Nanjing (南京), China

9/26 (Day 4) ...

• Niushoushan (牛首山)
  Niushoushan ("Ox Head Mountain") is a cultural park at a historical Buddhist mountain site on the southern outskirts of Nanjing.  The park is newly developed and opened as a tourist attraction in 2014, but the location has been a Buddhist site since the Tang dynasty (618–907AD).   The park includes the Foding Palace (aka the Usnisa Palace, 佛顶宫), covering an area of 136,000 m2 (220 meters long, 160 meters wide, and 89.3 meters high), most of it underground, up to six floors down.  Since 2015, the palace has been the shrine for the world's only parietal relic of Buddha (the skull of Shakyamuni), making Niushoushan a sacred location for Buddhists. 
  When my parents were taking a break in the corridor outside the Foding Palace, Woanyu and I decided to walk around to explore by our own.  When we found a door at the other side of the palace, we thought it was a shortcut for us to walk back without going around the palace.  It turned out it was the entrance to the underground shrine and only had the one-way escalators all the way down to underground level 5.  The only way back out was to follow the visitor route which circled each level before climbing up to the next level.  We were in the rush and panic mode to walk as fast as we could to go back to where our family were waiting.  It took us more than 20 minutes to walk through  the route (we did circle one level twice because we missed the exit on the first time) to get back...
  After reunited with my family, the guide took us through the accessible route which took us directly down via an elevator (secretly hidden and could only be operator by staff) so my parents could visit this sacred Buddhism with much ease.  This time Woanyu and I could slow down and took our time to admire the Relic Hall, which consists of Thousands Buddhas Hall and Ten Thousands Buddha Corridor, and the Relic Pagoda in the center of the hall.  It was still a long walk with many stairs between the shuttle parking lot and the Foding Palace.  I feel so lucky that my parents are still in such a good health at their ages and they could still walk all the way and enjoy the trip.

9/27 (Day 5) ...

• Zhonghua Gate (Gate of China, 中華門)
  The Zhonghua Gate is a gate and defensive complex on the city wall of Nanjing in southern Nanjing.  The city wall of Nanjing was built from 1360 to 1386 under the founder of the Ming dynasty, the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang (洪武帝 朱元璋). In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang was crowned Emperor, and made Nanjing his capital.  The city wall was 33.676 kilometers long. It was 14–21 m high; 14.5m thick at its base, and 4.9m thick at the top. Thirteen gates were built into the wall, and the enclosed Nanjing City (about 55 square kilometers) was the largest of any walled city in China.   The gate today known as Zhonghua Gate was then known as Jubao Gate (聚寶門 "Gathering Treasure Gate"). It was built on the site of the south gate of the capital city of the Southern Tang dynasty. It was the largest among the thirteen gates of Nanjing.
  

• Jiangnan Gongyuan (Jiangnan Examination Hall, 江南貢院)
  The Jiangnan Examination Hall (Jiangnan Gongyuan) was first built in the 4th year of Emperor Xiaozong's reign (宋孝宗 Qiandao era 乾道4年, 1168AD) of the Southern Song (南宋).  The Jiangnan Examination Hall was used as the examination hall for both the provincial level examination (鄉試, 舉人) of Jiangsu and Anhui Provinces,  and metropolitan examination (會試, 進士) in Ming dynasty when Nanjing was its capital.  As one of the biggest imperial examination halls in ancient China, there were 20,644 examination rooms during the Tongzhi Period (同治 1861-1875) in Qing Dynasty (清 1644 - 1911). Together with its auxiliary buildings, the whole examination hall covered an area of more than 30 hectares (74 acres).  In Qing Dynasty, more than 50% of all national-wide top-one scholars (狀元, in total 58 out of 112) were selected after taking exams here in Jiangnan Examination Hall.
  

Can you tell who is the good student and who is the bad student from the photos above?

• Imperial Examination Museum (科舉博物馆)
  In 1905, the imperial examination system was abolished and consequently the Jiangnan Examination Hall became redundant.   In 1918, most of the examination center was demolished apart from the Mingyuan Tower, Zhigong Hall, Hengjian Hall and a few of the imperial examination cells.  In the 1980s, the Imperial Examination Museum of China was set up on the original site of Jiangnan Examination Hall to commemorate the history of the imperial exam culture in China that had spanned more than 1,300 years.  My father was so interested in the exhibitions of the museum and he spent so much time in reading many manuscripts in details.

• Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, Great Baoen Temple (琉璃塔, 大报恩寺)
  After lunch break, we visited another important historical site, Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, part of the former Great Baoen Temple.  The Porcelain Tower was designed during the reign of the Yongle Emperor (永樂帝 明成祖朱棣, r. 1402–1424); its construction began in 1412 (永樂十年), and was completed in 1428 (宣德三年) by Yongle's grandson (明宣宗朱瞻基).  The tower was octagonal, with a base of about 30 meters (98 ft) in diameter. When it was built, the tower was one of the largest buildings in China, rising up to a height of 79 meters (259 ft) with nine stories.  The tower was built with white porcelain bricks that were said to reflect the sun's rays during the day, and at night as many as 140 lamps were hung from the building to illuminate the tower.  Sometimes it is listed as one of the Seven Wonders of the World.  However, it was mostly destroyed in the 19th century (~1856) during the course of the Taiping Rebellion (太平天國之亂).
  In 2010, Wang Jianlin, a Chinese businessman donated a billion yuan (US$156 million) to the city of Nanjing for its reconstruction. In December 2015, the modern replica and surrounding park were opened to the public.  We visited the museum with a private guide who introduced us to many Buddhism relics and stories.

