3. YangZhou and the tomb of Sun Yat-sen in NanJing


Young people enjoy a Sunday at YangZhou park

 Day 4

After our tasty semi-Western breakfast buffet, we boarded our bus for YangZhou -- population 4,000,000, land area 5,000 square kilometers, only about 1235 acres. 

Traffic is crazy in this highly-populated city -- buses, rickshaws, pedicabs, cars, trucks and many, many bicycles everywhere. There are no parking lots for cars -- just bikes. It's incredible what they carry on their bikes - 4-by-8 sheets of plywood ... sideways, 16-foot lengths of pipe, huge bags of produce -- you name it; they'll carry it. One biker was carrying bedroom furniture. The load was more than eight feet high and certainly very top-heavy. How could he keep it upright? 

Some bikes have seats on the back for girlfriends, children and grandchildren. Visualize this ... a young lady, wearing a qipao, a long dress with a slit, riding on the back of a bike ... sidesaddle ... with her head leaning against her boyfriend's back ... sleeping. We wish we could have taken a picture. 

We visited a lovely park where thousands of young people go on Sunday to walk, picnic, boat-ride and relax. In the park, there was a group of beautiful young teenagers who wanted their pictures taken -- and we were very pleased to do it. The people are so friendly and warm, but very curious about Westerners ... as we are of them. 

Lovely young YangZhou teens pose for us

After YangZhou, we returned to the ship. At about 4:00 PM, we disembarked at NanJing -- population 5,200,000, land area 6,515 square kilometers, just a little over 1600 acres. It is the capital of Jiangsu province.

In NanJing, we visited the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum, a memorial for the father of the Chinese Republic. This memorial is situated in a beautiful garden. To reach the Mausoleum, one must climb about 400 steps. Virginia chose to do the steps; Bill did not. And after all those steps, no photographs could be taken inside the memorial. The scenery from up there was breathtaking.

Virginia (on right) at tomb of Sun Yat-Sen

One message has become abundantly clear - China is very vertical. There is hardly any place one can go without climbing many steps. Even in the flattest landscapes, it seems that steps are prominent in the design of every structure. That coupled with their low fat diet has produced a nation of trim people.

China is very vertical - steps to tomb of Sun Yat-Sen

We returned to the ship in time to dress for the captain's welcome reception in the lounge at 7:45 PM. The captain invited all passengers for Chinese champagne and hors d'oeuvres. All passengers wore their dressiest except those whose luggage had gone astray -- us, our cousins and one other couple. Virginia and Bill, looking the shaggiest, hid in the rear of the room. 

Dinner was served at 8:20 PM - Chinese cuisine, of course. 

Trivia, according to local tour guides

Religion was discouraged during the Mao years. Buddhism is now the most prevalent among the one in seven who practice any religion.

Land in China is owned by the government and is leased to the farmers for 50 or 100 years. If the original lessee dies, the land automatically goes to his heirs. 

Traditionally, male children take care their parents in their old age, but females are not expected to do this. As one might expect, male babies are more desirable than females. Although the law allows only one child per couple, a farmer may be allowed a second if the first is a female. 

NanJing means "south capital". It was so named during the period of the three kingdoms. The other capitals were Xi'an and BeiJing, which means "north capital".

Virginia with a lovely waitress at captain's welcome

More to come.

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