Jiangsu, part 4: Nanjing Family

From the Nanjing train station, we took the subway south through town. Past the old town, we popped up just outside the ancient city walls. Tall walls.

At the far south end of town, we got off the subway at the BenQ Hospital Station.

Out in the countryside, skyscrapers were popping up like weeds.


Soon we met Chunlin's cousin, who had a minibus courtesy of his company. Apparently any of the upper managers at the company can reserve the bus for personal use as they wish. The driver was an employee of the company.

On the minibus, we got on the freeway heading southwest. Several miles rolled by. Dusty smoggy town. The suburbs of Nanjing look like major cities.


The traffic was the same craziness as in the heart of town, but there was just less of it.


While we were still on the expressway, the sun started down. Luckily being in a mostly empty minibus meant I had a good view.




Cousin and the minibus took us to Chunlin's uncle and aunt's apartment. Chunlin's mother's older brother. They are the parents of Chunlin's Shanghai and Nanjing cousins.

They have a turtle in their shower.




Everyone got on the bus and away to the restaurant we rolled. We met up with Chunlin's cousin's wife and son and proceeded to eat another feast.

Peking duck. Yum.

More baijiu.

Hard to stop eating. Even harder to convince jia ren (family) that I'm full.

With this plus the big dinners in Shanghai, it was like Thanksgiving three times in one week! Oof.

Nephew Jack is learning English and he's not nearly as shy as his older cousins in Shanghai about trying it.

I should've taken my camera to dinner, because Jack and his mother went home while the rest of us returned to Big Uncle's home.



We ate lychee, drank tea, then looked through old photo albums -- including a few photos of Chunlin.

Big Uncle is only a few years younger than Granddad. He seems older since Granddad is an anomaly.

At ten o'clock, we said zai jian and headed back to the train station via the minibus, accompanied by Chunlin's cousin. Another fun day drew to a close.



Except, of course, for the little bit about waiting for a 1:15 a.m. train...

Jiangsu, part 3: Linggu Pagoda

At the Linggu Temple complex, we continued up the hill to the Linggu Pagoda, along the way passing through the Pine Wind Pavilion, which is now a gift shop and food court.





The long stairs northward come to an end. We're at the pagoda, if not the top of the hill. This pagoda was built in 1929 to memorialize those who lost their lives in the revolution.

Inside, the stairs keep going up.

Chunlin rested. I climbed. Charge! Round and round and round we go...





Once above the trees, I could see back through the haze to Nanjing.


Plenty hot, but with a cross-breeze, not too bad. At least it's not too bad if you're not afraid of sweating profusely.


And back down again...

Whereupon I found Chunlin talking on the phone. Probably talking to family, but it could have been a work call. I don't ask many questions some times.

And a taxi back to town. Wheeee!


You can find more photos of our trip on flickr.

Jiangsu, part 2: Linggu Temple

When we arrived in Nanjing, I wanted to go to Linggu Temple. We just missed a bus heading that direction. Since time was tight, we took a taxi instead.

Through crazy city traffic, out into the forest. The road went up and back down and around curves back and forth.



Welcome to Zhongshan Mountain Scenic Area. Big park. Redundant name. ("Shan" means "mountain.")

The first cab dropped us off at Sun's Masoleum, a mile from Linggu. A second cab got us where we were going.

At the entrance to the temple complex, a monk rode by on a motorcycle. Under his robes, he was wearing jeans.

We walked through the forest (a nice change of pace from the big cities), up steps, and through gates -- one of them functional (payment required for entrance).







The reason I picked this temple of all the sites in Nanjing to visit was for its Beamless Hall. Unusual for China, it was built with brick barrel vaults during a timber shortage. It's now a memorial for soldiers killed in the 1920s unification of China (the Northern Expedition).





Rather reminiscent of Roman architecture, but not that old.



While Chunlin and I explored separately, I came across a little gift shop in the back corridor.



I decided to purchase a green-bean ice cream for Chunlin, since she likes those. The seller was very surprised by all my old pennies and jiao that I had brought from home. At least I think she was amazed by the 1980s era coinage. My Mandarin is good enough to buy a popsicle, but not that good. Chunlin appreciated the ice pop. Tired, relaxed, happy. The Beamless Hall was a cool place to rest on a hot day.



More photos on flickr, of course.

Hooray for the Losers!

So far this World Cup, just about every team I root for has lost, especially since the Round of 16 started.

Korea lost to Uruguay. USA lost to Ghana. Ghana lost to Uruguay.

Slovakia lost to Netherlands. Chile lost to Brazil. Brazil lost to Netherlands.

Mexico lost to Argentina. England lost to Germany. Argentina lost to Germany.

The only game so far in the single-elimination portion that went as I wanted was Paraguay over Japan. But then Portual lost to Spain and Paraguay lost to Spain.

Based upon this pattern, the final victor will be Netherlands, beating Spain in the final.

Happy Birthday, Chunlin!

