06.04.09
Posted in Travel at 10:33 pm by Benjamin Ross
This is the 7th entry in a series titled From the Delta to the Backwoods about my recent trip to China.
In Anhui, Tex and I saw what we went to see, namely under-developed, low income, areas of rural China with little outside contact. Now it was time to return to the friendly confines of China’s big city foreigner “comfort bubble.” Neither of us had previously visited Nanjing, former capital of the Republic of China as well as several dynastic governments, so we decided to stop to scope it out for a few days
We were met in Nanjing by Andy Goldstein, a fellow American (and member of the tribe) who has been living in Nanjing for the past five years. Andy had a nice summation of Nanjing. He said it is the Chinese equivalent of Boston. Not as big as Beijing and Shanghai, but multiple universities, and brimming with intellectual activity. In this respect, I would definitely agree with Andy’s summation. After our rapid pace of traveling through Anhui, Tex and I took a 3 days to relax, sight see, and enjoy the former capital of China.
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| The streetscape of Nanjing looks very much like that of any other major Chinese city. |
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| As far as major Chinese cities go, I found Nanjing to be quite livable. It’s small enough that you can get just about anywhere by cab for under 20 RMB, and even the subway which currently only has one line was quite useful all things considered. I have to say that Nanjing would be an ideal location for somebody who wants to experience a large Chinese cultural center, but without all the hustle and bustle (not to mention traffic congestion) of Beijing or Shanghai. |
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| In terms of its architecture and streetscape, Nanjing is very much a southern city. However, in terms of the personality types it attracts and the general vibe of the town, I found it felt a lot more like Beijing than it did Shanghai or Guangzhou. |
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| Although not nearly as expansive and populous as Beijing and Shanghai, Nanjing is still quite large and developed, and has one of the more well-defined skylines of the Middle Kingdom. |
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| The only major site Tex and I had on our itinerary was the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall. In the winter of 1937/38 Japanese troops invaded Nanjing as part of their Chinese conquest effort. During the ensuing siege Japanese soldiers killed between 100,000 and 300,000 (depending who you ask) civilians. It’s 300,000 if you ask the Memorial. |
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| Admission to the museum was 5 RMB (about 60 cents USD), which probably reflects the central governments desire for people to learn about the events in Nanjing in 1937. |
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| Accordingly, every caption was written in English, Chinese…and Japanese! |
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| The message was clear. The powers that be wanted as many people to see the museum and learn as much about the Nanjing Massacre as possible…which is why I found it rather ironic that cameras were not allowed in to the majority of the museum, and hence few photos follow.
I had done a decent amount of reading in regards to the Nanjing Massacre, and in addition to the historical events themselves, my interests also extended to how the they would would be presented in a Chinese museum. Two years ago I visited the Japanese war museum at the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo for that same reason. The Japanese museum presented a rather curious view at historical events which undoubtedly would infuriate those who had experienced them first hand. You can read some of them in this post I wrote two years ago.
As for the museum in Nanjing, in terms of curation, it was by far and away the best museum collection I have seen anywhere in China bar none. There was a copious amount of artifacts, images, and information, all given insightful and well-written multi-lingual captions and explanations, that would have given any American museum a run for its money. (From my experience, well-presented museum exhibits in the Middle Kingdom are few and far between).
However, the museum reinforced a theory which I have been nursing along for the past couple years. That is, that Chinese propaganda results in the exact opposite of the intended effect when applied towards Westerners. Let me use myself as an example.
Just like most historical man-made tragedies, there are certain fringe groups who maintain that the Rape of Nanjing either a) didn’t happen or b) accounts of it are grossly exaggerated. The academic credence given to these theories is somewhere in the neighborhood of Holocaust denial and Bigfoot sightings, but it is certainly enough to get China (and most of Asia) in an uproar from time to time.
