Day 10

With the weekend off, we decided to take a train to nearby Nanjing. Nanjing was the capital of China before it was moved to Beijing so there is a lot of history in the city. We went by train leaving our hotel at 6:45 AM and returning at 11:00 PM. The trip was approximately 2 hours and the train accommodations were better than I expected. The train went between 150 km/hour and 250 km/hour depending on the distance to the next stop. That’s roughly 100-150 mph.

While in Nanjing, we visited the Presidential Palace and the Ming Tombs (yes, more Ming Tombs since some were buried in Nanjing before the capital was moved to Beijing). There were 10 of us so we needed 3 taxis. This caused us to spend a lot of time trying to figure out where each taxi let people out at. We wasted quite a bit of time allowing us to only really see 2 attractions. We did, of course, leave plenty of time for eating. We had 2 rather large meals. We quickly learned that Nanjing is far cheaper than anywhere we’ve been. The meals were 30 RMB each ($4) and you could get a bottle of water for 1 RMB (14 cents) although the average water cost 3 RMB (43 cents).

It was incredibly hot today. 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees F) and not a hint of wind! I don’t remember the last time I sweated that much. We were all happy to be home and jump in the shower! Tomorrow is a more relaxing day with a little group work for our project in the morning and then touring some more around Shanghai.

Check out my pictures from the trip.