First Part

Day 468
I was up at 5:30 and in no time I was out the door and at the train station. I got confused about which security line to go thru so first I went thru the metro line one and then I went to the train station. I think that I just like going thru security. I got there in plenty of time and ate some breakfast while I waited for the train.

Once I got on I fell asleep almost right away. There really isn't much else to do. I did have a book and read that for some time. However, I don't think that makes for a very interesting blog entry.

Instead I've decided to write about the Chinese people. Some things really really weird and gross. People spit all the time, and worse than that they would often expel the flem in their noses on the floor. Lastly the children don't wear diapers, but instead just go on the streets or on the floor of a train. It's just gross. Then at restaurants all the dishes will be sealed in plastic and people will cover their moths with their hands if they need to use a toothpick! There is also a general lack of consideration for others. Young people on the metro's just don't get up for the people who need their seats more. When I've gotten up I've gotten a look of shock and then once a young person took it instead of the woman with a cane. That was just crazy! Also, if your on a plane and need the toilet people won't get up, you have to sqeeze by them. My ass is just way too big for that! The bargining is also insane here. People would ask me for 100 Y for something and I'd get them down to 10 Y with little trouble.

Not everything is bad though. It's quite safe and I can be out after dark alone without worrying. Also the people working at the hostels are very kind and have bent over backwards to help me out. I was starred at, but it wasn't the rude stare like in India, it was more courious. This was especially true when it came to eating. They wanted to see if I could use chopsticks. It is really funny to watch westerners try them out for the first time.

I think that it was around 8 pm that we stopped at the boarder. Everyone got out and went to the shop. I sat with a couple of people chatting and having beers while they changed the size of the wheels. We were entertained by loud speaker music that ranged from communist to Mozart and the wedding waltz.

After getting back on the train and getting my passport back we rode a bit further to the Mongolian boarder. I had checked online several times and I had thought that I didn't need a visa. It was just rather disconcerning that all of the other people, non Americans, had visas. When passport control came it wasn't a problem and soon I was in country number 50. At this point I fell asleep.

Travel in the Time of Swine Flu

Day 467
My alarm went off at 9 and I packed my things. I was a bit sad to be leaving, but my time was done here. After one last bagel I took the bus to the airport.

Checkin and security were easy. I spent the last of my won on a mocha and a donut. Before the plane was boarded every passanger had their tempature checked. The flight was shrot and we landed in Beijing in just over an hour. Some people came on board to check everyones tempatures again. They had a problem with one guy and called someone to come and look at him further. We were all held on the plane for about an hour while this happened. It was quite annoying.

Immigration wasn't a problem and soon I had my things and was in a cab on the way to the hostel. After checking in I headed right back out to the internet cafe. I managed to type a bit but mostly just watched tv online.

When it grew dark I headed back to the hostel. I was really nervous about missing my train and didn't sleep well. I was invited out to a club but I declined. I think I woke up and checked the time every time someone walked in the door. I didn't sleep very well.

For the First Time

Day 462
I woke up at 7:30 with a start, my train left in 15 minutes. There was no way I could get to the train station and thru security in that amount of time. I went into a panic that hasn't happened yet on this trip. At first it was the money and the second was that I had never missed anything like this before. The third part was visa panic, there was only one day left on my visa.

I had a very strong desire to talk to someone from home. After a lot of emailing and calls I finally got in touch with Rose. Talking to her helped me get over my panic attack. Rose assured me that this had happened for a reason. I wonder if I panic because of homesickness and not just because of the ticket. After hanging up with Rose I called my parents. I'd left them a panicky voicemail earlier and I was sure that they were worried and had to let them know that everything was fine.

Now calm and rational I called the ticket office to find out my options. There weren't any trains for another 5 days, but I could get my money back. I hopped in a cab and went right to the office. Once I was there I found out what all of my options were. I could 1. get a partial refund and fly to Mongolia in the morning, 2. overstay my Chinese via (not a hot one), or 3. fly elsewhere for a few days and change my ticket for the following week. From the begining 2 was out so it was dependent on how much 1 and 3 cost, three was the cheapest. I changed my ticket and then bought another plane ticket.

I then had to head back to the hostel to eat and get my things together. I had about 2 hours to wait until I went to the airport. At the airport I ran into the Texan school group I had met on the Great Wall. They were on a flight to Newark, I was still feeling rather homesick and was sorley tempted to get on it myself. I resisted the urge and waited for my own flight.