As we meandered through the museum reading captions on the walls, we were constantly bombarded with rhetoric such as “This proves that the Japanese brought great suffering on China,” and “The history cannot be denied.” As a Westerner, I couldn’t help thinking to myself that the preponderance of evidence (photos, artifacts, personal accounts and taped testimonies) meticulously displayed in the museum were perfectly ample in shedding any possible doubt one might have about the events in question. But every time I read the word “prove” in a caption I couldn’t help the knee-jerk reaction that the authors clearly had an agenda. In my Western-educated psyche, this incited the natural feeling of doubt about the claims which were being “proved.” In other words, I never had a shred of doubt about anything I had heard about the Nanjing Massacre until I visited the Memorial Hall. This is not by any means I have any concrete doubts of what happened in Nanjing, but it is an interesting psychological question to ponder.
I would be interested to hear what kinds of feelings this over-extended (by my Western standards) rhetoric brings about among people who have been educated in the East, and how it might differ from mine, which I feel are quite typical of those educated in the West. |
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| The museum is located outside of the Nanjing city walls in an area which used to be on the outskirts of town. The reason why, which we learned, was that it was built on the site of a mass grave uncovered years later. The final exhibit of the Memorial Hall was a walk through areas of the body dumping grounds which had been partially excavated and were open to viewing. |
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| The end of the museum is marked by an eternal flame with the character 祭 (ji4), which refers to offerings to sacrifice. |
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| Once we were outside of the actual museum, we were allowed to take pictures again. |
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| After the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, we took a walk along the moat and city walls which partially surround the city. The skies were clear and temperatures were in the 70s, which was fortunate because most locals told us Nanjing only gets about 2 weeks of nice weather all year. The rest of the time you either are freezing (most buildings don’t have heat), or roasting in the heat of the summer. |
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| Ancient Chinese god of fertility? |
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| Like Beijing, Nanjing also has an active community living in old hutong style houses. Although the buildings are old and dilapidated, and many lack modern plumbing, its inhabitants are not from the lower class. Rather, they are upper-middle class holdouts who have elected to preserve their traditional neighborhoods rather than move into the modern high rises which can be found all over the city. |
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| This particular neighborhood was just inside the south side of the Nanjing city wall. |
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| After 4 days of trekking through Anhui, Tex (right) and I decided we wanted to relax and be laowai again for a few days in Nanjing. So on our second evening in town, we met up with Andy (left) at a bar downtown which served stout beer for 30 RMB a glass, roughly the equivalent amount of money needed survive on street food in Anhui for a week. As it so often does, the evening morphed unintentionally into a karaokeefest when a young Chinese man in his twenties invited the three of us (as well as our newly acquainted couch surfer friend Stephanie) to join him and his friends in his private KTV room. |
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| The man (left) was in charge of an organization of tennis coaches, and had been treating several other coaches to an evening of binge drinking and off-key renditions of Chinese pop songs. He had invited the four of us into his room presumably to garner more face in front of his associates. I’ve found myself in this type of situation countless times in China and creates an excellent opportunity for symbiotic usury. We get free alcohol, excellent oral Chinese practice, and rambunctious evening of entertainment. The other party gets the requisite face generated from having a group of foreigners constantly toasting him throughout the evening in the karaoke room he has hosted. |
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| In addition to the drinks and singing, another element of the Chinese male KTV experience is the KTV girls. For a fee ranging anywhere from 100-500 RMB, these girls can be “rented” for the evening to sing with, flirt, and pour drinks for patrons. They also tend to consume a decent amount of the alcohol that the host has payed for as well. This is certainly nothing I would seek out and pay for myself, but when somebody else is footing the bill….why not? |
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| The girls generally come from different parts of the country (especially Dongbei and Anhui) and are attracted to the profession as a way to escape the dullness of their rural lives. Being a KTV girl is a profession which is generally frowned upon by Chinese society, and thus leaving the hometown is a necessity.
