Kiki told me that the police wanted a picture of me in the Nanjing campus to prove that I am really a citizen of Nanjing. They were skeptical about my true place of residence. I mean they're not wrong. I do live in Zhenjiang, but in May I'll be living in Nanjing. However, I'm not allowed to pretend my home is in Gaochun (the new campus) yet. So Kiki called her friend and asked her for the key to her dorm at the old campus on Fujian road. I pretended it was my room for about five minutes and then Kiki sent the photos in to their office. I told her I'd be on call and I'd stay in Nanjing if they needed anything else.
My objective of the day was to get my Nanjing tourist card and then head over to the Presidential Palace.
I said goodbye to Kiki and then walked in the wrong direction. Eventually I found the government service centre, which was quite lush. Everyone was very helpful and I got my tourist card with minimal effort. It's a really great deal for 260 yuan you can visit 52 attractions around the city! My Tuesdays are going to be action packed!
Next stop was the Presidential Palace. This was a place that was built by the Taiping rebels. After they kicked out the colonialists they rebuilt a Ming dynasty palace and called it the Mansion of the Heavenly King. The building that stands there today is a reconstruction, and there are also exhibits from the time when it was used by Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang as headquarters when Nanjing was the capital of the Republic of China before 1949. After the big revolution, when Mao and the Red Guards took over (liberated) the area, their capital was Beijing. Therefore this palace became the offices for the provincial Jiangsu government. That took me quite the effort to learn, I think it makes sense! Most of the signs were fully in Chinese, so I had to kind of gather this information with my gut, by looking at photos and a few short translations around the museum.
Today was also a day to learn how to use the bus in Nanjing. I have now updated my Chinese phone and I can scan myself onto any bus or subway without a problem! Unless my phone dies or gets wet I suppose. I still would much rather pay with swipe card. Oh well.
I didn't feel the Presidential Palace was very photogenic, but I still tried to give you a sense of the place. Hope it's interesting!
This is the reception hall. The government would welcome delegates here and there are many old famous photos of people taking pictures with dignitaries here.
Map of the palace and historical info
A board room where lots of big decisions were made like, should we get outta here and move to Chongqing? The Japanese are coming! Quick leave and lock the doors behind you. Don't let anyone else escape!
The main entrance was a big schmozzle:
This is an office building used by the likes of Sun Yat Sen and Chiang Kai Shek
A reconstructed Ming dynasty garden
Sun Yat Sen's house
The "Stone Boat"
An old elevator
The president's office
The foreign affairs office. I'd probably have to go there if I went to China in 1948.
This is when they cut people's ponytails off after the emperor and all colonialists were abolished.
This featured blog entry was written by baixing from the blog No Fixed Address.
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