Nanjing

The next morning I got on a bus from the side of the road which claimed to be going to Nanjing. The bus ride went for 3.5 hours and when I got off the train I had no idea what I was doing. I knew I wanted to try and see Amy and Adam before they left for Xian in 6 hours but was not sure where they were. Then just as I exited the bus station Adam called me and told me to find a taxi driver and he would get someone at there hostel to give him direction in Chinese. I was so happy. I could not believe he was so nice. I had only spend one night drinking with him and Amy in Guangzhou and now they were my personal tour agent. How great!!!

The hostel was a really nice. I saw Amy and Adam and meet their new friend Brandan (who was from America but had been in China for the past 8 months teaching English and could speaka lot of Chinese, yeah!) The four of us headed out for a bit of a sightseeing tour of the town. Amy is going to study history at uni later this year so was so excited to be in home of the 'rape of nanjing' and we headed off to the monument to learn more about it. But it was closed and will not reopen until jan 2008!!! Boo!!

So we then went to the Nanjing Museum and the a temple. Both were really interesting but I forgot my camera so will update this latter with some pics from Amy and Adam.

Adam and Amy where off to Xian and told me that the Lonely Planet said there was a guy there who could do Tibet visa in a day. I thought I might as well join them so went to the train station with them and said my farewells and got a ticket for the same train as them but for the next day. I then took the bus back to the hostel and went out for dinner and a walk around the area.

Nanjing by night

Nanjing by night

After looking around the town and the night market I headed back to the hostel. As I arrived at the hostel Brandan was returning from his date so we went out to find sime local pubs. We were in search of a small pub but the first place we went was a large nightclub with all Chinese except two Russian prostitutes, whom Brandan wanted to chat to but i was not so keen. After getting two over priced drinks we headed off in search of a bar.

The next bar we went to had the same name as the nightclub but was great. I met four Austrian guys there who had been working in Nanjing for the past 3 months. I loved it cos I got to practise my German but Brandan was a bit bored so headed off home and left me chatting a mixture of Germany and English with these guys. Most of the guys were much older than me but one called Dominik was only 27. He invited to go skiing with him in Austria. Yeah skiing!

Well at around 3 am I finally made my way back to the hostel and slept in until 11am. Ohh it was so nice. Than Brandan and I went a looked at the Presidential Palace which was the home of Chiang Kai-shek.It was really interesting as normal the history was distorted but i still really enjoyed it.

The man himself, Chiang Kai-shek

The palace ground are lovely!!

Tourism Chinese style. You must have a matching hat and follow the lady with the flag and loud speaker.

After the Presidential Palace we went to the heavenly temple museum but had to be quick as I needed to catch my train to Xian and see Adam and Amy again. So at 5pm I headed off to take another train. Brandan at the heavenly temple museum