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.