Nanjing videos

Some videos I made in Nanjing. First one from the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall (a bit blurry because of the dimmed lights) and the one is from climbing the stair at Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum (中山陵）。

南京 Nanjing

I ended up spending the wknd in Nanjing. I’m ashamed to admit that even though I’ve spent the last 3,5 years in Shanghai/Suzhou I hadn’t visited Nanjing prior to this wknd. Anyways, better late than never right?

I was pleasantly surprised by Nanjing. Unlike a lot of Chinese cities, there are actually some really interesting things to see in Nanjing. Since both me and my bf are big history geeks a visit to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall (侵华日军南京大屠杀遇难同胞纪念馆) was a must. The hall is a memorial hall for those killed by Japanese soldiers in the Nanjing Massacre 1937. Admission is free, and the hall consists of several outdoor- and indoor areas. It is located in the south-western corner of Nanjing known as Jiangdongmen, near a site where thousands of bodies were buried, called a "pit of ten thousand corpses."



Names of all the victims

The indoor museum (where photographing wasn’t permitted) was the most interesting part of the memorial hall. The museum consists of hundreds (or thousands?) of photographs and objects related to the massacre. You can look at everything from weapons used in the massacre to cruel photos. You cal also read interviews with war witnesses, read newspapers (English, Japanese) and watch movie clips. All information is available in Chinese, English and Japanese, and the information is really good (No broken English here, no). There are also sections describing foreigner’s (who were in Nanjing at the same time as the massacre took place) work (the “safety zone” that they established) as well as information about the war trials that took place after Japan’s fall. We had first planned to visit John Rabe’s house as well as the memorial (Rabe was a German who hid hundreds of Chinese in his house in order to save them from being killed in the Nanjing Massacre), but after the museum we felt completely drained and kind of sad and decided that one place was enough. The Rabe house is apparently located at Nanjing University’s campus.

I would recommend anyone with a hint of interest in history to visit the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall. Depending on how interested you are, you can easily spend many hours inside the museum, especially if you want to read about everything.

We spent a good 3 hours at the museum before we headed off to Lion’s Bridge (a food street near Hunan Lu) where we had a cheap and delicious lunch. I loved the system in Nanjing: you walk up to the chefs who are standing behind a counter of all the dishes displayed, and tell them what you want. We ordered a mix of xiaolongbao, tofu, fried dumplings and noodles (most of our choices were the chef’s recommendations) and ate until we almost felt ill. And the bill for it all: 45 kuai!

Lion's Bridge -plenty of stuff to choose from


After that we went to visit Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum (中山陵 Zhongshan Ling). This mausoleum is located in a huge scenic area called Zhongshan Mountain National Park (or Purple Mountain) covering 31 square kms. The area is gorgeous, green and leafy, including lakes and several famous historical monuments and areas, such as: The Ming Tomb Scenic Area, Linggu Scenic Area and The Monk-Peak Scenic Area.

Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum


Plenty of stairs to climb

The Sun Yat-sen’s Mausoleum was beautiful, but I wish I had done some more reading about Sun before going there. However, to tell you guys briefly, Sun is some of a pioneer of Republican China, and is often referred to as the Father of the Nation. He is famous for having a big part of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty in October 1911. He was the first provisional president when the Republic of China was founded in 1912. He also co-founded the Kuomintang where he served as its first leader.

Because we were running out of time we had to skip the Ming Tombs and instead we headed to the Linggu Scenic Area, however, we only looked around briefly before heading back to the city for dinner.

It was really nice to get away for the weekend and Nanjing is a beautiful city with a lot of stuff to see. I recommend anyone to go there.

Linggu Scenic Area
Linggu Scenic Area
Linggu Scenic Area

The week that went by…

No, I'm not a big fan of commercials... but I like banners, especially in China!

…was too busy and not enough exciting. But there are still some things to share.

Not getting off the bus despite feeling ill

I almost had a fit the other day when I was on the morning bus to school. For some reason I turned around and saw fluid all over the floor. “What on earth is that?” I thought to myself, until I saw a young girl holding a plastic bag with fluid coming out of it. “Oh, has she dropped something? Is the carrying some drink in her bag?” I thought, until I realized that oh no.. this girl was throwing up on the bus floor (I guess she tried to aim at the bag but she wasn’t too good at hitting it). Once she was done she sat like normal with her feet on a floor full of her puke. D-I-S-G-U-S-T-I-N-G! I simply don’t get why she didn’t get off the bus if she felt so ill. There are new buses coming every 5-10 minutes, so it’s not like this was the only one she could take.

