Because I had a whole week of free time before the school began I decided to travel a little in China so I went alone for a 1 week trip. My first stop was Nanjing, I made this trip a real budget travel after an expensive Euro trip this summer.
The train I came with to Nanjing took 16 hours and I only had a NOT so super comfortable seat, no comfortable bed. But the ticket for this long trip was only around 15 Euros which I think is very affordable. After 200 pages of Kjäll Westös book and 16 hours later I finally arrived in Nanjing. The railway station was pretty nice and not chaotic at all like the Lonely Planet had described it. Now it was just to go and look for the hotel,
I found the subway station of the hotel without any problem (even though all signs were in Chinese only) but I didn’t have a map where the hotel was so I wondered a little around the area but didn’t find anything. Out of nowhere comes this Chinese guy and asks if I need any help and by random he knows where the place is and takes me there. He tells me he’s going with an American later this day to check the war memorial (Japanese occupation of Nanjing) and asks me to join them. Well of course I want to join, the occupation museum or Nanjing massacre museum is the main reason why I even came to Nanjing. First I went to the hotel and sleep a few hours because the train ride was pretty long. After 4hours I went to meet him and we start walking, after a while a car pulls up on the road and picks us up. At this point my alarm clocks are ringing; the whole situation seems a little dodgy. I’m just about to step into a stranger’s car without having any idea where we are going or who these people actually are, this might as well be an attempt to rob me off my kidney. But the whole thing turns out to be fine and we pick up an American guy who looks just like Jesus and then drive to go check the memorial. In the memorial it wasn’t allowed to take pictures but I managed to snap a few anyway. The people I hang out with is really nice and the American guy is some kind of artist, he game me his card and this was his webpage www.orclestudiosllc.com
After the memorial I go and meet a friend of a friend and we take a walk in the Confucius temple with a lot of old beautiful Chinese buildings lit up but cool lights in the evening. Surely an interesting day, expenses for today’s food, transport and hotel altogether today is around 25 Euros.
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