As promised... first day of China-- Nanjing

As promised, I will be blogging down my China trip from Day 1. Did quite a lot of recording for the
first few days.. here goes.

Day 1. 20/05/2005
1015 Singapore Time

The plane took off at Singapore Airport at around 0800 heading to Nanjing International Airport. The flight took 4 hours and 45 minutes. On board, never expected the movies to be that great. It's the Phantom of the Opera! The movie's great, though I think it's better to describe it as a musical. Lots and lots of singing, and Christine's so pretty!!! Such big and lovely eyes, but really feel that the Phantom is kinda asking too much, by teaching Christine he actually expects her to repay him by marrying him?! He's quite vindictive, but guess it's all from his love towards Christine. Well, this shows that love does not necessarily reciprocrate. Yeah.. the Phantom's thinking too much, but still in the end he let Christine and Raoul to be together... so noble... *sob*

Anyway, according to the pilot, we will be landing in Nanjing International Airport in 1255 Nanjing Time. Lucky there is no time difference between Singapore and Nanjing, if not my biological clock will most probably be screwed. Here's some of the airport's photos..






After touch-down, one local tour guide was there waiting for us and on the bus, he asked us (cos' my family joined a tour group) some general knowledge about China. The question was to guess the language that is the most soothing to the ear. Well I guessed correctly, it is Suzhou language, and this reminds me of my friend Cai Yi... haha... oops! Sorry... didn't mean to think of another girl... haha.. Another interesting fact.... apparently in China, at the zebra crossing and traffic lights, the cars and pedestrain do not give way to each other, so it's kinda heart-lurching when crossing the roads...

In Nanjing, we saw quite a lot of places, namely one gate and one river, which is the and 中华门 and 秦淮河. For 中华门, this gate is built by the first emperor of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, to defend the city. What is interesting is that all the bricks are carved with the maker's name. This kind of their assurance of quality of the bricks. In the case of the bricks failing the QC, they will be given a second chance to remake the bricks. If they fail for the second time, then they will be beheaded.. Zhu Yuanzhang's a smart ass huh. Take a look for yourself..







Then the second place is the 秦淮河. What is the photo below shows the river. In the past, on the left hand side of the river, that place is used for those who wishes to take the imperial exams to be a scholar. Yet on the right hand side, that area was filled with brothels... so in the past there's this saying... 一旁文书香， 一旁踏风尘



After the sightseeing went for dinner, and the speciality dish for Nanjing is the saltwater duck. Quite salty, as the name suggests, but compared with the other dishes that were served, it tastes bland. Think you can imagine how the dishes in China tastes like...

So this is the end of the first day.. the details for the rest of the days will be put up soon on this blog. :)