Nanjing

So I've spent a couple of days in Nanjing, capital of Jiangsu province. Not knowing much about the place I tried to focus on the obvious tourist spots which can easily be found by walking towards the highest concentration of Americans.

Nanjing is a damn old city famous for three things (that I know of):

• It was the capital of China during six dynasties



• It was invaded and a large amount of its inhabitants killed or used for cruel experiments by the Japanese during the 1930s



• It is the home town of Sun Yat-sen, founder of the Republic of China
  

Besides visiting spots related to the above three factoids (the war memorial was closed though) I only had time left for a pretty big park close to the new Olympic Stadium (i.e. in the middle of nowhere).

Waiting for a bus that took 45 minutes to show up

Nanjing is one of the three "hot spots" (or is it hot pots?) of China in regards to average yearly temperature, a fact that's hard to dispute these days. The difference compared to the east coast is palpatable.

View from Sun Yat-sen's mausoleum. The locals are bringing out their umbrellas to protect them from the sun

Sometimes it feels as if it's impossible to fully understand China and its culture as a foreigner. Why was there a gigantic poster promoting Italian power metal band Rhapsody of Fire just outside the hotel? I've never heard their music being played here, nor seen their albums in shops.

Why did the guy at the hot pot restaurant assume that when I asked for pork I was referring to thin slices of pigs' feet and not the perfectly fine rolls of ham that the couple at the other table was eating?

What's up with making the victory sign during every photo shoot and why is it so infectious?

The "oh yeah" pose, perfected by billions of Asians

An improvement and a setback

One big improvement compared to last year is that I'm finally able to view my own blog in China. In fact, the entire Blogger interface has been translated to Chinese and if this post is visible I've apparently managed to figure out how to navigate the site.

I arrived in Shanghai two days ago and took the maglev towards town. This passage from Wikipedia pretty much says it all as far as this particular means of transportation is concerned:

"Nevertheless, the Shanghai Project was designed primarily to demonstrate
the state-of-the-art technology and capabilities of the Transrapid system. A
high tilt compared with a relatively high speed of 430 km/h (267 mph) and
leaving passengers in the outskirts of Pudong shows that the Chinese authorities
were more interested in the technology transfer than commercial success."

Being left in the outskirts meant having to take a taxi to the hotel and taking a taxi in China could end up being a costly affair. Normally, I'd be able to distinguish which taxis to avoid but after 26 sleepless hours my wits were somewhat lacking and I ended up settling for the first available option. Long story short, they tried to scam me big time, asking 420 yuan for a trip that normally would cost around 50. After a tough shouting session I ended up paying considerably less than 420 but also a whole lot more than 50.

After this less than friendly welcome by the local service sector I've passed time sleeping and eating, all the while trying to stay away from monetary transactions unless absolutely necessary. Tomorrow I'll be going to Nanjing though, train station staff usually won't rip people off so things should turn out fine. The next update will contain pictures.

S02E01

I thought it was about time to post an update since I'm flying back to China tomorrow, this time for a stay of around three weeks.

My expectations include slightly less vile weather compared to last year, finally going to Wuxi to catch their giant Buddha (giant Buddha fetishist that I am), eating several servings of spicy frog and finally, being able to update this here blog on location.

Anyway, the plane leaves around 3 PM tomorrow giving me plenty of time to finish the morning's exam. If I stop writing here I might even have time to study...