Thursday, August 23, 2007

Nanjing Touring


We've finished all of Peter's paperwork here in Nanjing but we don't leave for Guangzhou until Friday afternoon. So, John took us out for some touring of Nanjing. First, we went to a museum that featured jade and jade carving (stone is an important product in Jiangsu Province). We learned about different types of jade and how to tell good quality jade from poor. We also saw some amazing treasures including a burial suit made of small rectangles of jade sewn together with silver thread. The suit took over ten years to make since each of the four holes in each jade rectangle were carved using bamboo. Here is a picture of a burial suit from an article online. If this is not the same one we saw, it is very similar.

We caught a taxi from the museum to a nearby park that showcased wonderful gardens, the Ming Tomb and stone sculptures of various creatures along the sacred avenue. We didn't spend too much time here since the day was very hot and humid. What we did see, though, was beautiful.

The rest of the day was spent with the kids napping and playing at the hotel.

Our pictures of today's sightseeing are here.