History in Nanjing January, 2015

My friend, Ashley, picked me up at the train station and we bussed and trucked back to her cute little condo in suburban Nanjing. Each day we'd experiment with different foods or restaurants and bus  downtown to see the sights in between doing tasks for Ashley's job as administrative assistant to our country director. I was fortunate to join a bus tour of university students experiencing history of the surrounding area. The week went by too quickly!  Thank you, Ashley, for being such a good hostess!

Riding home in a truck/taxi

Selfie in Ashley's apartment...yes, we wear coats inside!

Making dumplings with Ashley's sister, husband and son. It was fun!

Ashley's apartment complex

Downtown Nanjing

and at night...

Where they used to hold examinations for public officials

A beautiful park in the middle of the city

There is even a Macdonalds....

One day I was fortunate to join a bus tour with university students from Taylor, and we visited Hudson Taylor's original home and church; it is unfortunately run down, but is protected as a historic site. The second floor shows where there once was a stained glass window.

This was also the stomping grounds of Marco Polo, and this is a statue in his honour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The childhood home of Pearl S. Buck who wrote about life in China. The following are more photos of our day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool story:  During the cultural revolution, many buildings were destroyed, and the grave site of Hudson Taylor became unknown, until workers at a new condominium complex dug up an old warehouse, finding a foreign grave site underneath. No one could identify the occupants, until a man went into an antique store and noticed an especially old, half of a tombstone. It was matched to the one at the excavation site, thus identifying the grave of Hudson Taylor and his wife. The builder wanted to get on with his building so offered to pay anyone who would take the remains. A new church (with their own story of miraculous provisions) said they would gladly take them, so now the remains are buried in a tomb in the basement of this new, huge bell tower (seen being constructed at the rear of their new building). When finished, the complex will have a senior's home, community classrooms and a movie theatre.

Another impactive day was our visit to the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, which documents the massacre of 300,000 people by the Japanese. There were 22 Christian workers who were able to save many, thus the term "I want to be #23". We were so moved by the exhibits that we had to sit and rest awhile, then decompress at a neighbouring costume display. (Unfortunately my camera did not take a charge that day, so I had to take these photos from Flicker online. )

Traveling the Tibetan Plateau

Traveling the Tibetan Plateau

From January 12th to 14th, 2015, I traveled on the Qinghai-Tibet Railway again, with a friend and his son who I have been tutoring. This year there was more snow (yeh!) but fewer animals (boo!). The windows were also a little dirtier, or maybe it was my poor aim with my new camera.....
Enjoy our trip!

Passengers ranged from Chinese businessmen with Italian shoes to Tibetan farmers. I wish I could have taken photos of a colourful family from the countryside, in a line holding on to parent's sashes, some carrying a trunk or huge sack on their backs.

Typical farmhouse with piles of cow patties to burn; kitchen across the courtyard from the main house, and probably no inside stairs.

We left the skyline of Lhasa on a sunny morning.

The moon hung in the beautiful blue sky.

Urban sprawl turned into small groups of houses.

Small villages nestled between mountains (do you remember some of those villages in my aerial shots from planes?)

Another village

And another

Until the mountains turned white

And the yaks were not bred with cows.

 Police are sent to stand guard in lonely outposts (I'm getting better at following with my zoom in a moving train!):

Note the solar panel and the stove pipe - but little else!

Pilgrims on their way to the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa

Couldn't get a shot of them prostrating, but they will do this all the way to Lhasa.

The year before we passed by frozen, greeny-blue Lake Cumo. This time it looks just like a snow-covered plain.

We awoke to dry mountains of Qinghai Province, after passing the largest lake in China during the night.

These buildings beside the train station in Xining were being built last year!

These cuties came from a car 3 back just to visit - often!