Nanjing encounters: Night edition

In the last post, I posted about some random encounters during a short visit to Nanjing, but I would say that Nanjing is perhaps most dazzling during the evening, when it is adorned by colourful lights everywhere. It is therefore necessary to present a second part in the “Nanjing encounters” series, focusing on life in the city after dark.

Lanterns of upright drums lining the path that leads to the ancient city wall up ahead. I believe there were light shows in different parts of the city during that time, around the Labour Day holidays.

Light display of a warrior in the Ming dynasty (the period of time when Nanjing was the capital city) on the ancient city wall.

Strolling along the Qinhuai River, which runs parallel to the ancient city wall. The Qinhuai River flows through Nanjing and finally feeds into the Yangtze River.

Continuing on with my even exploration of Nanjing, stopping by here and there along the river to admire the night scene.

Strolling further along the Qinhuai River around the Fuzimiao (Confucius Temple) commercial district, also a popular tourist attraction and night market.

More lanterns and light shows around the city wall…

Arriving back at the Qinhuai River, I took a break and admired the Porcelain Tower from the opposite bank. Though it is a reconstruction, the Porcelain Tower was my favourite building in Nanjing and looked especially magnificent during the night.

The beauty of the Porcelain Tower (also known as Bao En Tower) is revealed more clearly with a closer look. The colours were just so gorgoues! The original tower or pagoda was constructed in the Ming dynasty but was subsequently destroyed, and what we see here is a replica of the original structure.

Huge flower lanterns guarding the entrance to another lantern festival somewhere around the Fuzimiao area.

And somehow I ended back at the Qinhuai River again, and actually I won’t hesitate to admit that I really enjoyed walking and just chilling along the river, even though it was by myself. Surprisingly there weren’t that many people, possibly because the Labour Day holidays have just passed and all the tourists have already gone back home…good timing for me 😛

Well then, I hope you enjoyed reading my short posts and liked the photos from my trip to Nanjing two years ago. Time to decide what city I should write about next…hmm.

Nanjing encounters

In 2019, I visited Yancheng in the province of Jiangsu for my cousin’s wedding. As a side trip after the wedding, I dropped by Nanjing (or Nanking), the capital of Jiangsu, for a brief visit. Nanjing is one of the ancient capitals of China, along with Beijing, Luoyang in Henan province, and Xi’an (or Chang’an) in Shaanxi province. In recent years, Nanjing has developed rapidly into a modern metropolis of great socioeconomic importance. It is home to tourist attractions such as Fuzimiao (Confucious Temple) commercial area along the Qinhuai River, the historical city wall, the Presidential Palace, and the Nanjing Museum. I visited some of these places, but this post will showcase some of the non-touristy sights and encounters that I found interesting in Nanjing.

Tangbao, or soup buns, are the most well-known street food in Nanjing and are a larger version of the perhaps more famous xiaolongbao. Dip one into some vinegar, take a small bite, and let the hot soup with all the delicious essence flow into your mouth…yummmmmmmmmmmm. I must have had this at least three times during my short stay in Nanjing, and if “You are what you eat” is true, then I have turned into a tangbao myself…

People were lining up for something here but I never found out what it was. I was more interested in the gigantic LINE FRIENDS characters next to the queue. Never used LINE myself but you could never get enough of Brown and Cony 😛

Huge egg covered with a variety of flowers…or well, it looked like a humongous Easter egg, though it was just a tree shaped like one.

Giant plant sculptures of peacocks at Gulou Square. The aerial view is much more impressive.

Large pig, small pigs, pigs doing yoga, meditating pigs, pig doing leg raise…wouldn’t mind grabbing this set of pig figurines and putting them in my living room.

Nothing much to see here, except this ingenious…hat? Convenient for shading from the sun without having to actually hold an umbrella, and the rainbow pattern certainly attracted my attention rather quickly. Nicely done, lady.

Engagement photo session with an extravagant dress on the old city wall of Nanjing. Frankly I don’t understand the hype behind these lavish photo sessions that, to be honest, look overexaggerated and fake, but it ain’t a typical wedding in China if you don’t take these photos. Maybe I’m the strange one.

Statue of a girl playing the banjo (I think), presumably the Jasmine Melody, which is a classic Chinese tune.

So that was my non-touristy summary of the brief stay in Nanjing. Again, I did drop by some of the popular tourist spots, but those are simply Googleable so I didn’t want to spend too much time showing photos of them. I think I only spent two days in Nanjing, by far too short to get anything more than an overview of what the city has to offer. Honestly I’d go back for the tangbao alone – it was that good!!

May 2019

Here goes May, the month where Wuhan tried to initiate summer but sort of failed, thankfully. (I feel like I can’t start a Wuhan-related post nowadays without talking about the weather – go figure.) The temperature hovered between 25 to 28 degrees Celsius during the final week of May, which was PERFECT, and as much I know it’s wishful thinking, I seriously hoped that it’d be like this all summer. Mid-May also marked the one-year anniversary of my official arrival in Wuhan so at least I could say that I reached a milestone. Good to be still hanging in there 😉

One of the things I do to keep myself sane on a daily basis is to take photos of beautiful things that I see, one of which is cloud patterns. I often see the stunning artworks of God in the form of clouds and they are enough to make my day. This photo was taken at the Guanggu 7th Road subway station in the late afternoon, and it almost seemed as if the smoke was emerging from the sky lit by the setting sun.

Another photo near Guanggu 7th Road station, this time taking in the early morning, from the other direction.

