Saturday Outing, Part 2-Zhonghua Gate

The next stop along the way, on November 8, 2008, was Zhonghua Gate (Chinese Gate) is the south gate of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. Zhonghua Gate has the double distinction of being the biggest castle-style city gate in China and a structural element of the most complicated castle in the world. It is the castle's magnificent scale, delicate structure, and the great skill with which it was built that bequeath it an important place in China's military and architectural traditions. Construction of the castle took twenty-one years, from 1366 to 1387.

The entrance to the gate, don't worry the soldiers are just statues.

Posing like the soldier, I think we look pretty intimidating.

Top of the castle/gate.
Bonsai Garden
Wall and stairs up the wall.

Jake overlooking the courtyard

View going up the stairs...now this is what I call China. Jake and Brit

Jake and I on the stairs going up to the top. The ramps on the side of us were so that the horses could get up to the top.

Chad and the soldier

Jake, thinking enough with the pictures already.

This was one of the tunnels where some of the soldiers would sleep. There were about 8 of these on top of the wall, and each would be lined with 3-4 level bunk beds. So...what looked like just a normal part of the wall actually housed an entire army.

Chad and Kirstin overlooking the city.

Jake and Brit on top of the world...ok the wall.

This is Jake's friend Luke doing his mad martial arts moves.

More martial art moves...he is actually pretty good.

View from below.

This was another outing that I thoroughly enjoyed. I love the scenery and the old buildings. It really amazes me how old things are here and the condition they are still in.

Saturday Outing, Part 1-Nanjing Folklore Museum

On November 8, 2008, we had another outing with Jake's flagship program. We actually ended up going to 3 places that day which means I took a lot of pictures. The first place we went was The Nanjing Folklore Museum/Ganxi's Former Residence. It is generally called "ninety nine rooms and half room". In China if you ask for a big number they say 9 instead of 10 or 99 instead of 100. Anyways this place is more of what I thought China to be like. It had this really beautiful garden and so many rooms. It was a lot of fun and Jake and I felt like it was going through a maze trying to get out. Map of complex

Clara and Britney eating Hi-Chews(they are like a starburst, but a lot better). Jake just gave her a whole one...which was a lot of chewing for her.
Old layout of the place

Long hallway leading to different rooms, from front to back is Susannah, Caleb, Chad, and Jake.

Jake by one of the courtyards, and he is even smiling:)Britney sitting at one of the tables.

Jake climbing up the steep stairs to one of the 99 rooms.

Britney out in one of the many garden areas.

This is what I expected China to be like, beautiful rock gardens.

Britney standing in one of the long narrow hallways.

Garden out back.

I loved this area, it was so peaceful and beautiful.

Jake and I down in the pond.

Close up one of just the two of us.

Donny, Jake, and Caleb practice their Tai Chi moves.

Caleb and Clara sitting and waiting for everyone...Clara was finally warming up to Caleb. He didn't know the trick was to feed her candy.

Changzhou

Well a couple of weeks ago, Jake's Flagship class had a fieldtrip to Changzhou. They are known for making combs there.

On the train bright and early

The Flagship Group...minus me b/c I was taking the picture.

Jake went to a lot of wining and dining by the government. They were there to do a newspaper interview. I stayed in the hotel with Sara and Clara the first day, and we ventured out to a park and walked around. There was a pretty cool statue there, but when I went to take a picture with my camera, my batteries were dead. Sara then said don't worry I have my camera, but she forgot to put the batteries back in her camera. So we don't have proof that we ventured out in a new city, but we did I promise.

The next day we went to a lot of community centers so the students could see what they were like and talk with some of the elderly people there. Jake said it was all "set-up" and "staged".
This sign said "Welcome American students from Nanjing University" and I was excited that it was in English, but then on our tour the switched it to Chinese, so I just got a picture with the Chinese.
Then we went out to lunch at a place translated to the "Drunken Millionaire". I think the man was a little disappointed that he ordered expensive wine and bought expensive cigarettes but we didn't join in. As you can tell the table was set really nice, but the food was really gross. Since we didn't drink, we got a nice glass of hot corn drink. It looked like an orange julius, but was corn. Then we had a lot of other weird things that I have no clue what they were but I just tasted it. And the craziest thing we ate that day was......PENGUIN. It was nice and blubbery and Jake almost threw it up. I still laugh thinking about his face when he was trying to swallow it. After this long lunch, I was ready to go back to our home and eat something normal.

Jake and I before we started eating all the weird stuff.

Clara, did so well, I was going nuts after 2+ hours of sitting at the table listening to a drunk chinese man. So I guess my attention span is less then a 1 year old.
Some really pretty gardens around where we ate
Jake by some giant statue...what a stud
Goodbye Changzhou