Nanjing.

This is the last stop on your trip. As you can probably tell from the last two entries, I'm getting a little tired of taking photos and keeping accurate records of what I've seen. Overall, this trip to China was phenomenal. I can't say that I'm walking away with a deeper bond to "my people" or any profound insights into life and the world, but it has afforded me the opportunity to see things that I've only heard about in stories passed down through the generations.

Nanjing translates to "Southern Capital." If you've ever heard of this place, you probably have also heard of a book written about the atrocities committed here during WW2, called "The Rape of Nanking" by Iris Chang. I'm not going to get too much into the history of this because you're better off reading up on it online or finding the book yourself.

This place has the dark aura of a magnificent city with a bloody past that people seem all too eager to bring up again. Lest we forget.

This place certainly has a history. I'm standing onthe city wall that was supposed to protect the city from invasion. It worked well enough until the Japanese decided to come in. The Japanese forces penetrated the main door and slaughtered almost everyone inside.

And though I believe that the past is best left where it is, I can still hear the hatred and anger in the voices of the older Chinese folk when they talk about the incident. I am told that Japanese tour groups ten to avoid this place. How sad.
The names of the workers were imprinted on the stones.
A statue of Mao.

This man's specialty was painting intricate portraits inside glass orbs. The detail in them was incredible.

I wanted to bring one home for my family, but they were expensive and way too fragile to last the trip back home.

These steps may seem daunting, but I laughed when I saw them. See that temple thing in the center? That's only half way up. But after you've done the Great Wall in Beijing, these evenly spaced, flat steps are a joke.

At the top, looking back down at all the suckers trying to get up. Just behind me is a a tomb and a garden the size of a football field.