Nanjing+Arrival

= Nanjing Arrival  =

Two strange things about China:
 * 1) The entire county is in the same time zone - Beijing time! So it gets dark in Nanjing about 5 pm. I was wondering about those metal shutters in my hotel room!
 * 2) Not as weird - I've not seen the sun since my arrival. Not sure if it is just due to the weather (hasn't rained much but so humid) or if there is pollution. Nanjing has a strong smell of smoke - but it is a wood burning smell.

The Nanjing hotel - LuiYuan Hotel - was wonderful and we were greeted with a red carpet! There are far fewer foreigners in Nanjing so we are much more interesting to the locals.



So after lunch at the hotel, we headed out to the Presidential Palace - here I am beside a lion. Nanjing was once a capital of China (in fact, jing means capital which is why is is in both Nanjing and Beijing). Below is one of the presidential offices. This is all very old.

This is a map of the original city of Nanjing - you can see the wall around the city. he larger house in the middle top is the palace. Here is the wall as it looks now (as seen from the bus window).

Also of interst in Nanjing is the Memorial Hall of the Victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders - but we don't get to see that on this visit.