminded me of England strangely enough, though maybe that was just because it was grey and rainy.

Hanging out in the roundest of holes:

Apparently singing this is banned in China?

We saw the Non-Beam Hall, Linggu Pagoda, and Songfeng Pagoda. The Linggu Pagoda was definitely my favourite. It was 9-stories high and you could walk up to each level. The view was so pretty. All the trees were turning to their fall colours and it was a pretty-foggy out? Don't know if that make's sense.

In front of the pagoda:

The view:

Spiral staircase all the way up:

Baby butt pants- more on that later:

On the way back to the meeting spot we saw this guy glass blowing, it was so amazing to watch! When everyone was back we took a mini-train-car thing over to this new area to grab some lunch. I tried some salty duck- the specialty in Nanjing- not my favourite. I loved the fried eggplant though. It was delicious. I literally ate half a plate and could have eaten more.

On the train thing to lunch:

Fried Qiezi (eggplant)

Lunch table:

We the walked over to the Open Air Musical Hall. There were tons of doves everywhere. You could buy food and the birds would fly onto you. At one point I had 5 on me! I also developed a trick. When I ran out of food I would hold my hands out like I still had some left, and they would still fly up to me! They seriously look at me like "are you kidding me?" Then sometimes the two birds on your arms would start fighting about food, while on you. One was on my head at one point and I was terrified it was going to pee on me!

Katie with a bird:

Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum was the next stop. At this point it was quite cold and rainy. We climbed tons of steps to get to the Sacrificial Hall, the highest place of the Mausoleum (and main feature). It had a statue of Dr. Sun Yat-sen- the 'father of the Republic of China.' He helped bring down the corrupt Qing dynasty in 1911. It ended 2000 years of a feudal monarchy in China. Behind the statue was a circular room where his tomb was. As the info packet in front of me says, it is where 'this historical giant forever sleeps.'

Jumping picture- always necessary:

Wasn't supposed to take this photo:

We then walked back down to the bottom with an hour to wander. It wasn't exactly wandering weather, so we ended up sitting under a tea shop's awning. Finally we walked to the bus and headed back to the Egret Hotel. We got out rooms and I just relaxed for a while.

Decorations for a wedding in the hotel (a little OTT):

A bunch of us met at 6:45pm to go to one of the recommended restaurants by CIEE. We finally got a cab (not an easy feat when you don't know where the main roads are) and went to the place, only to discover the restaurant moved and is no longer there! Thanks CIEE. In the end, after figuring there were no more decent food options nearby, we settled on McDonald's back near the hotel. And it was delicious.

We later explored the old street. It had tons of little stores- including DVD stores- totally legit of course. We all found these super colourful masks that we're going to wear for Halloween. As many people know, my dream for my 21st birthday is to have a karaoke-masquerade. The chances of that happening in Boston, pretty small. The chances of that happening in China, totally possible!! Maybe it will have to be my 20th. On the street they had all these pet stores, this tiny, adorable pig was for sale (wow, I almost wrote kid). Anyway, after shopping (I bought a DVD, earrings, and nailpolish) we went back to the hotel and slept.

The Old Street:

DVD Store:

The rivers through the city: