Shanghai & Jiangnan Tour - Nanjing 南京

Nanjing was one of the many old cities in China. It's been capital city of a few dynasties in the past 3 thousand years. This city is also the final resting place of Dr Sun Yat-Sen, the founding father of modern China. In fact, due to the many kings making it their capital, the city has undergone name changes more than 40 times. Because of the large amount of historical remains in this city, it was named one of China's Historical-Cultural Cities 《中国历史文化名城》 in 1982.
At every city we went to, a local tour guide would come on board to lead the tour of that city. Our Nanjing tour guide was a man. He was quite emotional each time he talked about the Nanjing massacre of 1937-1938. He did not lead us into the memorial site as he said he would be overwhelmed by those exhibits.
Old Nanjing is a walled city. With over 30 km long, it's the world's largest. The wall was done during the Ming dynasty's first emperor Zhu Yuanzhang 明太祖.朱元璋.

Outer Wall Section


Close up view of the wall

The guide told us that each of the bricks on the wall has a name, so as to trace the maker. We did notice some of those names as our tour bus took a slow drive along the road just outside the wall. I reckon the wall must be over 40 ft. tall, slightly inclined from bottom to top to give it more stability.

The construction of the Nanjing City wall was some what similar to many sections of the Great Wall of China. It's no surprise given that large portions of the Great Wall were constructed or restored during the reign of Ming emperors.

Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge 南京长江大桥

Nanjing straddles the Yangtze River, the longest river in China. China's first double decker bridge was built across it, and was completed in 1968, entirely by themselves. Looking from the vintage top of the south pylons, we could really feel the grandeur of its construction.

The bridge is more than 6,700 M long, with steel arched intermittent spans to allow ships to pass below. Trains travel on the lower deck while the top deck of four lane duo carriageway are meant for all other vehicular traffic


Side view - source Wikipedia (my own pic did'nt come out right)

Fr roof of south pylon

another view fr roof of south pylon

The Yangtze has provided a lifeline to countless people living within its vicinity and hinterland. We did not get to see the 3-Gorges Dam, which was still under construction as our tour schedule was confined to areas nearer to Shanghai.

Given the technology then, the bridge was, and still is, an engineering master piece.
Dr Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum 中山陵

The mausoleum is perched on a hill. Our tour guide said that the government got somebody to look at the fung shui of the area before constructing the project.
Looking back towards the entrance gateway
Entrance to the Mausoleum building


(to be continued)