The flight was only 2 hours and the food was actually edible. Immigration was easy, in just minutes I was stamped in. I had randomly come to a country that I had never even thought of visiting before, I was in Seoul, Korea. After gathering up my things I waiting a bit for my bus. The guy at the bus stop made sure that I got on the right one and then the bus driver made sure that I got off at the right stop. I know that I was right next to my hostel but I couldn't find it. Finally I popped into an internet cafe and one of the men working there took me to the hostel, it was just a minutes walk away. Once there I dropped off my things and went to grab something to eat. I eat. I ended up with dumplings that were so good that they must have been sent down from heaven.

That night I had a lot of trouble falling asleep. I was still in a bit of shock over missing my train as well as my snap decision to come to Korea. I just couldn't believe that I was there.

Goodbye China

Day 462
Today was my last day in China and I had wanted to go to the Summer Palace. When I woke up I hurt all over, I was just way too beat up from the day before to spend a day walking around. After breakfast I headed to the post office to send some things home. They wrapped up everything individually. It was crazy.

I then went to the internet cafe for a while. I wanted to blog, but couldn't use my usb so I just watched tv online for a while. After dinner I headed back to the hostel.

I spent the last bit of my yuan on some beers before calling it a night.

Great Expectations

Day 460
I was up at 6 am and was picked up half an hour later. I sat next to Sarah from Texas, who was also headed to Mongolia in a few days. Most of the bus was filled with a high school group from Texas. I don't think I've been around this many American's since I left the country.

Now, I've seen pictures of the Great Wall, but I figured that a 10 km (6 mile) walk would be nothing. If anyone tells you that they are lying. Luckily there are a lot of people around and everyone is chatty and friendly. I spent some time with Sarah, but she was too fast for me and we were soon separated. Several of the high school kids seemed to be racing to the end. Tyler was slower though and I spent quite a bit of time chatting with him. Still I fell behind. It wasn't because I am terribly out of shape, but because I was taking a lot of pictures, yea, that's it.

Parts of the wall had been restored, but they were still very steep. Other bits were crumbling away. I fell on a pile of dirt and landed on my butt. A few minutes later my right leg went out from under me. I ended up with a lot of scratches and a pretty nasty cut on my toe, but I was lucky. One of the people who saw me fall said that my leg went at such an odd angle he thought I had broken it. Several people helped me up and helped me get cleaned up. For the rest of the trek an English couple stuck to my pace to make sure I didn't hurt myself again. It was very nice of them.

At the end of the trek I found Tyler waiting for his teacher. I had thought I was the last one and was happy to know that I wasn't. To get off the wall you can either walk down a hill or take a zip line across a small river. I went with the latter. It was brilliant. My legs felt like jelly as well and I don't think that I could have walked any more.

On the three hour ride back I sat next to a Parisian who was studying in China. We chatted until we got to Beijing and I went back to my hostel.

That evening I had some well deserved drinks before calling it a night.

No. 2 Check!

Day 459
I was up early and headed right back to Tienanmen Square after some breakfast.

Mao Zedong was China's communist leader. He died in 1976 and a year later went on display. He can only be seen for a few hours in the morning and I had just missed him the day before. Prior to the Olympics last year there was a rather strong movement to bury him in his home town. Some people felt that it was just downright creepy to keep him on display. Thankfully this didn't happen and I got to visit my second dead communist leader. After locking up my things I moved quickly thru the line. When I got into the chamber I didn't have a lot of time to look, the guards really hurried us along. He looked more like a wax figure than a dead man.

When I got done with the mausoleum I went to a never used Cold War bunker. A few tuk tuk drivers kept trying to charge me about $5 to go there, but I knew I was close. Eventually I found a guy who told me that it was closed for the time being. Those tuk tuk drivers were a bunch of wankers.

Instead I hopped in a cab and headed to the weekend market. After some shopping I grabbed a rather yummy lunch before heading back to my hostel. I was surprised to see Alicia there, she had taken a Chinese language Great Wall tour and I hadn't expected her until the evening. We ended up grabbing an early dinner and then chatting with some people at the hostel before calling it an early night.

