| Rush Hour Monsoon | Tomb of Sun Yat Sen |
| Nanjing Gardens | Nanjing Night |
Rush Hour Monsoon
This was my favourite picture of the entire tour. I promised everyone that if they smiled I'd send them a copy - so here it is.
We left the hotel in Qufu (service with the sneer), and made our way in pouring rain onto the bus. People were already sheltering under the nearby drum tower because the skies were gushing so much. In plenty of time to catch the train (which was out of town, because the Kong family objected to having a railway so close to their home), we set off. We headed down the highstreet and watched mad cyclists struggling down the road with streaming water a quarter way up their wheels. Then, trouble struck. The engine stopped because the spark plugs (positioned very low in the engine) had gotten wet. After a while trying to restart the engine with no success a few of us leapt out into the floods and started pushing the bus along. After a few minutes and to everyone's relief, the engine started again. Back into the bus and we tootled along down the high street, as far as a dip in the road where the railway bridge crossed above. Needless to say, the water was a lot deeper under the bridge and we were beginning to worry.
The instructions Keep the revs up and down't change gear were definitely spelled out to the driver as we headed under the bridge. But the driver had set off too soon and he caught up a struggling cyclist, so was forced to slow down at first and then change gear. As sure as night follows day, we all knew what that meant. The engine backfired and stopped again. This time, the bus even rolled backwards down the incline into deeper water as a final show of defiance. This time there was no alternative. Everyone got off the bus into knee deep muddy brown water and pushed it out from under the bridge. When we reached level ground again the driver started to try to restart the engine but this time it failed. It failed for about 200 yards down the road too. Finally, running dangerously short of time, we abandoned ship, took the luggage and hailed taxi's (not easy because they were all taken). Only after some frantic minutes of hitching did we get one taxi and then another. With those two we went to the entrance of the station (only a further 10 minutes drive), then sent them back to pick up everyone else (time was of the essence). As we lugged our bags bare-footed, through the pond-like car park of the station many of the sheltering chinese laughed at first, then clapped as we made our way (finally) into the dry buildings. Relief ! the other taxi's turned up in time and we all got on the train to Nanjing, but not before a photo..
The Tomb of Sun Yat Sen in Nanjing is a beautiful place. The tomb sits on top of a low hillside, overlooking the whole of the city. After climbing the few hundres steps (very easy ones), you get a marvellous view of the city and the woods that surround the hill. So who was Dr Sun ? Well Sun Yat Sen is regarded as the founder of post imperial China. He was also not a communist either.
In short, the last emperor of China lost a war over trade routes to the British because of technological disadvantages like canons against bows and arrows (not for lack of man power!). Anyway, as one of the terms for ceasefire, the British obtained prime Chinese trading territory (Hong Kong) and the emperor became very unpopular. The loss of this war so eroded the emperor's power that he was eventually dethroned. It was the nationalists who finally kicked him out and leading them was Dr Sun Yat Sen. Not far behind the nationalists were the communists, another powerful force at the time. However, Sun managed to get enough arms from the west (principally the US who wanted to keep China away from communist control), to maintain power in the country until World War II started. Because of the Japanese involvement in the war, the States demanded that China become involved or lose the arms supply. The Chinese nationalists were forced to become embroiled in the war whilst the Russians secretly supplied the Chinese communists with enough money to buy arms circulating on the black market. So, as Dr Sun exhausted his country fighting the Japanese, the communists collected more and more miltaria. Eventually, armed with American built guns, armour and tanks the communists rolled into Tianamen Square and took control of the country.
So why the mausoleum ? Well, after Dr Sun died from liver cancer, he was buried here in his home town. The reason the communists allowed it was because they maintain that his struggle was their struggle, the struggle against imperialism, first in their own country, then abroad. And finally, what happened to the last emperor ? Well people stopped recognising him, he became a street sweeper and lived to a grand old age.
Nanjing is a truly beautiful city. If there is one place I'd go back to this would be it. The tranquility of the city is wonderful, on the one hand there are the lakes and on the other there are the lush green parks. The dragon motif is pretty common around China because it denotes the emperor. But it is only in Nanjing that this motif is taken to the highest degree, where there are many dragons made from wooden frames and covered in turf. In each case a pair of dragons are depicted playing with a fire ball - I don't why that is, but it looks good.
Well, would you believe it ? it poured down again as we the left the (best hotel in China) Nanjing Hotel, and headed into the city for supper. The night markets were a total wash out so we made our way to a 'western' style restaurant (by popular vote). We had a fab time down at the Black Cat that night, as you can tell from the picture. But have you noticed the odd thing about the picture here ? How Judy is the only one with food ? Well the Black Cat prided itself on serving western food. What we hadn't counted on was it being served one dish at a time. My wife and I were well into our fourth TsingTao before we even got a sniff of food, not that it mattered, the evening was what we made it, and we enjoyed every minute.
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