Unkie Mao's Super Republican State of China - Part 10 - Nanjing - Day 7
Another day - another dose of Chinese TV - although this time we decide to semi watch Dr No. on HBO (or something)... And why not a bit of fun super happy time laundry too...!
For breakfast - we hit a nearby "cake" shop - where just about everything is packed full of sugar. Ant ordered what he thought was a french baguette - but was in fact filled to the brim of whipped cream... Yumo... Surprise surprise - Ant gets integestion yet again... :-(
We made tracks for a tourist site which wasn't in DK (thank you again DK! This is the last time we will ever take you on a OS holiday... We will christen the guide "Don't Know") - the former nationalist Presidential Palace. As I think I did a history lesson in the last blog - just a quick recap of history things in China - there was a Nationalist Revolutionary movement which overthrew the Qing Dynasty (last of the dynasties) and this was there former presidential palace. Ant and I were getting flashbacks to the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace in Uncle Ho Chi Ming City... There were heaps of similarities between the two (eg: former presidential palace, tacky decor of the time still in place, etc) - but the Chinese version had several lush Chinese gardens and water features. Ant thought that the muesum bits were "fairly balanced" but there were some propaganda moments (including photos of the "disgruntled priests" and the "happy peasants" - wouldn't you be happy too if you were a peasant in Communist China??)... It was well worth the visit - and we aren't really sure why DK didn't cover it...
For lunch - we headed down to Deji Plaza (you must excuse me but most references to Deji Plaza aren't to the Ghost Mall plaza itself but just the general area of downtown... I can't remember the real name nor am I bothered enough to look at the map to find out the real name... but I like the name Deji Plaza and I like saying it as well... Deji...). We had spotted a "hole in the wall" restaurant which had parts of the menu translated into engrish. We ordered a couple of hot beef noodle soups - and they were kick arse! It was fresh, tasty and spicy and it only cost 7 Yuan (a tad over 1 AUD).
After lunch we trekked (and I mean bush hike trek) to the Nanjing Massarce Memorial. Another quick history lesson - back in the Sino-Japan war (eg: China V. Japan) - the Japanese raped, pillered and murdered the locals at Nanjing - and it was thought that about 400 thousand Chinese died in the event... hence the Nanjing Massarce Memorial peoples! Nanjing is a very spread out city - and what looks like a quick stroll on the map may in fact be 4 miles in length - and that's what it felt like walking over there. To make matters worse - when we got close to the Memorial - the area was a massive construction site (a new metro line is being built)... so we got lost and wandered down a "City of God" like town which was pretty poor looking. Oddly enough - the Sheraton was located near here (divesville)...? Speaking of the Sheraton - we got attacked by an old woman beggar who was pulling at the sides of my jumper for some change. Both Ant and I kept moving but I think she managed to steal my used ticket to the Presidential Palace - that bitch!
So after a few wrong turns and a walk down the street of the "City of God" - we reached the memorial - and it was totally shut. Probably something to do with the metro construction next door... We weren't the only idiots hanging around - there were Chinese tourists getting dropped off by taxi to the site - only to find it was closed. To make the best out of the situtation - I took a couple of photos over the fence...
We wandered back into town (just a 1 hour walk) and checked out the Zhonghua Gate - which dates back to the first Ming emperor. It was a fairly impressive site (although only the walls remain, whilst all the houses were reconstructed) - but we couldn't understand the statues of these giant size Chinese warriors everywhere??! They were twice the size of Ant and I put together - so it is a bit unbelievable that a Chinese guy back in the 1300's was that tall..! There were also a couple of propaganda museums with bad chinglish - which adds to the experience.
We caught the metro back to the hotel and striked up a conversation with a local on the train - who was happily giving us local Nanjing tourist suggestions (but was defintely not a tout).
Back at the hotel and Part 82 of the Yangzee River Documentary on CCTV9 continues. I can't wait for them to bring it to SBS... not.
After discovering several internet cafes the day before, and not having any internet in Shanghai - we both decided to try and re-find the less sleasy looking internet cafe. Unfortunately - I decided to take charge of what direction we were going - and we got horribly lost. In fact - I think we had to do a 3 km loop because of my lack of directional skills.
After an hour - we finally "found" the road that the less sleasy internet page was on - so we headed down it. After walking for another kilometer and a half - we thought - "We are never going to find it". Perhaps the internet cafe had been demolished overnight because there was a lot of construction work going on.
I told Ant that I had remembered where the sleasy looking cafes were - so we walked down the main road for another 25 minutes. After almost giving up - we finally found it - a smoky internet gaming cafe which was pretty sleasy... but cheap! Only $1AUD for about 2 hours... yeah baby yeah...
After blogging for way too long (but I had to catch up - otherwise I might forget) - we left the internet cafe around 9:45pm. Because of the time and because restaurants don't stay open too late here in China - we thought had better make tracks pronto to Deji Plaza for dinner. To our despair - everything was shutting. In desperation - we entered (....) Pizza Slut but were refused entry as they were closing. In total desperation - we went to the Golden Arches across the street (thus begins our downwards slide with food). I had ordered a not so hot (in terms of spicy and temperature) chicken burger with some tepid chips and full strength coke (they don't believe in diet over here) and was sh##... but desperate times calls for desperate measures.
When we got to back to the hotel - we found another bond film - this time - a stewpid Roger Moore one with sharks... Time for bed after walking 12 kms today...
