Nanjing excursion

When it rains China becomes a sea of umbrellas. Not just your normal boring gray and striped variety either. Like most accessories in China, people tend to lean towards the taste of an American 6 year old girl. Hello Kitty, Peekachoo, Winnie the Pooh and flowers of all shapes and sizes bob down the sidewalk protecting the 3 or 4 Chinese students huddled underneath them. I have yet to see a Chinese person wearing a raincoat, and although fewer people use raincoats in the cities in the US as well, there are usually a couple. Apparently the spring is rather rainy in Hangzhou so I might actually have to buy some rainboots, as I have been meaning to for the past two years to help with the mud season in Vermont. It is supposed to rain all week starting on Sunday, hopefully after we get back from our weekend camping trip.

Last weekend I took a trip with some friends to Nanjing, a place unlike any other I’ve been to in China due to the coffee shops on just about every corner, not the same as the US where it is usually just a competition between Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, but each one seems to be individually owned, and of course all also serve tea. I wasn’t expecting Nanjing to be as international as it was, more like Shanghai, and so we took advantage of the opportunity to eat some western food. We went to two Mexican restaurants, the first one was ok, nothing special, but the second was great. We originally trying to go there for a western breakfast, and walked around in the rain talking to them on the phone for about 45 minutes trying to find the place. We were carrying all our stuff since we checked out of our hotel and hadn’t found a new one yet, which granted wasn’t that much since we were only there for two nights, but was still a hassle, especially since we couldn’t find a cab because it was raining and they were all already full. But worth it. Very worth it. One of the people who worked at the restaurant came to the intersection where we were lost after we called for the fifth time and led us back, which was a promising start. When started looking at the menu we realized that our wandering around caused us to miss the 12:30pm breakfast deadline. French toast, pancakes, eggs, bacon, all no longer available. After a brief mourning period we started looking over our other options. I ordered nachos. Unfortunately they were out of churros, which was upsetting, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We all ordered and settled down to wait, essentially starving because this was our first meal of the day. We waited. And waited. Possibly half an hour passed before the first 3 burritos arrived. We realized during our wait that the slow service was due to the fact that they made everything from scratch, including the tortillas. And it was slow. Another half hour or so went by before the next orders came out. I was a little confused by how long my nachos were taking, since they are basically the simplest things in the world to make. Put some salsa and cheese and beans on some chips and you’re a successful chef, however when they came, a beautiful mountain of fresh salsa, lettuce, cheese, bean dip piled on top of amazing looking chips, I realized that the sound of the deep fryer I had heard earlier was part of my meal. They made the chips from scratch. Made the dough, cut them up, stuck them in the fryer and it was one of the best meals I have had in a long time. Great quality even for the US, spectacularly amazing quality for Mexican in China. I got extremely full about ¾ of the way through but couldn’t stand letting it go to waste. After finishing it I didn’t even want to think about food for hours.

After the restaurant we went to the Nanjing Rape museum, which sounds horrible and depressing, and it is. I had never heard of it before and did not know what to expect. We arrived in a laughing and contented mood leftover from our wonderful lunch, but sobered immediately even before entering. The first statue we passed on the way to the entrance was a woman holding the body of her dead child in her arms, with a poem engraved underneath about the devils who had come. The statues continued, each with its own phrase underneath about the brutal massacre, called the Rape of Nanjing, done by the Japanese military back in the 1930’s. The atmosphere reminded me of the Holocaust section of the Newseum in D.C, either that or the Holocaust museum itself, I can’t remember. Seeing as I didn’t even know the even occurred it was extremely informative, I’m glad I at least know something about it now. There were pictures and video clips as well as military gear and even an actual excavation site of bodies hidden after they were shot to death. There was also a group of cameramen walking around who interviewed two of the people I was with who were both obviously American. They worked for the museum and were trying to get people’s feedback about what they thought of the set up and the content and if the museum was needed. It was nice to see people really caring about what they were doing. Also the English translations were really good, which shows that they really cared about letting people know what happened. I don’t want to be too depressing, so I will just say that the Japanese army invaded Nanjing and massacred hundreds of thousands of people, rounding up civilians and gunning them down. Their officers also told them they could pillage and rape at will, and so there were over 20,000 cases of rape and gang rape in the first month of their occupation. People were brought to pits and shot then buried so no one would find the bodies, as well as being thrown in the river. They also refused to honor the established safety zone set up for civilians. By the end I had seen more than enough pictures of the dead and stories of survivors, but the ending also explained the tribunal for the military leaders and they had a clear message at the end that people need to learn from this tragedy and the value of peace.

After that we went looking for a hostel, since we didn’t book anything before we left school, which meant we couldn’t find a hostel for the night before and ended up at a more expensive hotel. We wasted a lot of time going around trying to find a place, but it eventually ended up ok. We went out for some really good Chinese food that night, supposedly Nanjing food, but I can’t really tell the difference.

Right now I am off for a weekend camping trip with everyone and our roommates. I wanted to have s’mores but apparently two main ingredients, graham crackers and marshmallows, are no where to be found in Hangzhou. It just doesn’t seem like proper camping without them. If anything exciting happens on the trip I will let you know when I get back.