We dropped our luggage back off at the train station and went to the Nanjing Museum where we would spend a surprising amount of time.
The Nanjing Museum is not one of the first things to pop up when you look up things to do in Nanjing. I didn't even know it existed until I spotted it on my phone map, and after some research I decided it would be something Bailey and I would enjoy. And we did!
First of all, it was HUGE. We started in the Art Gallery, which was a large museum of its own. I loved all of the art there! I love how Asian art is often done in scroll format. It seems pretty regal to me. Also common were works of art in the shape of a fan, because that's probably what they would have become if they hadn't been kept flat and hung up.
In the art museum were watercolor paintings, oil paintings (which were probably my favorite), sculptures, and calligraphy. If you go to the lowest floor of the art gallery, you will find a street made to look exactly like a street in Nanjing around the year 1930!
It was so cool! It felt so real. But it was also like being in those weird casino mall things in Vegas where they try to make you feel like you are shopping outside in Europe. They did a pretty good job, even having working medicine, souvenir, and book shops.
After the Art Gallery building was a traditional looking temple thing for us to visit. At least it looked like a temple from the outside - it was actually a super nice, modern museum in the inside full of artifacts. Like COMPLETELY full! Of course, Chinese artifacts include a large amount of pots. Fine with me!
Also interesting was the burial outfit made completely of jade. All jade except for the thread which was silver of course. One special thing about this particular museum is that it holds a lot of artifacts from our very own Changzhou. Including a large ancient canoe type thing!
Going to museums in China is an interesting experience because it is hard to know what is going on or the importance of things, without actually knowing what the labels say. Nevertheless, Bailey and I made our way through that giant building and the connecting one as well, appreciating the exhibits (including a very random "Romantic Scotland" exhibit), stopping in the shops, and not avoiding the bathrooms which were beautiful (nice bathrooms in China are rare!)
Our Nanjing Museum experience ended with some subpar food in the café. We did have a nice view of the Purple Mountain though!
So overall I would totally recommend the Nanjing Museum. It is huge and awesome and the best part - free! But bring your own food because you might be there for longer than you plan, and food is scarce there and not very delicious when you do eventually find it.
We have loved Nanjing! It is a very nice city, not dirty like some of the cities we've visited in China. They have a pretty good metro system, and most of the buildings we have been in here have been nicely air conditioned. Not to mention, every attraction we visited was free! If you are into history, Nanjing is the place to be. One complaint though - pretty much every attraction closes by 5, leaving us without much to do past that hour. So we've been hanging around the Nanjing Railway Station for a while now! Luckily there is a cool plaza out front with a big silver tree statue. And old people singing into microphones of course.
We walked past the tree and enjoyed the surprisingly large body of water that lies behind it. It was pretty cute, with swan and duck boats floating around. There were gigantic water fountains/jets doing some fancy dance thing also. We sat there for a while, watching the sunset and enjoying each other's company!
Now we are on our sleeper train. Tomorrow morning we will wake up in Beijing! Look at cute Bailey on his bottom bunk.
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