Another day - another dose of Chinese TV - although this time we decide to semi watch Dr No. on HBO (or something)... And why not a bit of fun super happy time laundry too...!
For breakfast - we hit a nearby "cake" shop - where just about everything is packed full of sugar. Ant ordered what he thought was a french baguette - but was in fact filled to the brim of whipped cream... Yumo... Surprise surprise - Ant gets integestion yet again... :-(
We made tracks for a tourist site which wasn't in DK (thank you again DK! This is the last time we will ever take you on a OS holiday... We will christen the guide "Don't Know") - the former nationalist Presidential Palace. As I think I did a history lesson in the last blog - just a quick recap of history things in China - there was a Nationalist Revolutionary movement which overthrew the Qing Dynasty (last of the dynasties) and this was there former presidential palace. Ant and I were getting flashbacks to the South Vietnamese Presidential Palace in Uncle Ho Chi Ming City... There were heaps of similarities between the two (eg: former presidential palace, tacky decor of the time still in place, etc) - but the Chinese version had several lush Chinese gardens and water features. Ant thought that the muesum bits were "fairly balanced" but there were some propaganda moments (including photos of the "disgruntled priests" and the "happy peasants" - wouldn't you be happy too if you were a peasant in Communist China??)... It was well worth the visit - and we aren't really sure why DK didn't cover it...
For lunch - we headed down to Deji Plaza (you must excuse me but most references to Deji Plaza aren't to the Ghost Mall plaza itself but just the general area of downtown... I can't remember the real name nor am I bothered enough to look at the map to find out the real name... but I like the name Deji Plaza and I like saying it as well... Deji...). We had spotted a "hole in the wall" restaurant which had parts of the menu translated into engrish. We ordered a couple of hot beef noodle soups - and they were kick arse! It was fresh, tasty and spicy and it only cost 7 Yuan (a tad over 1 AUD).
After lunch we trekked (and I mean bush hike trek) to the Nanjing Massarce Memorial. Another quick history lesson - back in the Sino-Japan war (eg: China V. Japan) - the Japanese raped, pillered and murdered the locals at Nanjing - and it was thought that about 400 thousand Chinese died in the event... hence the Nanjing Massarce Memorial peoples! Nanjing is a very spread out city - and what looks like a quick stroll on the map may in fact be 4 miles in length - and that's what it felt like walking over there. To make matters worse - when we got close to the Memorial - the area was a massive construction site (a new metro line is being built)... so we got lost and wandered down a "City of God" like town which was pretty poor looking. Oddly enough - the Sheraton was located near here (divesville)...? Speaking of the Sheraton - we got attacked by an old woman beggar who was pulling at the sides of my jumper for some change. Both Ant and I kept moving but I think she managed to steal my used ticket to the Presidential Palace - that bitch!
So after a few wrong turns and a walk down the street of the "City of God" - we reached the memorial - and it was totally shut. Probably something to do with the metro construction next door... We weren't the only idiots hanging around - there were Chinese tourists getting dropped off by taxi to the site - only to find it was closed. To make the best out of the situtation - I took a couple of photos over the fence...
We wandered back into town (just a 1 hour walk) and checked out the Zhonghua Gate - which dates back to the first Ming emperor. It was a fairly impressive site (although only the walls remain, whilst all the houses were reconstructed) - but we couldn't understand the statues of these giant size Chinese warriors everywhere??! They were twice the size of Ant and I put together - so it is a bit unbelievable that a Chinese guy back in the 1300's was that tall..! There were also a couple of propaganda museums with bad chinglish - which adds to the experience.
We caught the metro back to the hotel and striked up a conversation with a local on the train - who was happily giving us local Nanjing tourist suggestions (but was defintely not a tout).
Back at the hotel and Part 82 of the Yangzee River Documentary on CCTV9 continues. I can't wait for them to bring it to SBS... not.
After discovering several internet cafes the day before, and not having any internet in Shanghai - we both decided to try and re-find the less sleasy looking internet cafe. Unfortunately - I decided to take charge of what direction we were going - and we got horribly lost. In fact - I think we had to do a 3 km loop because of my lack of directional skills.
After an hour - we finally "found" the road that the less sleasy internet page was on - so we headed down it. After walking for another kilometer and a half - we thought - "We are never going to find it". Perhaps the internet cafe had been demolished overnight because there was a lot of construction work going on.
I told Ant that I had remembered where the sleasy looking cafes were - so we walked down the main road for another 25 minutes. After almost giving up - we finally found it - a smoky internet gaming cafe which was pretty sleasy... but cheap! Only $1AUD for about 2 hours... yeah baby yeah...
After blogging for way too long (but I had to catch up - otherwise I might forget) - we left the internet cafe around 9:45pm. Because of the time and because restaurants don't stay open too late here in China - we thought had better make tracks pronto to Deji Plaza for dinner. To our despair - everything was shutting. In desperation - we entered (....) Pizza Slut but were refused entry as they were closing. In total desperation - we went to the Golden Arches across the street (thus begins our downwards slide with food). I had ordered a not so hot (in terms of spicy and temperature) chicken burger with some tepid chips and full strength coke (they don't believe in diet over here) and was sh##... but desperate times calls for desperate measures.
When we got to back to the hotel - we found another bond film - this time - a stewpid Roger Moore one with sharks... Time for bed after walking 12 kms today...
posted by NicknAnt @ 5:28 PM
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