Nanjing in Five Days (Part One)

If you are a sentimental kind of person, you probably should visit Nanjing.  I fell in love with this historic city despite having mediocre knowledge on the world history. I visited Nanjing twice. I personally think five days is enough for you to explore Nanjing.

People normally reach Nanjing from Shanghai. The normal train usually takes about 3 hours. Bullet train costs more and it just takes one hour plus to reach Nanjing. Another city nearby Nanjing is Yangzhou. It takes two hours plus by the fast train.

China has many types of trains. They label the trains as G, D, C, Z, T, K, etc. Now you are confused about the types of train. G stands for gao tie (高铁), bullet train at 400+km/hr; D for dong che (动车), fast train at 200+km/hr; K for kuai che (快车), ordinary train with long distances at 100+km/hr. So they differ by their speeds. If you want to save troubles, you may visit Ctrip website to check the train schedules and plan your trip with reference to the departure and arrival time. One thing you have to bear in mind is that, the trains are all very punctual. Make sure you go to the train station early and not forgetting, there is security check at the entrance.

G stands for gao tie or bullet train. You need to present your passport to get your ticket printed at the counter. Your name and passport number will be printed on your ticket. 

Day1

If you come from Shanghai, you will most probably reach in noon. Most hotels allow their customers to check in early so you may head to your hotel to drop your baggage. If possible, stay near Fuzimiao (夫子庙), Confucious Temple Street because a lot of tourist attractions are nearby this area.

When someone mentions Nanjing, I believe many of you will think about the Nanjing Massacre. The Chinese built quite a number of memorial museums in places where the Japanese invaded back in 1930s especially in the northeastern part and Nanjing. If you are willing to visit, Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum is the only one I would suggest you to visit. It is located quite far from the city centre but you can get there by boarding the bus. Bus fare in China is inexpensive. The normal bus fare would be 2rmb. The admission of all memorial museums is free of charge.

The memorial museum is a very solemn place. Once you enter the museum compound, you will get to see a lot of human sculptures. The artwork is super fine. There is some brief description under each sculpture and it is bilingual (Chinese and English). The descriptions were on the sufferings the people went through throughout the dark period. 

These are some of the sculptures.

When you walk further in, you will reach a square where there are plenty monuments. 

Monuments.

Then, you will see a funeral set-up on your right. You will get to see the indoor museum entrance after it. 

The funeral set-up.

As usual, you need to pass through the security check before you enter the museum. The stretch of dark walkway after the security check is heart wrecking. Names of the victims were displayed on both sides and virtual candles were lit. 

The dark walkway captured with a bad camera setting back then.

After the dark walkway, you start embarking the journey back to the past. The tunnel back to the past is lugubrious. I cannot remember if photography was not allowed or I was too dejected to take pictures. All the display: the pictures, items, illustrative models etc. all of them, on the massacre, were gruesome. 

You will reach another square when you step out from the indoor part of the museum. There are two statues on the square: a Chinese army declaring that war has ended and the Chinese version of the Statue of Liberty with the word peace engraving on it. 

This is probably the most hopeful display.

I can say it is a heart-felt sorrowful place that you probably should visit to get a glance on what has happened in the past. History should not repeat itself. The world of humanity can be a world of peace, but not war. 

I shall stop here or else this post will get too lengthy. Pardon me for writing too much. I am not a good travel blogger, it seems. Anyway, I promise my next post will be a delightful and perhaps a less lengthy one. Thank you for reading.

Travel in China

I have visited China twice. I do not know if I shall visit it again for I have just covered one-third of it in about a total of five weeks. I have a strong love-hate relationship towards China. I am going to make things neutral in my posts. This is basically an introductory post. I am going to spilt up my travel itineraries and introduce city by city. To avoid confusion, below are my past travel itineraries.

2015: Hunan – Hangzhou – Xitang – Shanghai – Nanjing – Beijing

2017: Nanjing – Yangzhou – Changchun – Yanbian – Harbin – Mohe – Inner Mongolia – Shenyang

Before you go to China, there are few things you need to know.

1. China is HUGE. You have to plan beforehand where you want to visit and decide the route especially when you plan to hop from one province to another province. Say for example, Hunan, you cannot finish the whole Hunan in a few days. Phoenix Ancient Town itself already takes two days minimum, including the travel time.

2. China has GREAT firewall. You basically cannot use Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube etc. WITHOUT VPNs in China. You may say it is not so great after all because VPN is the loophole. Just for your little information, the VPNs do not work quite well with most hotels WiFi. So to ensure your carefree browsing during your stay in China, especially you are the kind of person who cannot go one day without the mentioned websites, like me, buy a traveller SIM card.

3. China internet data is not cheap. During my recent stay in China, I spent 360rmb (~RM220) to buy a China UNICOM SIM card with 10GB data at the airport. They say this company is foreigner-friendly and will save one lots of troubles especially with the registration procedures. The lady even acknowledged me which VPNs are to be used to get around the firewall. I am not mentioning any VPNs here as the usability varies. The government is working from time to time to fill the “hole”.

4. You need VISA to enter China. If you are a Malaysian, and if you are lazy to go to the China embassy to apply for your visa, you can always apply it via a travel agency company. Make sure you apply two weeks, the latest, before you travel. The reference fee is RM170. With a valid visa, you can travel for a month in China.

5. Toilets in China do not have bidet and you are not allowed to flush any used tissues. I am a Malaysian and most toilets in Malaysia have bidets/ water pipes/ washing pipes. I find it troublesome not being able to wash up after answering to nature’s call. So, if you are like me, remember to prepare lots of dry tissues and WET tissues for your own comfort. I spent about 90 wet tissues in three weeks. And after wiping, do not forget to throw the used items into the bins provided but NOT into the bowls. An alternative to wet tissues especially when you are in your hotel room would be a cup. About the usage… I shall leave it to your imagination and wits.

6. Do not get shocked if you encounter door-less toilet. And if you do not encounter one, you have not visited China. That was why I visited China twice and only decided to write about it now. I came across the legendary door-less toilet thrice during my second visit to China. You are lucky if you get to use only door-less toilet. Some door-less toilet do not even have bins or flush system. That kind of toilet has only a HOLE in each cubicle. So whatever comes up goes directly down there. You will get to see used yellowish tissues, feces, blood etc. But you can only find this one-of-a-kind of toilet in the rural areas. People call this han ce(旱厕).

7. Many Chinese spit everywhere outdoor. Do not be shocked if you see a lady suddenly clears her throat and spits in front of you. If you go in winter, observe the road. You will find a lot of patchy frozen saliva on the ground.

8. The security is tight in China. Apart from the museums, you have to go through security checks at all transportation stations which include the subway, metro, bus, train stations. Imagine having to go through the troubles to get all your bags scanned each time you enter a station. Well, you will get used to it. The officials are at least more lenient now as compared to two years ago. I still remember I had to sip from my water bottle EACH TIME I passed the subway security check then. They do not practice that now. Lucky for me!

These are some interesting things I found during my travel. I shall update the leftovers in my coming posts. I apologize if my post makes you discomfort in any way. My next post will be featuring Nanjing. Thank you. 

Why China? Because it is VERY diverse.