I guess I don’t need to mention that I am quite relieved that my days as a bus passenger in Suzhou are coming to an end.


My first fan

On Monday I worked as a fitting model in Shanghai. There was a new Chinese girl helping out with the fitting: a lovely girl from Chongqing. As soon as she realized I could speak Chinese we started chatting and hit it off like a house on fire. At times I found her staring at me adoringly, and after a while I asked: “What’s up? Why are you looking at me like that?”

-Your hair… I wish I had your hair. I have always wanted to be blonde!

-Well I think your hair is lovely.

-Well it is not only your hair. I also wish I had your nose… it is so big and perfect (BIG and perfect? Man! Beauty is different over here!). And your eyes…

-Eh… OK.

Five minutes of silence followed before she asked:

-How tall are you?

-1.75

-Wow! I wish I was that tall! I envy you!

-Well at least you can wear heels, I cannot.

-How much do you weight?

-Ehhhh…. I reluctantly revealed my holy number.

-Oh! That’s perfect! Not too much!

And then, a bit later:

-Oh, I love your bum! It is so cute! It is so round. Mine is so flat. I wish I had your bum. And your curves!

At this point I was lost for words. Fortunately one of the girl’s colleagues stepped in:

-Hey, enough! You are scaring our fitting model!

I have to say I felt a little bit freaked out. I am not used to someone gushing over me. In fact, I am so used to listening to other people gushing over my bf that it felt completely awkward to suddenly find myself in that position. Having experienced it, however, I don’t think I’ll ever complain again about how much attention western males get over here. They can have it all. As long as no stranger tells me she likes my bum.


Advertisement lovers

During one of my lesson, my teacher asked me:

-What do you think of Chinese advertisements?

-Terrible. Fake. Cliché.

-Eh… all of them?

-Most of them.

-Eh… yeah, me too. But I like Mc Donald’s commercial. It makes me feel happy.

-Eh…I thought you said you didn’t like Mc Donalds?

-I don’t. But their commercial is really good! “I am loving it!” haha!

(Hands up for Maccas, they have done a good job here in China!)

This reminds me of studying Mandarin level 4 at Suzhou University. My listening teacher over there also loved commercials. She used to start each lesson by playing us her favourite commercial video clip, the most memorable being some car brand (I forgotten which one) having a 3-minute long commercial with Hanson’s “I Will Come To You” as a loud set-the-mood-background-music.

-Isn’t this great! She chanted, once we finished watching.

Some A-students enthusiastically agreed.

-OK, let’s watch it then once more…….!

Failed confrontation

Train rule number 1: keep quiet

I made a huge mistake last night on the train from Shanghai to Suzhou. I was feeling tired and a bit fed up and all I could think about was to get out of my tight pants and high heels and into a pair of thick, soft socks and PJs… Since I didn’t want to end up at the end of the taxi line I went to line up by the door when the train approached Suzhou (2 years ago I used to laugh at those people lining up, thinking to myself: “Geez guys, relax for a bit! We’ll all get off eventually!” Now I am one of the first one by the door… ha! Talk about contradicting yourself!). On my way to the door I passed two middle aged Chinese men. As soon as I walked by I saw one of them notice me, openly push his friend and say something: “look, look at that laowai”-like. I ignored them, but since I had to stand next to them I couldn’t help but feeling annoyed over their staring and comments. It was “laowai this and laowai that” and then the constant and shameless staring. I simply wasn’t in the mood, so I lost my face and said (in Chinese):

-What are you guys looking at? (你们看什么？）

This comment obviously triggered an even bigger interest. At first, they went silent, played oblivious and looked away, but as soon as I got bored of waiting for an answer and turned my back to them, they started to repeat my sentence (with a fake, female voice):

-What are you looking at, what are you looking at?! Hihihihi, Laowai understands, laowai understands! What are you looking at!

I decided I had already said enough and since the train had come to a halt I quickly got off. Only though… so did the guys. And despite my quick march to the taxi line I couldn’t shake them off:

-What are you looking at?! Came from behind me. Followed by:

-Hello, hello! Miss, miss, hello!

Since I refused to turn around they eventually switched to English:

-Yeah yeah yeah… Hello hello!! Yeah yeah yeah… Hello, hello! (don’t ask me what the “yeah yeah yeah!” was all about? I am just as confused as you guys).

