Nanjing Things to Do

The Zhonghua Gate is one of the most well-preserved city gate in China. In ancient China, these gates were built to protect the city and its inhabitants. There are trapdoors in the city (which will close and entrap enemies) and hideouts for troops to spring surprise attacks.

This gate was built during the Ming Dynasty. The first Ming Emperor (Zhu Yuanzhang) built his capital city here in Nanjing, and in order to protect this city, he ordered the building of this gate. The construction of this gate had to follow very high standards. Each piece of brick must be of a standard measurement and weight. The brick-maker, as well as the supervisor who monitored the brick-making process, had to engrave their names and other particulars on the bricks. In the event that the bricks failed the quality control check, stern punishment would be meted out to both the brick-maker and his supervisor. In severe cases, the punishment is death. This strict process enabled the bricks of this Gate to last till this day.

Here, we were taught how to differentiate the different grade of jade and learnt how to choose a good bangle. However, I think the younger generation now don't really like to wear jade but the older generation will really appreciate the beauty of jade.

Think this was not the right time to visit the lake, as again the sky was very foggy. Guess the best time to visit is during spring... This photo looked very similar to the one that I took at Hangzhou West Lake. At first, I almost forgot which lake this is. There is a park here and it is one of the most favourite attractions of Nanjing citizens.

Zhonghua Men is the most famous and most fortified gate of the wall. It was constructed with 1000kg vertically sliding stone doors and contained 27 vaults that could hold thousands of soldiers. The idea was that if an enemy entered, the doors could be slammed shut. The enemy, trapped inside, would then be ambushed by soldiers inside. Now, we couldn't find the stone door here already but could still see the trough that remained. From the trough, we could deduce that the stone door was really a very big one.

The fortress is made of stone and clay bricks. In the past, to ensure quality workmanship, each brick was stamped with the name of the maker. Zhonghua Men fortress is located across the bridge from Yuhua Lu and about 500 meters east of Zhongshan Nan Lu.

After taking photos at the observatory deck with Nanjing Changjiang Daqiao, we toured the glass ball painting gallery (same building). We were encouraged to contribute to by buying the glass balls as part of the proceed will go to the maintenance fee for the bridge. However, none of us bought any, we just went and admire the art.

The Yangtze River Bridge, a feat of engineering that took eight years to complete. It is the pride of the Chinese, always cited as an example of what the Chinese could do when the Russians said it was impossible. The bridge is for both rail and road. Completed in 1968 during the cultural revolution.

Plenty of interesting shops ranging to cheap and inferior tourist souvenir and some modern shops. As usual, you need to bargain in those shops that do not have a fix price . As a guide, if the shops have English signboard or have very modern sign board, these are fixed price shops. Other than that, do bargain as if you are on the amazing race and you need to save money.

Normal guideline is to go for 50% as a start and work to around 30% for the final price. Chinese shop owners expect you to bargain and will mark up price to a ridiculous level to hope for some unlucky tourist to fall for it.