Forbidden No More

Day 459
After lunch I took the ultra efficient subway to Tienanmen Square.

The square was conceived by Mao to show thee enormity of the communist power. On June 4, 1989 forced pro-democracy demonstrators were violently forced out of the square. It is certain that many people died and more were injured, but China has yet to release the real numbers. The government just sort of pretends that it didn't happen. The 20th anniversary was just a week and a bit ago. I heard that the square was closed that day. It would be easy to do as you have to go to security just to get in it.

It was huge and lined with rather ugly communist buildings as well as a large picture of Mao opposite his mausoleum. I wandered around and took pictures of the monuments while I tried to figure out who was actually an undercover cop and not a tourist. After checking out the square I headed across the street.

I think that everyone has heard of the Forbidden City. It is the largest and best preserved collection of ancient buildings in China. I had heard from friends that the speaker on the audio guide was Roger Moore, a former James Bond. I was highly disappointed to see that he had been retired. Instead I had a woman who paused for way too long between words. The guide was also electronically controlled. I couldn't pause or replay things. Also, it just sort of went off when I was in the area and I wasn't always sure what I was meant to be looking at, sometimes it wouldn't go off at all.

The palace was just stunning. The guide told more stories than facts. The first born sons were often taken away from their mothers, who seemed to always cry themselves blind. It's odd that the same story was so often repeated. There was one structure that was unfinished, but the plans had called for glass walls with fish tanks inside of them.

Some of the palaces had furniture, others clocks and porcelain. Several were about the concubines. In the garden I ran into Neils and Belen who I had met in Yangshou. It seemed like a world away.

As it grew closer to closing time I became more frustrated with my guide and getting it to work. After five hours I had only knocked off about half of the little red dots. If you go to the Forbidden City just skip the guide, its not worth it.

On the way back to the hostel I grabbed some dinner. After cleaning myself up I spent some more time with Alicia before calling it an early night.

It Lives

Day 458
I had a leisurely breakfast before heading to the internet cafe. I then went to get my camera, they asked for another hour. An hour later I got it back, it seemed to be working. However, they wanted more money, I bargained them down and they promised me that if I was unhappy with how it was working by the time I left China that I could have a refund.

I then had to dart over to the Silk Market, I was meeting Sandra from Xi'an. I waited for some time for her but she didn't show, I found out later that she got stuck in traffic. I spent a bit of time checking out the Silk Market and picking up a few things on my China souvenir list before heading back.

At the hostel I found Alicia and spent the evening with her.

Feeling Naked

Day 457

I couldn't find the bus I needed so I ended up taking a cab to my hostel. Once there I dropped off my things and had some breakfast. I also got the name of the place that could fix my camera. It took some time, but I eventually made it there. The guys working there were quite nice but didn't speak any English. We used an online translator to communicate. They assured me that they could fix my camera. I talked them into fixing it over night instead of in a few days before heading out.

Without my camera I really didn't have much on my plate. I spent a few hours on the internet before heading to the train station. I had to book my ticket to Mongolia. The place to do this is not at the train station though, its at a hotel. No one spoke English well enough to tell me where it was so it took me a while to find it. Once I got there I had a ticket in minutes.

I then picked up some books before heading back to the hostel. I had planned on writing in my journal, but ended up watching some movies and then playing some drinking games with other people at the hostel, including Alicia from Texas.

Repeat

Day 456

After breakfast I packed my things and then headed out with Mathew from England. Our first stop was the Ancient Goveners Office. It looked just like the other buildings that I had seen yesterday, as did the residence of Lai Leu. Once we saw that one I was done with museums in this town.

Our last stop was the Confusous Temple. My camera had pretty much died at this point and I was quickly loosing interest. After lunch Mathew and I went back to the hostel and watched a handful of movies before heading to the train station. We were both headed to Beijing, but Mathew was in a different compartment. We had plans on meeting on the platform the next day. I read for a bit before falling asleep.

Funneling Thru

Day 455

Despite the fact that my train to Pingyao arrived at 6 am I still laughed at the sign that told me to follow the pedestrian funnel. Chinglish is quickly becoming my favorite language. I was picked up by a person from the hostel and told that I would be in the female dorm. This was nice because I had it all to myself. After checking in I quickly fell asleep.

When I came to I headed straight to the train station to get my ticket out of here. I got what I wanted and then headed back to the historic walled bit of Pingyao.

