Nanjing, like Auschwitz and Hiroshima, is a name that brings to mind horrendous large-scale killing. In 1937 with the Japanese preparing to invade, the Chinese government urged citizens of Nanjing to stay put, saying, "All those who have blood and breath in them must feel they wish to be broken as jade rather that remain whole as tile." To further make their point, Nanjing's city gates were locked, trapping inside about half a million Nanjing residents. The result was a month and a half of relentless brutality by the invading Japanese, totaling about 300,000 deaths, and some 20,000 rapes. I took the photos (above and below) yesterday at the Memorial Hall of the Nanjing Massacre.
Due to China's shift from a communist system to what the government calls a "socialist oriented market economy" there are now several hundred Chinese billionaires.
And as one would expect, along with the billionaires comes a steady rise in income inequality.
Fuzi Confucian Temple in downtown Nanjing
Ming garden at Nanjing's Presidential Palace
I took this photo a few hours ago on the gorgeous grounds of the Ming Xiaoling Tomb.
Fruit kebabs with a cherry tomato on top?? -- well, tomatoes are a fruit after all.
Another motel along the way ...
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