People's Happy Fun State of China - Part 9 - Travellin' to Nanjing - Day 6

The train to Nanjing was truely bizzare. Despite us getting soft seats (aka Rich Beetach seats) - there were people standing up in the carriage for pretty much the whole trip... I had felt really sorry for the girl sitting in front of me who had some rude old bastard sit on her arm rest for the whole trip. He gradually took up about half of her seat, whilst she was forced to lie down on her tray rest.

Travelling to Nanjing on train through the "country side" explains China's really bad pollution problem. There are factories and power plants spewing out crap just about everywhere. It gives the sky a nice grey glow.... or something... (cough cough splutter cough)

Nanjing (for those not in the know) is about 3 hours west by train from Shanghai. It was a former "capital" of China before the CCP got into power in the late 1940s, and a capital in the Ming Dynasty or something.... It is also the capital of the Jiangsu Province or something... There endeth the lessoneth or something...

We arrived at Nanjing Station to a attack of touts - although these ones were somewhat useful - brandishing maps (something that DK is lacking)... We soon discovered that Nanjing has a underground system (something else that was missing in DK's detail) and that a metro stop was right next door to our hotel. Yeah baby yeah...

But to give credit or dues to DK where they could be given - the subway was brand spanking new. It had that new car smell all over. There were even these funky plastic tokens which you use in the barriers. Sweet plastic tokens...

We had a couple of problems trying to locate the hotel - but soon realised that the hotel entrance was in a courtyard (not visible from the street) - why of course! We managed to score some deluxe room upgrade and our room was on the 14th floor (at the top) - and had kick arse views of the downtown area.

Feeling a bit hungry - we wandered down the main street and stumbled across Deji Plaza - a brand spanking new mall... Upon entrance - it was pretty much devoid of any customers - hence we dub Deji Plaza - the "Ghost Mall".

We found a ritzy looking restaurant at the top of Deji Plaza (which was also devoid of any customers and the size of the Canberra Centre) - and managed to get hold of a english menu (bonus!)... What we soon discovered was that Nanjing was a bit cheaper than Shanghai - with a ritzy Chinese restaurant costing about half of one in Shanghai. Cool...

We had ordered two beers - but didn't realise that they only come in long necks - so we were slightly pished at the end of lunch.

After lunch - we wandered down on the street for a while. Nanjing was a lot more like China than Shanghai (or what we could remember of Bejing). There were a lot less convinence stores and more internet cafes (well three - but it is better than Shanghai)... We walked and then walked some more - it was becoming evident that Nanjing was a lot more spread out than Nanjing. There were less taller buildings and more room here - but still the same old smog.

We had a snooze at the hotel (we got up at 6am dammit! give us a break)... After waking up around 9pm - we decided that maybe we should get something small for dinner and so we wandered back in the general direction of downtown and the Deji Plaza.

We stumbled across a basement food court and chose to eat at a Hong Kong fast food place - where we ordered a couple of set menus with curried meat, potato, rice, soup and egg for RMB 18 (or $3AUD). The girls who were serving us were very gigglish and after our meal, requested to take their picture with us with their mobile phone. The guy (who could speak english) said that they all come from rural china (so we may be their first foriegners they have seen). So Ant and I posed with all three girls and every combination you could think of...

Speaking of foriegners - it has been something that has driven me crazy here... Staring... People stare at you for really long periods (especially old people). People stare at you in lifts, at internet cafes - everywhere and for extended periods of time. I have seen old guys stop on the street and stare at you for about 1 minute... I wish I knew how to say "What are you staring at, stare bear?!?" in Chinese but I can't so I pretend that I don't notice it... According to DK - it is a old chinese habit - and foriegners have only been allowed into the country since the 80's - so that could go some way in explaining this...