The ticket prices here are quite reasonable and one ticket gets you into al lthe attractions. Pingyao was the first city in China to have a bank. They soon expanded it all over the country. This brought a lot of money into the city in a short time. The bank crashed after about 50 years and the city had been left in the same condition. Oddly, there aren't any banks here now. The first place I went to was the original bank itself, it was called the Rishengchang House. It looked more like a house than a bank, however there was a room where the tellers would have been. Next up was the Post Office Art Museum, followed by the Wei Tai Hou Museum. They all looked the same. I was beginning to see a pattern.

At this point my camera battery died. I went back to the hostel thinking that I would just wait for it to charge and then move on to some more sites, however I got distracted. Once I put in a movie others followed. I stayed in for the rest of the night watching movies.

Marching Soldiers

Day 454
After breakfast I made a phone call. I had finally found a place with Skype and was able to chat with my parents. This was the first time in 3 weeks and it was wonderful to hear their voices. When we hung up I got a bus to the train station and then another bus to the Terracotta Warriors.

In 1974 a group of peasants were digging a well when they found an underground vault that eventually yeilded thousands of terracotta soldiers and horses in battle formation. You can meet one of the guys that is still alive and buy a book from him and take his picture, all for a price of course. Several years ago one of my friends was here and saw the man pick his nose. I didn't want to bother with him so I didn't even go in the building.

After getting my ticket and an audio guide I headed to the movie. Qin Shi Huang lived over 2 millenniums ago. He was the first person to unify China, ruling for 36 years. QSH created a centralized government, standardized measurements, currency and writing and well as building over 6400 km of roads and he conquered six major kingdoms. QSH did this all before turning 40. Despite these achievements he was a control freak who enslaved hundreds, ordered older written text burned and once buried 460 scholars alive. The Chinese remembered him mostly for the bad stuff prior to his tomb being discovered. Archeologists don't know if he was trying to protect his spirit from those that he had killed or if he was trying to take it all with him.

Also, all of the soldiers and horses were found broken and have been pieced back together. They are also still excavating the area and haven't yet gotten to QSH's tomb. Lastly every single warrior is unique from the others.

Pit 1 is the largest with 6000 warriors and horses. My ailing camera seemed to sense that it should be on its best behavior today. Most of the shots I got were ok. You can't get very close, but that's alright with me. I walked around the pit slowly taking photos from every angle. Some of the warriors had not been restored, it was really quite remarkable.

Pit 2 seems like its a large area but holds only 1300 warriors. There are 5 here that can be viewed up close. The detail is stunning. Pit 3 is the smallest with only 72 warriors and horses. Most of these are high ranking officials so it is thought that this is the command center. There was also a place where you could superimpose your head onto a warriors body. Creepy.

The last bit was a museum that started with massive puppets of a warrior hold a modern day girls hand. most of the museum was on the building of the warriors and excavation. There were a few pieces that had been found in the area on display as well. Perhaps the most disappointing bit was the end. The shops took up more space than the warriors!

After an hour ride back to Xi'an I walked back to my hostel. On the way I got a much needed haircut. It cost about $2.25 and the guy cutting my hair had one of his coworkers take pictures of the whole ordeal. When I got back ot the hostel I hung out a bit before grabbing my things and heading to the train station. I was really tired and looking forward to a good nights sleep.

Ouch!

Day 453
The room I was in lacked windows. I kept waking up thinking that it was still night time. When I did get up I chatted with the nice Canadian girl for ages. It was also raining and really not motivating me to get my act together.

In the end the Canadian girl and I decided to get massages. This was by far the weirdest one I have had yet, it was also the most painful. At one point I think he was poking sticks into my feet. It hurt so badly blisters would have felt liek a relief. Then came the part where I was laying on my stomach and he climbed up on my back and even stood on me! If I was alone I would have been really freaked out!

After the massage I headed to the train station to get my ticket for the next evening. It wasn't raining that hard when I had left but by the time I got there it was pouring and I was soaked. I did manage to get the ticket I wanted though. I even took the bus back to my hostel. Once there I had just enough time to shower and meet with Saundra from NYC and the Canadian girl whose name I embarassingly can't remember and who's email I can seem to locate in my book.

