Journey To China: First Stop- Nanjing!

Have you ever wondered what the world across from the Pacific looks like? If you do, take a flight with me to explore China! Let's land in my homeland Nanjing first. Nanjing is a big city, filled with the charm of history. I think the best season in Nanjing is spring. The ground is covered by flowers and birds are singing. People are busy, yet the weather is relaxing. The best word to describe Nanjing is quick. Everything is quick: The people are eager to go to work or school, cars are driving fast, and even the ad on the big shopping mall screen is blinking. Of course, Nanjing has more than that. Now follow me to this city filled with wonder and history!

View

Laomendong Historical Culture Block: If you ask anybody in Nanjing where the best place to visit during vacation is, they would definitely say Laomendong. My favorite part of this view is that there are so many restaurants and small shops on one street! If you don't go to Laomendong, you won't know the history of Nanjing. The shop in this view has a lot of special decorations in Nanjing. The bubble tea and ice cream are my favorite. You can get delicious bubble tea with Nanjing's special tea- Yuhua tea in it and the ice cream with Nanjing's city design on it! Go into a shop and get a refrigerator magnet about Nanjing, sitting in a small coffee store, eating the desert and sipping bubble tea, looking at the people on the street, that's the moment you can ever have in Laomendong! This view not only has restaurants, but also other interesting shops filled with the charm of Nanjing! Jinling Scripture Carving, Nanjing Baiju, Deyun Society, handmade kites, cloth painting, bamboo carving, paper cutting, string puppets and other folk crafts make up the city of Nanjing! But here is a tip for you: if you want to visit Lao Men Dong, never go during  any Chinese holiday! There are so many people, eating or chatting. You may get hurt because of pushing and even looking at the view! The Ancient China street makes the site super thin.

Confucius Temple: This view it's just near Laomendong. This temple is build for Confucious, a thinker in Ancient China. It has a lot of buildings or temples in there, the place is huge! My favorite time to go to the Confucius temple is at night. So many people go there and start hanging out with friends at bars or delicious restaurants. The most interesting part of this temple is the light. When you look up at night, you always can see a thousands of lights that are hanging up high in the sky. This is how people describe Confucius Temple, they didn't need to show how good it is; one sentence can prove everything: "This is the largest traditional ancient street market in China. It is one of the four busiest streets in China along with Shanghai City God Temple, Suzhou Xuanmiao Temple and Beijing Tianqiao. It is also a national 5A-level tourist attraction and one of the representative attractions of Jiangnan culture." For being a huge foodie, I would say the food in this place is super yummy. When you go there, you would see not only tradition Nanjing food, but also the food around China. Here is a tip for you: never go to this place on Lantern festival, maybe the light shows are super good, but you can't move. You may step on others’ feet if you move. You can literally just see on TV.

Jiming Temple: This temple is different than other temple. It is more smaller and have less food in the site. The famous place in Jiming Temple is the yellow wall outside the temple. It is good for taking picture and has a comfortable color. There is a famous movie in China called "Legend Of White Snake," the setting of the film takes place at Jiming Temple. When I went to Jiming Temple, my mom always like to take me in a coffee-book shop. In this shop, you can borrow books and read on the big sofa shelf and also drink coffee or eat dessert. The most important thing is you can see the beautiful view of Jiming Temple and it feels extremely relaxing. This temple has a strong power. It is said that this site is the most effective place for praying for marriage. Every year, a large number of residents come here to burn incense and pray for marriage. The Guanyin Bodhisattva is the most effective. If you look at the top of this temple, it was tall and massive. This view is build on a mountain and the mountain's name is very similar to the temple's name. Jiming Temple's popularity is good, they have a lot of people everyday, especially on weekend. So, I suggest you go on a weekday. Because at that time, the people are working, they don't have time to visit this amazing temple.

Xuanwu Lake: If you ask me what I would put on the postcard for Nanjing, I would say to put Xuanwu Lake on it. The lake is like a mirror for Nanjing, highlighting all the stunning features this beautiful city has. The location of Xuanwu Lake is super good. It is located east of Purple Mountain, west of Ming City Wall, north of Nanjing Station, and south of Fuzhou Mountain. My grandma's house is next to Xuanwu Lake. When you look out the window, the lake is always so clean and pretty. You can take a duck boat and go on the lake too. But you need to drive the boat; it is very fun. 

The lake is giant. If you want to walk around the lake, that may take about 3 to 4 hours to complete. But you can also take the car; the car only took about 1 hour. If you walk into the park, there's an amusement park. The amusement park has a lot of games you can enjoy. The most exciting part is the up and down machine. The machine goes up slowly and goes down super fast. That's when your heart beats. There aren't a lot of restaurants in the lake park, but you can always get a KFC! Because of the beautiful site, some people even set this place as they're wedding place. Children are running and yelling around the lake, adults are chatting and teenagers are taking photos with each other. What a wonderful lake that nature gives to Nanjing!

