This weekend we headed to Nanjing to see the Nanjing massacre museum, the night market and a bit of the Nanjing city wall (affectionately coined the lesser great wall). We took a train to Nanjing and rented our Airbnb. A thing to note about Nanjing. Its really really hot during the hot season. It was as hot or even slightly hotter than Hangzhou. One interesting thing was that the rail system used tokens.
These blue tokens had an RFID chip inside and functioned like EZ link cards. The return of the tokens was into token slots at the exit gates. Compared to Singapore, I’d think this old system would have less wastage of paper and resources still. Maybe the old still wins the new sometimes. We had lunch near our airbnb.
Loitered around a bit then left for the night market. Check it out.
After that we left to get some Xiao Yang Shen Jian, the fried dumplings I first had in Shanghai.
And on the way back we bought a watermelon
And that was it for the night. The next morning we got up bright and early and headed to the Nanjing Massacre memorial hall. It showed the atrocities of the Nanjing Massacre and carried a powerful message for peace. Despite the heat, there were many who were visiting the memorial hall and it was packed to the brim.
Here is something interesting. We normally associate Germany as being a ‘bad’ person in the world war. But in the Nanjing Massacre, Germans actually saved many Chinese from the Japanese army.
Pretty cool how history differs in its recounting to people in different places. One of the most somber scenes was looking into the replication of the mass graves site where the bodies of the Nanjing massacre were found.
It was really touching to see how respectful everyone was. Everyone in the crowded hall was silent and only the footsteps of the people shuffling past could be heard. After that we came out of the hall back into the air.
One of the most important messages was that we need to remember this event not to exact revenge, but to work towards peace. The white lady represented that, and her statue could be seen by all.
A giant monument to peace. In a less traveled area on the left of the statue was a little garden called Shikinsou Garden.
This story was touching. It showed that people care. Regardless of what a country does, it does not mean you should stereotype the people. Nearby was an underground memorial and we headed there next. Less catered to just the Nanjing massacre, it was more about world war in general.
Pretty cool how there was a little phrasebook guide.
And that was it for the museum. A last stop we made was to the Nanjing City Wall.
And afterwards we headed back to HangZhou. A very very hot trip this was.
Time for some sleep
Hahahahaha
