Nationalist Democracy of Peoples Liberation China Part 14 - Nanjing Last Day PM Day 9

After the Dr Sun Memorial Muesum - we again walked through the forrest to arrive at the Linggu Pagoda area (another site on our four park wonder pass). The Linggu Pagoda was built in the 1920's and is about 8 stories tall. There is a mad circular staircase (which gives you nausea if you try to do it in one attempt) - with the added "bonus" of some beggar dude who was blocking the staircase at around the fourth floor. Most tourists didn't proceed any further - but Ant and I jumped over him to climb to the top (as you do). The view at the top was great - but smoggy. You could almost make out the Mausoleum in the distance. Damn chinese pollution!

We wandered in the general direction of the Linggu Temple - but when we reached it - it wasn't a part of the super mecha pass and had to pay extra... But we gave it a miss (starting to get sick of Buddhist temples with their money making scams and candle lighting stuff... We stumbled upon a Sino-Japan War Memorial to the dead - which was kind of cool in a communistic mannequin sort of way (with lots of diaoramas of stuff). There was one freakish chinese dude with a streaked haircut who did the whole "Hello" thing to us (you know - when they say "hello" to foriegners and then laugh like idiots). As we walked out of the temple - a group of middle aged men did the same thing. Perhaps if I use the middle finger gesture next time this happens - maybe they might get that...

Outside the memorial were heaps of those disneyland-eqsue trolley buses - so we hopped on one that was going to the general area of the Ming Dynasty Tombs. The trolley buses - though free - came with the added bonus of giving us back pains (no suspension).

According to the Ming Dynsasty Tomb site sign - it is one of the top "40 tourist destinations in China" (a claim that is made to just about everything we go to)... although the tomb is UNECSO heritage listed. This could mean two things - one being good and another being bad (a la Valpariso - see our archive for more details - http://nicknantholidaydiaries.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_nicknantholidaydiaries_archive.html) But thankfully - it was excellent. The tomb was completed in the 1400s for the first Ming emperor - but a lot of the original site has been destroyed (although the government are rebuilding parts of it). Some of the ruins almost had a "Angkor Wat / Machu Pichu" feel to it (eg: old old ruins) and I even got my picture pretending to be a chinese gardener... yes@!

After checking out the tomb - we walked down the Xiao Ling sacred walkway. This walkway contains heaps of stone statues of animals and mythical creatures (horses, elephants, camels, lions, unicorns, etc) - some were supposed to guard the tombs from evil spirits (or something). Keeping track of the time (we had a flight to Guilin to catch) - we managed to score a taxi at the end of the walkway (no repeat of yesterday's "can't find a taxi" fiasco).

We had lunch at that hot beef noodle place at the metro (fantastic - and I didn't choke the food this time) and a quick bubble pearl tea (where I attempted to be tricky and order a "Taro" flavour pearl tea - but failed miserably).

I had finally discovered where all the hip kids of Nanjing hang out - the fire death trap shopping mall that is "Lady Fashion". Lady Fashion was an underground neon-esque labyrinth located at the heart of downtown Nanjing - which had wall to wall clothes shops and trinket stuff. But despite the name "Lady Fashion" - there was also "Metrosexual Asian Men Fashion" too.

Something that had been pishing me off - Lady Fashion had been piping out the boy band "Blue" - who had a few minor hits about 5 years ago... But they must be making some sort of comeback in China cause their music is being played everywhere... Ever that - or China is in a musical timewarp of 10 years (probably the latter is true).

On our way out of Lady Fashion - a young woman was repeatedly getting her head smashed in by a security guard... I think she must have been shoplifting - but if this sort of thing happened in Australia - it would make front page news (or at least on WIN local canberra news).

We grabbed our bags from the hotel where I finally got to check out the Nanjing Massarce Memorial site on some touch screen computer thingy in the lobby - yes! We got the lobby staff to tell the taxi driver where we were headed to (ie: the airport) - but as soon as we pulled out of the hotel driveway - she started to try and ask us questions of where we were going in Chinese. Ant and I looked at her and just shrugged - but after an hour of driving (hellish traffic plus 40km trip equals hour long taxi ride) - we finally reached the Nanjing "International" Airport.

Nanjing Airport has about has much claim as an "International" airport as Canberra does (eg: it probably shouldn't be called an international airport). Most of the international part of the airport had been boarded up in post-zombie outbreak style fashion (eg: hasn't been in use for years probably).

We checked in (thank gawd our dodgy e-tickets from a chinese travel agents work) and had dinner at the dodgy Airport Restaurant (with the whole 40 staff per customer deal happening). Everything was rather overpriced and we didn't quite get what we thought we ordered deal happening. Plus when we wanted them to open the drinks - they went into Fawlty Towers mode and couldn't cope.

At the gate (which was hella busy) - they were playing that horrible French-Canadian show "Just for Laughs" (ie: people play pranks on unsuspecting strangers)... Those who find this show funny do not have a sense of humour - French Canadians find it funny and so too - do most Chinese. This may explain the humour behind saying "hello" to foriegners then laughing... Hillarious!

So to sum up Nanjing - the total lack of foriegn tourists, and no touts or hardly any beggars was a big plus. (Someone should write to one of the editors of "Times Out" in Shanghai - who was complaining that she gets harrassed by touts and beggars all the time - she should move to Nanjing!). Nanjing is a big sprawling city whereby taxi is a good means of getting around (including cheap means). There are terrific tourist attractions (our last day around Purple Moutnain was probably my highlight) and there is heaps of history (eg: Nationalist capital - and the nationalists were the ones who went on to founding Taiwain) and it is great that the communists have left it pretty much the way it is. You totally get the feeling that Nanjing is off the tourist beaten track although "Western" progress in Nanjing is fairly rapid. Nanjing has a great traffic system (with traffic and pedestrian lights that count down) - so you can't go wrong!