Purple Mountain: As I said, this mountain is near Xuanwu Lake. You can go hiking there or take the Fairytale Cableway to get to the top. This place is the most important mountain of Nanjing. If you are an early bird, you can go climb the mountain to see the sunrise. Grab a chair, watch the golden sunrise, drink a coffee and take some beautiful pictures. That's the most relaxing part about Purple Mountain. The top of Zhongshan Mountain is often surrounded by purple-gold clouds, which has the beautiful meaning of “purple air coming from the east.” There are unfortunately only a few coffee shops on the mountain. So, you can't eat lunch there. My suggestion is to wear long pants and a long shirt because there will be a lot of bugs and animals, you don't want to hurt yourself. Of course, I think the most exciting and fun part is the cableway. Because when you are sitting on the cable, the wind comes to your face and it is super relaxing. When you get to the middle, there is always a little thing that can move your cable. If you are afraid of heights, you may get dizzy. But if you are not, it may feel fun and a little surprising. Here is another tip: don't take the Cableway at noon, there will be a lot of people and you need to wait a long time. You can get hungry easily in the afternoon sun too.

Nanjing eye: This is a place where all teenagers like to go at night. The lights are all beautiful at night and you can take a lot of pictures there. The most important is, there's a 5 star hotel nearby. If you live in the hotel, you can directly see the Nanjing eye. It is similar to an eye, so they call this site Nanjing eye! Also, the hotel is big, there's seafood in there for dinner! Under the bridge is the river, you can picnic near the river and take some amazing photos. The bridge is long, if you walk on the bridge normally, you need to walk at least one hour to get to the start point. I like to go at night, because it is not that hot or cold and it also has a lot of lights. The place is cool too. Near the bridge, it has a street called cat street. You can eat or drink whatever you want there. The street has a lot of cute things on it, including the 3D sticker! As I said, if you get tired, just go to the hotel and eat some yummy food and take a nap. The roads are clean; you won't believe how many people are there at night! But this location is a little far away from the center of Nanjing. But you can call a taxi and they can drop you on a very nearby ground. The tip for this is that when you go in the day, it may not be so beautiful or massive as I said. The best time is at night.

City Wall Of Nanjing: This City Wall is very old; it was built during the Ming dynasty. It has almost 1300 years of history! If you don't go to the city wall, that means you didn't come to Nanjing. This location is near Xuanwu Lake, you can see the view of Nanjing by standing there. When you walk on this wall, you can feel the power of Nanjing, also the power of Ancient China. Can you believe it, this wall is in the back-up World Cultural Heritage Tentative List! There isn't a lot of food, but you can walk to a street near City Wall. It only takes about five minutes. Even so, the view is pretty good and beautiful. If you walk on the wall, you can see there are three doors and you can walk in. In the door, there is the history of building the City Wall of Nanjing. It is not big, but it is full of history. If you go to a different side of the wall, you may see a different view of Nanjing. Also, if you go to the top of the wall, you can also see some cannons, straight to the other side. My suggestion is to take your grandparent to the wall. Because the walk is not that long, they may want to look at the history of this City Wall. The popularity of this wall isn't that big, but it still has a lot of tourists to visit. Go there anytime you want, even just take a wall when you are tired!

Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo: This may be the best site for kids. It is like the zoo in America, but it is bigger and has more animals. The animals are all special, it has all the animals around the world. The zoo is huge, but you can find the animal you want to see in the zoo. You can feed birds, touch a rabbit, and see the special tiger from the window. For food, you can buy fast food around the zoo. My suggestion is to go in the morning. If you go in the morning, there are not that many people, and you can finish visiting at noon. There is also a shop that you can buy the decoration from. You can buy animal toys, a refrigerator magnet from the zoo, and a special water bottle. This is what people say about this zoo: "It is the only self-supporting public welfare zoo in China, integrating wildlife protection, animal science education, scientific and technological research, and cultural entertainment and leisure. It is also the China Wildlife Protection Science Education Base, Jiangsu Wildlife Rescue Center, and a national 4A-level tourist attraction." Here is a tip for you: wear long pants! The bugs can bite you; it is dangerous!

TO BE CONTINUE

These are some good view of Nanjing. But, don't forget there are food in Nanjing too! For next article, you will see the other vision of Nanjing: Food! HOPE YOU LIKE IT!

If you have any suggestion or question, please email 14215@wpsstudent.com!