That night I stayed up a bit later and hung out with the Dutch guys again. A local man brough us several beers. We went to buy him a round but the bartender had cut him off. He was very very drunk. When he saw that we didn't have a beer for him he got really angry and started yelling. At least they finally threw him out after that. When my beer was gone I decided to call it a night.

Luckily Local

Day 452
I got to Xi'an just before lunch. I had arranged for my hostel to pick me up. Well, the hostel wouldn't be picking me up its a building after all, but rather one of the staff members. After getting out of the station I couldn't see anyone. I was a bit irritated at myself as I had neglected to write down any of the hostel information. Just as I was about to go and look for an internet cafe I was found. Ten minutes later I was at the hostel.

Xi'an is kind of an important stop for me. When I was a child my parents made sure that my sister and I attended Sunday school every week. When we lived in Pasadena Maryland we went to a church called Mt. Carmel. Every year a missionary that the church supported would come to visit. I don't remember a whole lot, just that she worked in China and always had prizes that we could win. One year Sandy or I (I can't remember who) won a mini Terracotta Warrior. I think that this is the first time that I had ever heard about China. I remember seeing pictures and thinking that it was some sort of fairy tale land. Perhaps this is the place that I have been waiting to go for the longest. It's a toss up with Pompeii which I remember my uncle Steven telling me about. I just can't remember the time line.

By the time I had grabbed lunch it was too late in the day to see the warriors. Instead I took a rather long walk to the History Museum. On the way i decided to be a bad traveler and get a manicure. While I was there I met very friendly Vivian who spoke good English. She asked if she could come to the museum with me. I was very happy to have someone there to chat with.

The museum was nice, my camera is on the fritz so I had to beg it to take pictures. I was really trying to wait until Beijing to get it repaired. There were even a few full sized warriors to check out.

After the museum Vivian took me to an area that is know as the Muslim district. This is really the shopping area. I didn't buy anything but I did get a better idea of what things should cost with Vivian's help.

Vivian was from a small town about 5 hours away and took me to a resturant serving food from there. I had a pork and noodles dish, the noodles weren't so great. When the bill came I thought of Dong Dong paying for dinner in Guilin and I grabbed the check. It was time for me to play it forward. We finished dinner with just enough time for Vivian to run to her bus to some suburb or another.

I headed back to the hostel and wrote for some time. I ended up meeting a really nice Canadian girl from Montreal and eventually spent some time chatting with some Dutch people before calling it a night.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Day 451
I was up early and packed my things before breakfast. As soon as I had eaten I headed straight out.

I think that everyone has heard of Confucius, but maybe, like me, doesn't know a whole lot about him. I'm not about to tell you either, it's a secret, just kidding. He lived from 551 - 479 BC and had very little impact in his own lifetime, but his family became quite wealthy when his followers published The Analects of Confucius. It wasn't really a religion, but more of a moral code. He taught that son should respect father, wife husband, peasant official and so on. You would think that this would fit in well with China's later Communist bent, but they didn't like old ideas and considered him a feudal educator. He heirs fled the country in 1949.

My first stop was the Confucius forest, the cemetery where he is buried with over 2000 years of his ancestors. It's basically a really pretty park with some statues in it and tombs hiding in the overgrowth. Confucius' tomb was quite plain, I like to think that that is what he would have wanted.

Towards the end of my walk in the forest a terrible thing happened. Long dead Confucian heirs and the stone animals came to life. They saw me and felt hat I was a trespasser. In no time they turned on me, the animals with grating stone growls and the skeletons with bony laughter and wind whistling thru the holes in their skulls. Ok, this might be a bit of an exaggeration. But what did happen is awful. My camera began to die. Every few pictures would just come out white. I love my camera and feel that we have become quite close of the past almost 15 months now. It was a gift from my parents and I had expected us to ring in the New Year in New York this year. With the feeling that I might soon have to say goodbye to a beloved friend I left the forest.

Next up was the Confucian Temple. It was nice but pretty much like all the temples I had seen before so I wasn't much in the mood. Plus, my camera was acting up. When I was moving on to the herretitarial mansion of his heirs a woman offered to sell me a chop (name seal) for 1Y. I made a point of making sure that was all. She asked me my name and then carved it on the bottom. Then she showed me that it was 10Y per letter making it a 71Y purchase. I was livid and refused to pay. She told me I could have it for 10Y in total, but I told her I wanted it for the 1Y she had quoted or not at all. 10Y is about $1.50, but I was angry. She then carved my name in a different seal and said that I could have it for 5Y, I told her I didn't want that one, I only wanted the other one. Eventually I got it for 6Y and walked away.