About three hours after we had been invited into the karaoke room, the bar closed down and a waiter brought our host the bill. The total came to over 10,000 RMB (approx $1400 USD). In accordance with Chinese social norms, our host paid the entire bill himself, without expecting any contributions from anyone else in attendance. |
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| Being the veritable Boston of Chicago, Nanjing has its fair share of college campuses, and some of the finer ones in the Middle Kingdom taboot. Many of them are concentrated in a single university district. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the following pictures are all from Nanjing Normal University. |
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| With its multiple major universities, Nanjing also has a quite sizable foreign student population. In most Chinese cities, when you first meet another foreigner you ask them “Where do you teach English?” In Nanjing you ask them “Where do you study Chinese?” |
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| Many of the campuses are located in the vicinity of Nanjing’s “Student Street,” in the heart of the student district (unfortunately not actually pictured here). The street and surrounding area has a Starbucks, a McDonalds, small restaurants, tea shops, a specialty shop which sells Heinz tomato ketchup and Captain Morgan’s, and various barbershops, net bars, and other establishments to serve the massive student population. |
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| lots of basketball as well |
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| and of course, lots of abortions. In this particular add the Nanjing Dongda Hospital Institute is advertising “Painless Abortion…Endless Holiday…Full Package 350 yuan.” |
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| At Nanjing University they have what I am told is the most extensive Institute of Jewish Studies in the Middle Kingdom. Now, keep in mind, this is not an institute for Jewish people to learn about their history and culture, but rather one for Chinese students who are not necessarily of Jewish lineage or belief.
Andy told me that once a year, one of the professors with invites him (along with any other Heebs he can round up) to attend class for a day so that the Chinese students can get ask questions to bona fide living, breathing, talking Jews. Andy and the other Jews are then give demonstrations of Shabbos, Hanukkah, and other Jewish customs. |
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| Yeah, these shots are totally cliche, but it is always somewhat refreshing to see a pinch of the countryside in the big city. |
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| Ok, so now to the most important part…food. Anybody who has set foot on Chinese soil at one time or another has probably eaten baozi (包子). Essentially baozi are hand-made dumplings cooked in bamboo steamers. They can be eaten almost anywhere in the Middle Kingdom, and they vary a great deal from region to region. The inside can be filled with either meat, vegetables, or just about any combination of the two. Last summer I even saw multiple shops selling mapo tofu baozi (麻婆豆腐包子) in Beijing, and pizza and curry baozi selling in Tokyo 7-11’s.
What the Yangzi River Delta region is known for however, is what are called 汤包 (tang1 bao1), our “soup baozi.” Rather than being made of mantou bread, as are most baozi, the soup baozi have a thin, impermeable casing, more similar to that of a regular dumpling. Inside, in addition to the pork ball, is a pocket of “soup” which if the entire baozi is not consumed at once, will explode all over an unexpecting consumer’s clothes when bit into. If you pop the entire thing in at once, you can appreciate the outside, the pork ball, and the soup all at once. We ate these at Student Street every morning for breakfast |
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| Her’es a local chicken dish which andy ordered, but unfortunately I cannot recall the name. The inside is giblets of woodchipper chicken* stewed in peppers, and on the outside is a bread onto which the chicken can be placed upon.
*woodchipper chicken is a term I invented myself. It is the most common way to serve chicken in China, and gets its name because random parts of an entire chicken (bones, head, feet, etc.) are all chopped up randomly as if they were simply thrown into a woodchipper before cooking. |
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| As alluded to above, we spent most of our nights in Nanjing reverting back to laowai again, and the Nanjing student street is an excellent place to do that. On our second evening, Andy introduced us to the legendary “Nanjing beer lady.” While most nearby bars serve 12 oz bottles of beer for no less than 10 RMB, a while back an enterprising middle aged woman on student street set up a few chairs in front of the small kiosk she ran, and started selling cold 18 oz. beers for 3.6 RMB. Being that it is China, and there are no open container laws (or at least none that I’ve ever seen enforced) foreigners, always in search of the cheapest cold beer, would congregate for hours on the sidewalk, chatting and getting drunk off beers that cost less than 50 cents a pop.
The Beer Lady herself is of a rather nasty disposition, speaks no English, and requests for beer are always replied to with “Get it yourself. The fridge is around back.” Nonetheless, it’s the cheapest booze in town, and the Beer Lady always attracts a decent crowd when the weather in town.