When I first met you, I guessed you were 28, so you must now be 32 years old, right?

Age 1:


Age 2:


Age 16:


Age 17:


Age 28:


Age 29:


Age 30:


Age 31:


Age 32:


Something like that, right?

Anniversary of the King and Queen

Three years ago today, Chunlin and I were wed.



Ah, good times.



I feel like we've always been together, and yet the three years have flown past.



I love you, Chunlin!

Jiangsu, part 1: Through Changzhou to Nanjing

One of Chunlin's coworkers picked us up in Shanghai and drove us to Changzhou, the location of Chunlin's company's plant.

Leaving the city, the apartment buildings step down from twenty stories to fifteen to ten to seven to four and it all seems rather sudden. Empty office buildings. Trees. Warehouses. Still in Shanghai. Fields. Old houses.

There's a cluster of skyscrapers near the tollbooth to leave Shanghai, then it gets quite rural again.

On the Huning Expressway, the lanes have the following speed limits from left to right: 120 max 110 min, 120 max 90 min, 120 max 60 min. Trucks and buses 100 max. A big sign for no sleeping while driving. That's a good rule.

Zip by Suzhou without really seeing anything but buildings on the horizon.

Changzhou. Into the heart of town to buy train tickets -- for the 1:27 p.m. to Nanjing. Chunlin's boss arranged to have her coworker pay for our train tickets from Changzhou to Nanjing and on to Huangshan. Chunlin tried to pay him back, but no.

Changzhou seemed the same size as Seattle, but it's probably bigger. BRT down the middle of the street. Drivers and pedestrians were just as crazy here as in Shanghai. A pair of people walked down the middle of a divided road, in the fast lane, as if it was a sidewalk.

We headed out of town to a business park. Here was Jimmy's building. "Rim Rim Rim Rim..." it said across the front windows.

Chunlin and her coworkers were happy to meet each other. Much laughter. She got a tour of the plant while I waited in a lounge. Outside, it was lunchtime. Workers from all the businesses sat and stood in the shade of the small trees, walked down the sidewalk in pairs or threes, enjoying the sunny day.

We didn't have time for the big lunch Chunlin's coworkers had planned. It took too long to get everything together and leave Shanghai, I suppose. This wasn't really a problem for us, however, since we'd had many large meals lately, but I felt sorry for her coworkers who missed out since our schedule was so tight.

12:25 go go go! Two coworkers took us to a quick noodle lunch and then off to the train station.

Construction everywhere in China. This building was across the street from the noodle house. I took the photo from the car as we turned around, in a rush.


When we got near the train station, we hit a red light and decided to hop out and run. Chunlin's coworker pushed her way through the crowd and we followed a bit nicer.

At the security line at the station entrance, I paused for no more than a second to snap a photo of the city.


And then we ran inside. The waiting area had a queue for our train, filing out onto the platform. A sign proclaimed our train would be seven minutes late, and thus we had time to go to the restroom...

We said zaijian to Chunlin's coworker, joined the push to board the train, and found our seats. We both had window seats, with me facing backwards. Full train.


And away we went, zooming through the countryside. Fields zipped by, with occasional clusters of two- or three-story houses. Construction all around, yet deterioration all around. Maintenance is hit-and-miss.

This route is going to be on the Shanghai-to-Beijing high-speed rail line. Construction of bridges and stations all along.






It wasn't very long before we arrived in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province and sometimes the capital of China.

Skyscrapers in an ancient town.


I didn't expect that. My guidebook didn't mention skyscrapers at all.

But then again, the really tall one, the Nanjing Greenland Financial Center was only completed a month before we saw it (and more than a year after the guidebook was written). I'm sure they'll mention it in the next edition, since it's the seventh tallest building in the world!

Shanghai, part 10: Middle East and City at Night

At the World Expo, we wandered around the Middle East area for a little while.





We went into the Oman Pavilion because the line was short. Common theme for us, eh?







Inside, every pavilion has exhibits shouting "Our country is great!" The pavilions all look completely different, and yet they're all basically identical. "Just like people," replied Chunlin.

We sat and rested on a park bench for a while as the sun set. We considered walking around more to see the pavilions after dark, but we decided our feet hurt too much and thus we should head for the subway.



Chunlin wanted to see the riverfront at night, so instead of taking the 7 line directly back to the hotel, we took it the other direction and transfered to the 2. We got off at Pudong and saw the skyscrapers that were shrouded in mist before.




We then got back on the 2 under the river. Next stop Nanjing Road, the closest stop to the Bund. Nanjing Road is a busy pedestrian shopping street. Neon and crowds.






After a couple blocks -- "What street is that?" I had taken us the wrong direction. West instead of east. How had I messed that up?

We had no further energy to walk to the river. We thus got back on the subway and headed home to Xincun Lu. Bus? Where's the bus stop? No bus stop? Walk limp crawl the half mile from the station to our hotel.

Four sore feet, once more.

Further foreign photos on flickr, for sure.