Third and final photo of beautiful clouds in this mini-collection, taken near dusk in Yancheng, Jiangsu province. J and I attended my cousin’s wedding in Yancheng and was heading to Nanjing for the evening, and saw this while waiting for the train. The sun and clouds fascinatingly accentuated the silhouette of the city, sending us a perfect goodbye gift.

A change of scenery here – a view of “Fairy Island Lake” from the highest point of the scenic area. This was taken during a company spring outing and though I honestly did not enjoy 90% of the trip, I give credit to the 2.5 hours of free time that we had in the end. It was raining pretty horrendously when this photo was taken (rain only during the free time, great) but I somewhat managed to capture the surroundings successfully. Perhaps the rain made it more…”fairy-like”??

Not going in chronological order, this is the Pagoda/Temple of Gratitude in Nanjing during the evening. It is named so because it was commissioned to be built by a king in the Ming dynasty as an expression of gratitute to his mother. I think the original has been destroyed and this is a replica, but it looked magnificent at night. The pavilion is lit up in alternating colours but there is a 20-second window every 5 minutes where it is lit up in multi-colours. Very beautiful!

Still in Nanjing, this is a serendipitous photo of a little girl staning in front of the lyrics of the Chinese national anthem carved into a wall, with the score. I was wondering why there was no English version, but I think the four languages at the bottom might all be ones spoken by minority ethnic groups in China. I’m going to venture a guess from left to right…Mongol, Sanskrit, Arabic, and transliteration of Korean. Can someone confirm??

Probably the most random photo of this post is of this small cocktail that J ordered as part of a meal deal. The deal doesn’t exist anymore so unfortunately I can’t find its name, but it certainly was an aesthetically pleasing little addition to an otherwise great (and very large-portioned) meal ^_^

This set of pig figurines (and the large piggy bank) that was displayed at the front desk of the Nanjing public library made my day and I wish I could have gotten the entire set! So adorable!!! The last one on the right must be doing some sort of yoga post, heh, I love it ❤

Obligatory (almost) monthly photo of me and J, taken in Yancheng. J looks so sleepy and clueless in this photo but actually it was just him being his usual dorky self 😛

Overall May 2019 has been a pleasant month, and I think I’m finally realizing this: I can constantly complain about various aspects of Wuhan, but at the end of the day, I have to accept the fact that I’m living here and learn to embrace its imperfections. I will probably still complain just as a way to vent (and it is necessary), but again, keeping a record of beautiful encounters will be my way of maintaining sanity and reminding myself of the good things in life. Yes, even in Wuhan.

April 2019

It’s almost the end of May and I am only getting to the April 2019 post…very late, I know. During the past weeks I’ve been contemplating ending the blog for a variety of reasons, but perhaps not just yet. I might write a post about it – I say that about a lot of topics and never got to them, which is one of the reasons why I want to stop blogging altogether – but before that, let’s recap the month of April, the final reasonably comfortable month in Wuhan in terms of weather…

During the Qingming holiday (early April), J and I went back to his hometown in the countryside and enjoyed breathing fresh air away from the big city. We encountered a cat who seemed to be contemplating its own existence and pondering the meaning of life at a neighbour’s house…or maybe it was just in a daze and waiting for food.

One of the items on my bucket list was to fly a kite and it was achieved during this trip! Well, I’ve flown a kite before this, but not successfully. I was really young and only remember that the kite somehow didn’t work properly – in hindsight we probably just didn’t know how to handle it. This time, I was super ready! J and I reached an open area and the early April weather was just perfect, breezy but not cold! See that kite fly! Higher up, up, and up!

It’s nice to get away from the city once in a while, especially one with so much distraction like Wuhan. Going back to the countryside allowed us to spend some peaceful time where the only thing we heard was the wind in the air and carefree birds chirping.

But of course we had to come back to the city. April was getting warm but not so hot that it was unbearable to go for a walk outside after lunch. The area around my workplace offered some beautiful nature, though the types of flowers weren’t as diverse as those that I saw in March.

Oh hey, almost didn’t see you there, little thing.

This was taken near the station where I usually take the subway to go home after work, capturing the final moments of daylight emitting from the golden globe.

During a random walk on the HUST campus, J and I encountered an event held by a department celebrating their 20th (I think) year of establishment. Naval engineering, I think? There were performances and a small party in the pavilion in the middle of the small lake. I remember very clearly that I got angry at J that evening, though I can’t for the life of me remember why O_O

On the last day of April, I arrived in Nanjing before the entire nation went traveling for the Labour Day mini-holiday. It was definitely a good call because most people didn’t begin their travels until May 1, and so the crowds in the tourist areas of Nanjing were quite bearable. I especially enjoyed hanging around the Qinhuai River, which has quite a lovely atmosphere when it wasn’t smothered by people!

And in Nanjing, of course I didn’t hesitate going to the Fuzi Temple tourist area for the famous street food! Wow there were so many goodies that I couldn’t resist even though I was suffering from a bad cold. I realize that a lot of these typically tourist areas were remodeled to resemble an old town and are heavily commercialized, but even knowing that, I rather enjoyed Nanjing. Then again, that might be because I would rather be anywhere else than Wuhan…

It seems like I can’t write a post without dissing Wuhan or expressing my strong dislike for it, and I don’t think my feelings toward this city will change any time soon. May is also the month that marks the one-year anniversary of my arrival in Wuhan so hey, at least it hasn’t defeated me yet – or has it already defeated me by changing me into someone that even I dislike?