Long Week-end

Today (Sunday) is Mid-Autumn Day and because it falls on Sunday everyone gets a day off on Monday. It is like a combined FamilyDay/Thanksgiving.

Mid-autumn Day- Lunar Calendar, August 15th. i.e. September
15, 2008 
This day is also called the Moon Festival. The moon is round,
so it symbolizes the reunion of a family. A time for family
get-together.

When families are separated the members wherever they are look at the moon to remember each other. So family members, please look at the sky on Sunday night! We'll be thinking of you all. Mid-Autumn Day is also a time to be thankful for the harvest.

Friday there was a meeting for all the new foreign teachers. We were given a little background about the University and a member of the police department came and talked about laws that affected foreigners in China (e.g. visa regulations) and gave tips on how to be safe in China. There are foreign teachers from the US, Columbia, Germany, Korea, Japan, Russia, and Australia as well as other countries.

Saturday we were taken on a tour of Nanjing - another long Saturday. That morning a bus picked us up here on campus at 8:00 a.m.

We first went to Zhongshan Mountain National Park, a huge park right in the middle of the city. We only went to two of the sites in the park - Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum and the Ming Tomb.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen led the 1911 Revolution which defeated the Qing Dynasty. Dr. Sun was from Beijing, but the mausoleum site was recommended to him by the abbot of Linggu Temple for its good omen and he wanted his remains buried here.

This site consists of a gateway, tablet pavilion, memorial and the tomb vault built up the "mountain" connected by 392 stairs. Here is a picture of Bob and me at the gate. (We won't show a picture of how we looked after the 392 stairs. Actually I didn't go up the last hundred steps because it was so hot and humid and I preferred to rest.)


Here is a picture of the top.


We then went to the site of the Ming Tomb. We never did get to the tomb itself, but saw the Square Castle tablet pavilion, now roofless, which has a huge tablet on the back of a dragon. The tablet extols the virtues of the emperor. Only the bottom of the tablet is showing in the following picture.


We also walked the Sacred Way before time constraints took us back to our bus. All along the Sacred Way (the walk that led to the tomb) were various statues of animals and people. Each statue had significance in protecting the Emperor. There were four of each animal. Two of each kind were standing and that meant they were on duty. The kneeling ones were off duty.


Lunch (again a fancy banquet) at the best seafood restaurant in Nanjing followed.

The next stop was the Presidential Palace. Some of the occupiers were rulers in the Ming Dynesty (600 years ago), the Viceroy of Jiangnan and Jiangxi during the Quing Dynasty, the headquarters of the Taiping (about 1850) and in 1949 the PLA occupied the building complex.


And here is a view of modern Nanjing taken from the Presidential Palace.

Here is a picture of the library:

Between 1366 and 1386 a wall was built around the city of Nanjing. Most of the wall remains today. Some of it is as high as a five story building and was 33.687 kilometers around the city. These days it is a tourist attraction and a fee is charged for anyone to go up the wall.

Top of the wall

A view over the wall

We visited one more place but by then I couldn't take in any more. It was a temple in the middle of a shopping district and I think we saw half of the 8 million people who live in Nanjing.

The day ended with supper at another restaurant. I don't know how many dishes they served, but it was far too many!

Maybe I could mention the difference between Peking Duck and Nanjing Duck. Peking Duck is roasted and Nanjing Duck is salted. They make a big fuss about serving Nanjing Duck.