The comments didn’t stop until I finally escaped into a taxi and drove off.

MAN! That’s a mistake I’ll never do again! I know I should have known better. A countless number of Chinese speaking laowais have warned me NOT to try and confront people speaking about you behind your back. The speakers will just think it’s funny and will continue to tease you. Best thing is to play oblivious and pretend you are just a “stupid laowai who don’t understand.” Anyways, that’s what I’ll do from now on. Especially at late nights when I’m not in the mood for smiling.

Too busy to save yourself

Yesterday I helped out during a meeting between German buyers and Chinese suppliers. The meeting was going well, not much translation was needed because the supplier spoke perfect English, so I was mostly resting in a corner. There were also some other Chinese girls in the meeting, mainly the buyers "helpers" (when it comes to translating and price negotiating). When we had a moment to rest the supplier suddenly turned to them, started to chat in Chinese and showed something on her neck. I was kind of tired so I didn’t pay any attention.

However, moments later the Chinese girls suddenly told us all (in English):

-Our supplier has a tumour on her neck!

-WHAT?! We all said, chins dropping to the floor.

The supplier proceeded to show us all a rather hefty lump on her neck. We were all kind of flabbergasted.

-We all have to convince her to go to the hospital! The Chinese girls continued.

-WHAT? We all went again. You haven’t seen a doctor yet?

-Eh… I am too busy… I have so much to do at work! The supplier said.

-Too busy to save yourself?! One of the German buyers said. You should not be in this meeting but at the hospital.

-Well I will go soon… the supplier said evasively .

It was hard to go on with the meeting after that “bomb.” I could hear the Chinese girls telling her after the meeting: “you have to go, this is nothing to joke or laugh about. You have to go!”

Let’s all hope she will.

Who’s too busy to save themselves? That’s just incredibly sad.

The panic atmosphere at Suzhou train station

Something I think I’ve spent too much time doing in China is taking trains. Especially the train between Suzhou and Shanghai. It’s not the actual ride I mind: the bullet trains are fast, clean, quite new, spacious and comfortable (offering more leg room than most airplanes -I'm a big fan!). It’s the waiting for the trains.

I always feel like cattle when I stand there, in the crammed line. I don’t understand why the train guards wait until the very last minute to let people down to the platform. The only thing that creates is an instant atmosphere of panic. Everybody keeps pushing and elbowing each other to get to the train (I always feel for the seniors, who are slowly walking down the stairs trying not to lose their balance meanwhile people are pushing from behind). Seeing that the train sometimes has 16 railway carriages, at least 30 percent of all passengers break into a run as soon as they get to the platform. And then they lose their near and dear ones (which results in screaming). Then there are the other panic catalysts, namely the platform train guards, angrily blowing their whistles and yelling to people to hurry up?! Ah, this state of panic! First you are being told to relax and wait until the very last minute. Then they let you through and yell at you, telling you to hurry up….

Actually, one thing I don’t get about these platform guards is why they don’t help in the one situation when they are actually needed: when the train pulls in from Nanjing and a lot of passengers needs to get off in Suzhou, before new passengers can get on, and the train can continue to Shanghai. Before, this used to be smooth, due to each carriage being equipped with two doors so that people could get off through one, and get on from the other one. No collision had to happen.

With the new trains, however, there is only one door, and due to the whistle blowing and the “hurry up!”- yelling from the guards, passengers getting off the train actually have to fight with those getting on the train, as people try to get on and off at the same time (making the process extremely slow). People seem to be so stressed that they don’t realize that it would be much faster if you’d just make room for those getting off, and let them get off first, before trying to get on the train. But this is where the whole “me, me, me! First, first, first!” attitude comes into play and people behave like animals. It’s not a pretty sight.

I guess this train thing is OK if you only do it once/week or so, but when you end up doing it 4 days in a row let me tell you: it gets to you. I hold deep respect for those Suzhou citizens that work in Shanghai and therefore commute on an everyday basis. I know I could never do it. I would rather live in a dingy little room in Shanghai (apart from my significant other) during the weekdays and commute during the weekends than having to do this every single day.

And the calendar goes to….

Hainan!

Congratulations Nicky! Now just don’t eat it all at once...

Thanks for all the emails/comments/motivations… that was kind of fun! 

Due to me being behind my normal schedule I don’t have time to send it until tomorrow. Mind me Nicky, you just have to catch up and eat one week worth of chocolate when you get it. Enjoy!