We also visited the special cultural center (天工造物文化馆) which had the exhibition of "Inside-Bottle" Paintings (內畫) by the artist Chang Feng (盧軍華 筆名長風).  He has a workshop in the cultural center and he was working on some painting there today.  It's really a rare occasion to see the artist in action and see the art pieces up-close in such details.  We ended up buying some most expensive souvenirs we have ever bought :-)

• Nanjing Dapaidang (南京大牌檔)
  Nanjing Dapaidang was founded in 1994. It is a classic restaurant brand for Nanjing people to showcase the unique Jinling (金陵) cuisine.  It has more than 20 restaurants in several big cities in China.  Each store has various Jiangnan pavilions styles decorated with lanterns and served by ancient costumed waiters/waitresses.   It is full of traditional Chinese folk customs and has an elegant charm, recreating the old appearance of teahouses and restaurants in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China.  While we were eating, there was a performance of Suzhou Pingtan (蘇州 評彈) to make us feel we were back to a hundred years ago.

• Qinhuai River (秦淮河)
  The Qinhuai River (秦淮河) is a tributary of the Yangtze with a total length of 110 km. It flows through central Nanjing and is called "Nanjing's mother river". It is the "life blood" of the city. The Qinhuai River is divided into inner and outer rivers.
  We had chartered an entire boat for our night river cruise along the Qinhuai River.  The 45-minute boat ride flowed through calm and peaceful waterways and went under numerous bridges, just like people have done for thousands of years.  My mother liked the tea (雨花茶) served on the boat so much that she asked our guide to find out where we could buy the tea :-)

9/28 (Day 6) ...

• Zhongshan Ling  (Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum, 中山陵)
  Sun Yat-sen (孫中山 名文 號逸仙), considered to be the "Father of Modern China" both in mainland China and in Taiwan, fought against the imperial Qing government and after the 1911 revolution ended the monarchy, and founded the Republic of China.  Sun was born in Guangdong province of China on 12 November 1866, and died of gallbladder cancer in 1925 in Beijing, China. On the day before his death, Sun offered to preserve his body as Lenin did, and to send himself to Nanjing for burial.   Construction of the tomb started in January 1926, and was finished in spring of 1929. On 1 June 1929, Sun was buried there.

It's a long walk and climb to the mausoleum at the top of the hill.  My family stayed at the foothill of the mausoleum while Woanyu and I made a quick climb to visit the mausoleum. 

• Presidential Palace (總統府)
  In the Ming dynasty, the site, west of the Ming Palace, was home to the manor of the Prince of Han Zhu Gaoxu (漢王 朱高煦).  In the Qing dynasty, it became the Office of the Viceroy of Two Lower Yangtze Provinces (兩江總督). In 1853, Taiping Rebellion forces led by Hong Xiuquan (洪秀全) occupied Nanjing. The palace was expanded and converted into a luxurious palace (天王府).  In 1864, Qing imperial forces re-took Nanjing. Commander Zeng Guofan (曾国藩) ordered to destroy most of the palace by fire and built a new residence for Governor-General (总督署) in 1870 in accordance with government protocol.  After the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, Sun Yat-sen was sworn in at the former Governor-General's palace, now the "Provisional Presidential Palace" (臨時大總統府).  However, China soon fell into the post-revolution Warlord era, and the Palace was not officially used by the Republic of China until 1927, when the Northern Expedition of Kuomintang (KMT, 國民黨) captured Nanjing. 

• Xuanwu Lake (玄武湖)
  A legend is that Emperor Sun Quan (孫權 182–252) settled in the Nanjing area and he had the lake created and filled with water.  The lake was named for a black dragon, believed to be a water god by Chinese Taoists, from a Southern dynasty (420-859) legend. The dragon, seen in the lake, looked like a tortoise and a snake and was named Xuanwu, meaning black tortoise.  The lake was used for naval battle exercises during the Song dynasty (960–1279).  It was made an imperial garden and "forbidden land" in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).   The lake and surrounding area was made into a park in 1911 after the end of the Qing dynasty.  The main entrance to the Xuanwu Lake Park is through Xuanwu Gate, which is part of the Nanjing City Wall.  we took a tour tram which circled the lake ub about half an hour.  The timing was good for sunset and we could see our hotel (InterContinental, the tallest building in Nanjing) reflected in the lake.

9/29 (Day 7) ...

• Laomendong (老門東)
  Laomendong locates in the Qinhuai District, east of the Zhonghua Gate (中華門) in Nanjing.  Laomendong is the core of southern Nanjing. Like Xintiandi in Shanghai, it is one of the city's most successful urban restoration projects. On the ground floor of former residential buildings, you will find lots of tea houses, local venders, design shops, folk artists, boutique hotels, bars, and restaurants.
  

Going Home ...

After lunch at Laomendong, we headed to Nanjing Train Station to take the HSR to Shanghai.  Since we were taking the business class, we were given a nice lounge room to wait for the train.  It's another 1.5-hour smooth ride back to Shanghai.  The bus was at the train station to take us to PVG airport to catch our flight at 8:00PM to Taiwan.  Thanks to my brother Yenchen's arrangement, we had a wonderful time together with my parents for their first post-pandemic oversea trip.  It's not easy for them to travel at their ages.  I really feel lucky that we could still travel together and I would appreciate every moment.

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