Here’s a shot of our Nanjing Crew on our last night in town. From left to right that’s Tex, Shakiri, Andy, Stephanie, me, and on the far right the Beer Lady’s daughter and grand-daughter. No word yet on whether they will take over the business when the Beer Lady decides to retire. |
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| 新街口 (xin1 jie1 kou3), Nanjing’s central shopping district at night |
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| And finally a shot of the Nanjing Train Station at night, which is conveniently connected to the city center by Nanjing’s newly built subway system. |
And that’s all for Nanjing, a pleasant, vibrant, culturally stimulating city in which I would consider spending more time if I ever moved back to the Middle Kingdom. After our stint in Nanjing, Tex had to return to Wenzhou to work, and I had to make my way back to Shanghai to catch my flight back to Chicago. However, on our second to last day traveling, we took a day trip to Yangzhou, and the ensuing travel log will be the final entry in this series…coming soon.
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Dylan
said,
June 5, 2009 at 12:11 am
Is that the Beer Lady right across from the Nanjing Normal University gates? Right across from McDonald’s? Fridge right around the corner? Best place to meet drunken Australian English teachers predrinking before going to Behind the Wall or 1912, and astrophysics students from Lebanon. Am I wrong or is the girl in the picture the Beer Lady’s daughter… named Yang… maybe? There’s a great ghetto chicken burger place up the street, too, beside a place that sells North Korean dog meat dishes. And, damn, out the other gate is a great HK-style cafe and a decent skate shop. I never got to spend much time there, but I love the heck out of Nanjing.
Brigit
said,
June 5, 2009 at 12:13 am
10,000 for 3 hours in KTV? WOW, that’s unbelievable, and a bit ridiculous.
FOARP
said,
June 5, 2009 at 1:21 am
NJ days, I spent a good (and not so good) 2 and 1/2 years there 2003-2005. Surprised you didn’t check out the shit-holes that are Scarlet’s and Castle Bar. Andy Goldstein is a guy I know from back in the day as well, the guy does love his KTV, I’ll say that much. How do you know him?
The beer lady – you mean the one in front of the student’s residence in NJU? Yeah, all the students used to go on about her. I used to teach at NJ normal whilst studying at Dong Nan, it really is a nice campus, and the students there are a decent bunch.
Benjamin Ross
said,
June 5, 2009 at 6:41 am
@ Dylan and FOARP
That is indeed the same beer lady as the one in front of Nanjing Normal and Nanjing U. According to Andy, everybody in Nanjing (well laowai at least) know about the “Beer Lady,” and based on your comments, that seems about right. By the way, I met Andy out of all places via this blog. We had corresponded via e-mail for a while, and a few months ago when he was passing through Chicago, we met up for a beer. So naturally, when I decided I’d be passing through Nanjing on the way back to Shanghai, he was the first person I looked up.
@Brigit
In addition to the room fee, the tab did include a bunch of dried squid, peanuts, and other snacks, the massive amount of Chivas we consumed (plus the green tea it was mixed with I assume), as well as the girls who were 500 kuai each if I remember correctly. But yeah, completely ridiculous.
FOARP
said,
June 5, 2009 at 8:43 am
By the way, ’student street’ is (or was) about the only laowai-tastic part of Nanjing – kind of like an inside-out China town, you don’t have to go too far from there to find places where you can go months without seeing another foreigner. Last time I saw Andy was at a stag night for a mutual friend of ours back in ‘07, funnily enough I ended up paying for everything then too!
Scarlet’s wasn’t actually that bad (actually, I think Andy used to manage there, and at a place called Rick’s), and I guess Castle Bar definitely has its moments, but was Nanjing a place that I’d like to live long-term? Well, despite the large number of universities, I have to say it came off as a very conservative city. There’s a reason why out-of-towners call them ‘大萝卜’ (although for the full story you can check out this article: http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/2724875.html ). Even when the anti-Japanese protests were going on, and we all thought they might be especially heavy in Nanjing, the students didn’t manage to pull off more than a very weakly attended demo – a few hundred tops. The traffic there also used to be a nightmare, it literally used to take me an hour to get a taxi ride from Fujian Lu in the south up to Gu Lou (about 3 miles) in the morning. The opening of the Metro must have done a lot to change that though.
Still as negative as I was inclined to be about the place when I lived there, it was definitely a relief to get back there when I last visited. The air is relatively clear, the streets are lined with trees, the city is planned in a relatively spread-out fashion with centres at Xinjiekou, Gu Lou, San Pai Lou, Fuzi Miao, the new thing at 1912, the Zhongshan gate, Purple Mountain, and the new Olympic centre – it’s actually a pretty good place for living.