The mansion were really only ok, very typical looking so I hurried thru. I had also begun to get hungry and wanted some lunch. The place I found didn't have anything in English and I ended up using the words vegetarian and not spicy that someone had written down for me. I eneded up with a place of unidentifiable green gundge. Yummy.

After some more internet hours I bought some snacks for my train ride. I grabbed my things from the hostel and went to the bus station. I needed to go back to Yanzhou, about 20 minutes away. Despite the fact that I arrived at the bus station 2 hours before my train was meant to depart I made it with just 10 minutes to spare. That was the slowest moving bus in the history of the world.

I fell asleep quickly on the train.

Lying Planet

Day 450
I was really tired when I got off the train and it was still pretty early in the morning. The only people around the Yanzhou train station seemed to be taxi drivers, no one would tell me where the bus station to Qufu, my actual destination was. In fact, they told me that there were no buses. I sat for a bit cursing Lonely Planet for not having a map of Yanzhou but eventually managed to find written directions in the book. Soon I was in a bus and on my way to the home of Confucius.

One in Qufu I had no problem finding the street of the hotel I wanted. I just couldn't find the hotel. After dozens of pedicab drivers tried to take me for a ride and several people pointed me in different directions I had had it. I threw my LP guide on the ground cursing it. I then wrote a list of reasons about why LP sucks. My complaints ranged from a lack of timely updates, poor translations and inadequate maps, to the writers are a bunch of stinky wankers.

When I called down I compared the characters on the buildings in the area I thought it was. Eventually I found it, it was closed. However, there was an Internet cafe in the building. I quickly found the local HI hostel. After spending some time watching Little Britain USA I went to the hostel. I was famished and ate right after checking in. I also figured out that I would have enough time to see everything the next day. I wasn't much in the mood for playing tourist and fighting thru crowds of Chinese tourists who wanted pictures with me while giving the peace sign.

Instead I wrote for a bit but eventually just watched movies. Dinner was a bit difficult. The only things on the menu were either breakfast or had unconsumable bits of animals in them. I went for cookies and chips instead.

I pretty much just watched movies before calling it a night.

No Way, No How

Day 449
After breakfast at the hostel I headed out. I had wanted to see some of the tombs on the nearby Zijin Mountain.

After what seemed like a long bus ride I got off and began to walk up the mountain. When I got to the tombs I saw that they were really over priced. I just couldn't justify spending that type of money on seeing a rebuilt tomb of some guy that I've never heard of. Instead I just headed back into town.

I then visited a cheap DVD shop and picked up a few for about 14 cents each. I did buy a few more expensive ones. On the bus to the shop I had seen an internet cafe sign. I had tried to remember where it was but ended up just giving up and going back to the hostel after a while. The internet there was really crap and I was anxious to try and send Rose some updates.

After dinner I watched the movies I had bought and struggled to stay awake. I had a 1:30 am train. I was really happy when it was time to leave and I could finally get to bed.

Forgetful

Day 448
I was up stupid early and got the first metro train out of the station to get to my train on time. I was cutting it close, but I made it. I slept for the entire ride. Once in Nanjing I got in the metro. Getting off at the right stop wasn't a problem, finding the hostel could have been. The directions said to just ask everyone, this is problematic as no one speaks English. Luckily I ran into one of the staff members and they took me there.

As soon as I was checked in at the hotel I bought my onward ticket thru them. I then had some lunch.

Everyone at the hostel was really friendly and I soon had directions from three different people on how to get to the Nanjing Massacre Museum. On the bus everyone wanted to be the one to help me find where I was going so I had 10 different people telling me when to get off the bus. The museum was huge, there is no way I could have missed it, even if I had tried. It had also just reopened from a long renovation.

During WWII Japan invaded China and behaved pretty horrifically. Nanjing saw some of the worst of it. For six weeks beginning in December 1939 the Japanese occupied the city. They massacred almost 300,000 people. The original orders were to kill all the men because they could possibly be part of the army, this sorta escalated into lets just kill everyone. There were also at least 20,000 cases of rape.

