Travel Diaries: Nanjing, China

Before I start becoming too lazy, here is another post from my recent trip to southern China. On this particular day, we had just arrived in Nanjing and were visiting the mausoleum of the famous Sun Yat-sen. If you haven't already heard of him, Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese revolutionary who helped to found the Republic of China in the early twentieth century. He once fled to Vancouver, Canada after becoming a wanted fugitive, which resulted in the creation of a garden in his honour in my hometown. Since I had this tiny connection to him, it was certainly very cool to visit this shrine in China; as well, I had previously studied some ancient and modern Chinese history (which included a bit about Nanjing) in university and never had really expected to visit the city itself! 

In these pictures, you can see us walking up and down the many flights of steps to visit the mausoleum. Although it was a stiflingly hot day, the heat did nothing to deter the thousands of excited Chinese tourists from making the trip-- I was even more astonished when I saw many overly-fashionable ladies wearing fancy maxi dresses, lace tops, and heels on a day that was probably in the mid-thirties temperature-wise. Another fascinating surprise was that much of the park provided free wifi for any interested users. So whenever we weren't walking, sweating like crazy, or taking pictures, my friends and I were heavily using our phones to catch up with friends, upload Instagram posts, and other necessities. It was at this park that everyone decided to give into the heat and buy fans to cool themselves off. Previously, I had to beg my parents to lend me some yuan to buy a fan (which costs $1 USD) at an incredibly hot historic site we had a visited the day before. However, in Nanjing, almost everyone else decided to buy a large fan at the local tourist shops-- by the end of the trip, you could see everyone from our tour bus sitting down using their fancy new fans to cool off! 

The signs demanding "Silence" and "No Photography" were dutifully ignored by almost every tourist.

If you ever find yourself in Nanjing, I definitely recommend visiting this beautiful historic site! However, if you visit during the summertime, be sure to bring an umbrella for shade and a large bottle of water if you want to avoid heatstroke!