Ji Village News
said,
June 5, 2009 at 10:55 am
Nanjing is a city that I definitely want to go back and visit again, because a few times I was there, I didn’t have enough time to check things out properly, but I like what I saw, especially the lush greenery at Yu Hua Tai and other areas. I heard its summer is very muggy, though.
Regarding the characters on the hospital abortion clinic, instead of “Endless Holiday”, it means “open holidays.”
Thanks again Ben for sharing.
Benjamin Ross
said,
June 5, 2009 at 8:06 pm
@ Ji Village News
Thanks for the tip on the sign translation. For some reason I’ve never really associated the word “abortion” with the word “holiday” before, but maybe I am just in the minority
Anqi Dai
said,
June 8, 2009 at 1:01 am
Ben,
Thank you for the pictures of Nanjing. I was born and grew up in Nanjing.
Anything about Nanjing always catch my eyes.
Thank you again!
Kansas City, Missouri
Andy Goldstein
said,
June 9, 2009 at 4:16 pm
The chicken dish in question is actually a dish from Xuzhou (徐州) called Di Guo Ji (地锅鸡). It is one of my favorites. That particular one was from a restaurant called Jin Lang (金浪) on Ninghai Lu (宁海路)
The Beer Lady’s daughter is named Yang Fan (杨帆) and their kiosk is on Ninghai Lu (宁海路) as well. The “Student Street” is called Jin Yin Jie (金银街), and it is the street where the Nanjing University dorms are located. There are two famous restaurants (notice how my life is seriously food oriented) on that street: Gold ‘N Silver (for the name of the street) and Lao Di Fang (老地方).
Yes, I worked at Rick’s from Sept.’04 to May ‘05. Rick’s closed down in late ‘06.
Ben, great post. Looking forward to the next time we meet up in the Southern Capital.
FOARP, who are you?
Nick Scroggs
said,
June 14, 2009 at 9:53 pm
Wow, great article. I have been living in Nanjing for about 8 months and now that you mention it, it is kind of like Boston
I like your blog because i found it randomly but i am a student at Nanshida and I also know Andy (through Shakiri). I didn’t know she was called “The Beer Lady” though, we all just call Laoban (老板 -boss). The place is right next to a restaurant now called Talking. So my friends and I often just say we are going to talking. Anyway great article.
Matthew Stinson
said,
June 22, 2009 at 2:57 am
Great post, this makes me really want to visit Nanjing this year.
Jon
said,
July 7, 2009 at 11:44 am
Good to see an American perspective of Nanjing. I was born in Nanjing but live in Pittsburgh now. Many times when I tell people where I am from they never even heard of Nanjing. I would have to say it is in the middle part of the country, kinda close to Shanghai.
By the way, you are indeed lucky to have encountered such good weather. Did you know that in the summer Nanjing is hotter than Guandong.
Benjamin Ross
said,
July 7, 2009 at 5:39 pm
@Jon
I think part of the reason many Americans have never heard of Nanjing may lie in that ridiculous Wade-Giles romanization system, which until recently was the main system used for writing Chinese names in English. I’d be curious, have you encountered any people who have heard of “Nanjing” but have heard of “Nanking?”
chinananjing
said,
September 22, 2009 at 2:29 pm
Seeing this picture, I urge to see Nanjing even more. The Chinese culture is very interesting, both the ancient one, and the modern one, which are equally reflected in Nanjing.
shanghailawyer
said,
September 25, 2009 at 4:12 am
I’m not sure that even culturally speaking, Nanjing is the most important city in China. In Shanghai, for example, you can find the best Universities in matter of law. Also, as a commerce center , Nanjing is placed second after Shanghai.
Qian
said,
November 18, 2009 at 2:00 pm
Thanks for the posting, Ben. It’s great to see that you love my hometown. I am now in Newfoundland Canada but I remember every detail of Nanjing. Your pictures make me very homesick. By the way, Nanjing Normal University is where I got my Bachelor’s Degree, and have you ever heard people saying that it has the largest amount of beautiful girls among all universities in Nanjing?