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

Qixia Buddhist Temple

On October 25, 2008 Jake and I went with the Flagship students on a Saturday outing. I know there are a ton of pictures, but this is kind of my journal with pictures. It was a pretty neat place. It is called Qixia Buddhist Temple.
This temple is on Qixia Mountain north-east of Nanjing. It was founded by the Buddhist monk Ming Sengshao during the Southern Qi dynasty, and is still an active place of worship. Qixia Temple has long been one of China's most important monasteries, and even today is one of the largest Buddhist seminaries in the country. The area where incense is burning, quite a strong smell.

A girl praying to each direction.
Jake and the elephant on the way into the temple.
(We like taking pictures of Jake by stone elephants apparently...)

The temple...Jake is off to the right

This is where you can toss coins into for good luck, nice shot Jake. It looks like he played basketball at one time.

Jake and I outside the temple.

The monks inside the temple.

Jake and I overlooking the courtyard.

Behind the temple is the Thousand Buddha Cliff (Qianfo Ya). Several small caves housing stone statues are carved into the hillside, the earliest of which dates from the Qi dynasty (AD 479-502), although there are others from succeeding dynasties through to the Ming.

Me and the big stone tower.

Some close-ups of the tower.

The rocks had a lot of buddhas carved out of them.

One side of the carved mountain.

Jake with the carvings.

I guess I wasn't supposed to take a picture of this Buddha, but it was huge and I didn't know that when I snapped this picture.

After seeing some of the sculpting, they gave us some time to hike around and see the area. I just thought this was really pretty looking.

Jake and I found a path up a mountain that had a lot more carvings.

I was sooooo tired walking up all the steps.

Don't worry I kept going, but my thighs were burning.

Jake is always such a good sport on the outings, he always carries the bag, which I load up with everything "just in case". This is about as high up as we could get.

The view at the top overlooking the city.

Me at the top totally tired and exhausted.

More pictures of the sculpting, a lot of these have the heads taken off because they were smashed in the Cultural Revolution.

More carvings from the mountain.

Our hike back down, we found a little shortcut.

Some artwork that lined one of the pathways. Everywhere you go people are always selling all sorts of jewelery, artwork, and just about anything you can think of.