The west did a bit to help. Initially it was just local expats, including Nanjing's Nazi representative, who opened refugee camps. This saved thousands.

According to the museum the war ended due to the strength and bravery of the Chinese army. The museum also said that China lost 35 million people, although Wikipedia said it was 21 million. Now I understand that is a huge number, Russia lost 22 million and the US 1.2 million for a comparison. However the war did not end due to Chinese bravery, it ended because the US dropped atomic weapons on Japan. Give credit where it's due. By ignoring the actual end of the war they dismiss all the allied soldiers who died fighting for them. On top of all this 5 years later China was publishing anti-American stuff. Talk about ridiculous.

Once I had finished with the museum bit I checked out the memorials. Most of it was bad artwork. Or maybe there was just a bad taste in my mouth. Some of the mass graves had been dug up and left in situ as a memorial.

I then took a cab to the Jiming Temple that had begun in 527 but had been rebuilt and destroyed many different times. The complex was quite large and there were many worshipers. I climbed the pagoda for a really good view of the city.

Afterwords I thought I might go to the city walls but decided against it. I was tired and it was getting late in the day. Instead I headed back to the area the hostel was in. I tried to find an internet cafe and ended up wandering thru a market area. There were a lot of pet shops. I felt really bad for the dogs and cats, they didn't look happy. There were also cages with both kittens and piglets in them. The pigs were much stronger than the kittens and kept hurting them in the small space. The bunnies were shoved in so tightly that they could hardly move. It was just mean.

I ate some dinner before heading back to the hostel itself. I spent the evening watching movies in the bar before calling it a night.

Lazy

Day 447
I took my time waking up and chatted to a fellow New Yorker over breakfast. I can't remember his name now.

He came with me to the Propaganda Poster Museum, I had looked up its correct location online. The museum was pretty interesting. The poster were arranged according to date. The style was much like other communists posters. They promoted workers and were anti-American. Some very anti-American. After Nixon's visit in the 70's things began to change. I don't think new ones are produced, well, just copies of the old ones and pictures of Mao.

The two of us then headed to the Bund area. This is basically a promenade type thing with big buildings. After some wandering and a really yummy lunch we tried to find the history museum. It turns out that he had already been and I was going to go alone so we split up. He was kinda annoying me anyway. I then decided to just go to the mall to write in my journal for some time. My feet were still really aching and I wanted a rest, not a museum.

One the way back to the hostel I stopped at the train station and picked up a ticket to my next destination. There was an automatic machine and it was really easy. Back at the hostel I tried to do some work on the internet but ended up chatting with others instead before calling it a night.

Shiny Shanghai

Day 446
I couldn't believe it but my feet still ached when I woke up in the morning. I got a cab and soon I was at the train station. I slept for almost the entire ride. It was nice, but as it was only 2 hours it wasn't like it was an epic journey or anything.

Once in Shanghai I got really confused because I arrived at the South Station and not the Main Station as I had thought. I argued with the ticket guy at the metro when he told me which line to get on. It only took a few stops for me to realize that he was right. Once I had checked in I headed right back out. Shanghai is a large city and I had very little time to see it in.

My first stop was the site of the first National Congress of the Chinese Communist party. The idea for a communist government came from Russia. Big surprize there. The museum had a lot of picutres on the wall and the oringal seats. Just as I was looking forward to seeing how the communist party finally took control the museum was over. Thank goodness it was cheap.

I walked down the street for about a kilometer and was sort of shocked that there was a random Heineken beer tent on the sidewalk. It was before noon. I then looked high and low but couldn't find the Propaganda Poster Museum, it just wasn't where the book said it would be. After a bit I gave up and went for lunch.

When I was done eating I headed to the Shanghai Museum. This place was amazing. There were sculpture galleries, pottery galleries, caligraphy and art rooms amoung others. Everything was in English. Photos were also allowed which was wonderful.

When I got out of the museum I met a few students from Xi'an, they asked me to take a picture of them. I said yes and they returned the favor. After chatting for a bit they invited me to a tea ceremony, but I didn't much feel like it so I declined. Instead I headed back to the shower for a much needed shower.

I got lazy and didn't bother to leave the hostel for the rest of the night. I had dinner there and spent some time writing before calling it a night.