2 days after our arrival in Nanjing, Iven and I felt rested enough to leave the area of our hotel, which until then we hadn’t really had to do. We stayed in a hotel on top of a huge mall. The hotel was within a ~30 stories tall building. Yet, the hotel was only on the 10th floor. The hotel itself was okay, however, for the price, it was pretty good. A week cost 60 euros per person. The room we stayed in was big for Chinese standards, with a high ceiling and much space in between our beds. The biggest downside was that we hadn’t realized smoking was allowed in our room, something we noticed immediately from the smell upon entering. Luckily, the AC was able to give some fresh air, making it more bearable. The hotel was in the outskirts of the city, which was totally okay as we had all we needed in our area. The mall offered everything one could want, which I’ll cover in another entry soon. But back to the main story.
As mentioned in arrival, we met 2 guys from Beijing, Oscar and John, with whom we made plans to explore the city. We only had little details about what we were getting into. The only thing I knew beforehand was that John wanted to pray for a girlfriend at a temple, which would then be celebrated by going to a bar afterwards. What I didn’t know is that on this day, the 19th of August, the Qixi Festival took place — the Chinese equivalent of Valentine’s Day. On our way to the Guijiming Temple, the streets got exponentially more crowded with groups of young people. When we arrived at the entrance of the temple, Oscar and John were waiting for us, already having bought the tickets to enter the temple. The facility had multiple locations to pray for different kinds of wishes. As planned, we first went to the building where one could pray to find love. It was a small room in a traditional Chinese building made of wood, painted in red and black colors. Within the room, a statue of some important figure (a god, maybe? I don’t know…) stood, with prayer stools in front of it to kneel on. To present your wish, you can use the prayer stools to bow 3 times with folded hands in front of your body, or do the same while standing. After John had finished praying, I also wanted to try it, just for fun, of course. Sadly, it wasn’t allowed to take pictures at most of the places. Yet, I’ll share the few pictures we made.
The main place of the Temple where one could get free incense sticks. The smoke stems from those.
Me lighting my incense sticks and a big pot(?) to throw ‘em in.
The view right outside the Temple.
After that we went out eating. We ate a lot:
Afterwards we had a post-meal walk in the nearby lake park of Nanjing, which was quite beautiful and lasted for 2-3 hours due to the size of the park. Surrounded by a large lake, small islands were connected with one another by sidewalks. On the lake one could see many couples in small pedal boats and in the background the skyline of Nanjing.
The park had many food/entertainment stands, which we had to try, of course. Here you can see me winning 20 RMB (~3 euros) with a lottery ticket.
At last, we went to our final destination this evening, the bar! Our friends took us to a bar which they had been to the previous evening. Seemingly, they must have left a good impression as the waitress gave us 2 rounds of free shots. At least we got served some alcoholic beverage in a shot glass. When Iven and I drank everything at once they seemed a bit amused, as we were supposed to enjoy it sip by sip. The whole day Oscar and John treated us by paying for the tickets, the taxis and the food! Thus, Iven and I decided to pay for all of us at the bar. In the following picture you’re able to see the very fancy drinks.
Ever since I went to China last year, I’ve been excited to try Chinese cigarettes. Luckily, Oscar had brought multiple packs, which we all could try. As a gift, Oscar gave me the whole pack of my favorite cigarettes!
Alas, the evening didn’t last that long. We all were pretty tired after our long walk in the park, which is why we decided to end the evening early, at 12am.