Nanjing

From October 1st through the 7th is China's National Day. National Day is the day on which China's People's Republic of China was founded October 1st 1949.  It's the same idea as our July 4th Independence Day but there fireworks and days off last for the entire week. During this week, most take trips to see family or just take a small vacation to another city. We followed suit with everyone else and took a trip to Nanjing.

Not the best photo of the city as the entire time we were there it was

raining or overcast.

The city has a brick wall just like Xi'An only on a much smaller scale and with

not as much history.

The city wall is home to a large park surrounded by a lake. Notice the people. This was only the beginning of the massive amount of people that were on vacation just like us.

We went to another section where we planned on taking a boat ride at night. I took a picture of the dragons because I thought it looked neat and was able to get a picture of China's police force hard at work! Being a police officer in China is one of the safest jobs you can have. Since China forbids there citizens of having guns(no "right to bear arms" here!!), officers have less to fear from citizens. This makes them quite lazy however. Best bet is to not need the police for anything while in China.

Mom and Dad waiting for the boat ride.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get any really good photos on our boat ride. My camera isn't really suited for nighttime shots.

After the boat ride we went to The Confucius Temple.

There is place to worship inside of the temple. I like the three small animals wrapped in red velvet. They are considered an "offering.

On both sides of the picture are ancient musical instruments made from

bells or pieces of metal.

After the temple we had to fight our way through the "Sea of Chinese People!"

The next day wasn't much better. We took a trip to the memorial of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who is considered the "Father of the Nation." He is pretty much China's George Washington. His history is quite deep but he is most well known for helping over through the Qing Dynasty and starting the PRC. Since it was National Week, millions of people come to the memorial.

We climbed many, many stairs to get to the top of a hill where his statue is. On the news that evening, they said that over 500'000 people went to see his statue

the same day as us.