Off to Nanjing on a fast train, flashing through the flat semi-industrial landscape of northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu provinces. A massive new, slightly-out-of-town railway station greeted us, the size and feel of Heathrow T5. We grabbed a sandwich at Costa Coffee which had a big sign boasting “Slow roasted in Lambeth”. Another café said “Coffee Tea Brief Meal”.
Sadly the sunshine of Hangzhou had been replaced by the usual smog and as we checked into a shabby Sheraton with strange lifts, Nanjing was not looking its best.
It’s an important city, the capital of China at different times, most recently between 1912-37. But sadly it's best known for the tragedy at the hands (and swords, bayonets & machine-guns) of the Japanese army in the winter of 1937/8 when upwards of a quarter of a million Chinese were systematically slaughtered. Seventy-five years on and emotions still run high. Suffice it to say, Japanese businessmen keep a low profile - although somewhat amazingly there's a large Mazda car plant here.
In the afternoon we had meetings at Nanjing Museum (China's second largest, currently nearing the end of a massive renovation project), South East University (about an architecture exhibition), and Nanjing Arts University (which has a brand new and seriously impressive museum attached).
Evening spent in the company of a company called 1912 which runs upmarket retail, restaurant & heritage districts in several cities in China. This one’s round the back of Sun Yat Sen’s former residence and is a strange mix of that Republican style I mentioned yesterday together with a smattering of neon. A distracting evening to be honest: after dinner in a private room with a large TV showing a football match, we moved on to a wine bar thar was screening a Mr Bean film. British culture eh?
Sadly the sunshine of Hangzhou had been replaced by the usual smog and as we checked into a shabby Sheraton with strange lifts, Nanjing was not looking its best.
It’s an important city, the capital of China at different times, most recently between 1912-37. But sadly it's best known for the tragedy at the hands (and swords, bayonets & machine-guns) of the Japanese army in the winter of 1937/8 when upwards of a quarter of a million Chinese were systematically slaughtered. Seventy-five years on and emotions still run high. Suffice it to say, Japanese businessmen keep a low profile - although somewhat amazingly there's a large Mazda car plant here.
In the afternoon we had meetings at Nanjing Museum (China's second largest, currently nearing the end of a massive renovation project), South East University (about an architecture exhibition), and Nanjing Arts University (which has a brand new and seriously impressive museum attached).
Evening spent in the company of a company called 1912 which runs upmarket retail, restaurant & heritage districts in several cities in China. This one’s round the back of Sun Yat Sen’s former residence and is a strange mix of that Republican style I mentioned yesterday together with a smattering of neon. A distracting evening to be honest: after dinner in a private room with a large TV showing a football match, we moved on to a wine bar thar was screening a Mr Bean film. British culture eh?
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