Tania in China

Sat, Oct 28: Museum and Walmart

I sleep in this morning, but not as long as I would like since my room is now on the east side of the building, and the early morning light is leaking in around the curtains. I look out to see if the sky is as clear as yesterday, but am disappointed to see haze/smog. I was thinking about going to the Yangtze river and see the view of the skyline of Nanjing, but there is no point if I can't see anything, so I decide to wait and see if it will be clearer tomorrow, and head to the Nanjing Museum today.

From Fodor's: Nanjing's museum has one of the largest and most impressive collections in China, dating from when it was a national museum before the revolution. The artifacts are well displayed in a modern building with English captions. The porcelain and painting sections are particularly impressive, and there is also interesting collections of folk crafts, furniture, and elaborate lacquer and jade carvings.

I take a taxi to the museum about 20 minutes away, and find the museum is on the grounds of a small park. The temperature and humidity outside are just perfect; if it weren't for the gentle breeze you wouldn't be able to tell you were outside at all.
I wander the grounds before heading inside, and find a collection of statues. They have obviously been outside for years, and the signs explaining about them have seen better days, but they do have explanation in English as well as Chinese. I am tempted to sit outside and enjoy the weather, but I came to see the museum so in I go.

The museum is practically empty - I am suprised that it is so uncrowded on a Saturday afternoon. I assume that this museum is like all others and that you can't take pictures, but when I find one display that says "No Photos", I find out I am wrong! I didn't get any pictures of the jade or the lacquer pieces, but did take photos of the rest. The displays are nicely laid out, and each item does have a caption in English, but there is obviously a lot of information displayed that is only in Chinese. That is ok - I find that I can get really overloaded quickly with all the information in most museums. They have a really neat technology where the artifact cases are kept dim, then the lights brighten when they sense somebody in front of the display case. This keeps the items from having to sit under bright lights all day.

This bell was in the Bronze Work hall, displayed in a large collection of bells.

This is a Ming Dynasty pot. The museum has an extensive collection of porcelain from the entire 280 years of the dynasty. It is interesting to see the progress in the form; the early pictures have "fuzzy" edges, whereas by the end of the period the pictures are sharp. You can also see where Delft pottery got it's inspiration; it was pottery that was made in The Netherlands as a cheaper copy of the extrodinarily expensive wares being imported from China at the time. All of the Ming pottery is this blue and white color.

This guy is a terra cotta figure that is over 1000 years old. Terra cotta sculpture is considered a "folk art", and was not a "real" art during it's time. I just love this guy's expression!

The item I most wanted a picture of was what they said not to photograph - they had a loom on which they hand-weave Chinese multi-color tapestries. Boy, is this a machine! It took up a good half of the display room it was in - all threads and moving parts.

It took me about 3 hours to go through the whole museum, including looking at all the shops in which they have a wide variety of traditional Chinese arts and crafts. I assume the prices are higher that you would pay in the market, but it is much easier when you can just pay the price listed, and you know the quality is good. I do end up buying some little stuff as Christmas presents, but I can't tell you what I bought! But because I now am carrying something, I can't stop in at Walmart on the way back to the hotel like I planned. I will have to drop my package off before going shopping.

Of course once I get up to my room I just HAVE to lay down for a little while, and all of a sudden it is over an hour later. I grab my paper giving the address on Walmart in Chinese characters, and catch a cab to the store. Who knew that 5:30pm on a Saturday was THE time to be a Walmart? I walked the entire store, and the merchandise floor was crowded, but the food floor was crazy! There were dozens of people offering samples, and swarms of people at every counter and in every aisle. I walk every aisle of the food area because I find it so interesting. I have always found it facinating to find the different range of goods for sale at foreign grocery stores.

They have a whole freezer case about 20' long just filled with individual dumplings that they sell in bulk. Obviously, this is a big part of the Nanjing diet. They also sell their frozen vegetables - corn and peas and mixed veggies - in bulk; just scoop up how much you want. The packaged meat area was completely different than what we are used to - prepackages chicken feet, chicken necks, eels, and a lot of packages that I have no idea what they contain. They do a lot of stir frying and deep frying, so one whole aisle is just devoted to different oils. Obviously all this food needs a sauce, so there is a whole aisle of soy and other sauces. They sell about 8 different kinds of eggs, from quail and duck up to multiple colors of chicken eggs. I am suprised how many packages have English writing on them. Obviously everything has Chinese, but at least half also have English. I end up going crazy buying things to sample because everything seems so cheap. Among the things I buy are: Lemon flavored potato chips, Apple chips in a pringles-like container, strawberry shaped marshmallows, and sweet potato flavored thin crackers. I also find them selling the little custard tarts, so I just have to buy some.

With everything I bought, plus the pens and little digital clock I finally found, I still couldn't spend 100RMB. The whole thing costs me 97. I now decide that I want to walk back to the hotel. It is cheap to catch a cab, but I want to finally figure out exactly where Walmart is located in relation to the hotel, and it is much better to figure this out on foot. It is now 7pm, and the whole pedestrian area around the store is absolutely jumping. There is a lot of sitting area around the square, and every spot is taken. I wander a bit, then see a flow of people heading between two buildings, follow them, and find myself on the main street that goes in front of my hotel. I am about a mile east of the hotel, but now I know where I am. I take off down the street, but soon end up at a major intersection where you are not allowed to pass on foot - you have to go underground to get across. I head down the stairs and find myself in a whole separate city! I am in a food court packed with restaurants and people. I might have to come back and see if I can figure out somewhere to eat where I can figure out what is on the menu. There are multiple passages radiating off the food court, so I head in the direction I think I need to go and take off walking. It is quite a walk - there must be a huge area of this underground mall. I head upstairs only to find I am on the wrong side of the street and can't cross upstairs, so I head down and finally end up where I need to be. About another 10 minutes walking, and I am at the hotel. My rule for crossing the street in China is just follow the other people on the corner with you - if they cross, you cross with them. If they are not crossing there is a reason and you should stay put, too. If I end up on a corner by myself I get really nervous that I am not going to understand the multitude of lights and try to cross when I should not.

I get home safe, and am finally able to use Skype to call both my Mom and my sister-in-law and 21 month-old niece. I have tried to use Skype before, but the delay between talking and hearing was 3 or 4 seconds, which makes it impossible to talk. Today the delay is not nearly so long, so we are able to hold a conversation. I also get to talk to my niece for the first time in a month - I am sure she is not keeping up to date with my blog! I plan to go out to eat, but the custard tarts are just too inviting and I once again eat in the room. I also spend the night updating the photos I took today, but don't touch the blog - I need at least one night off! I don't even end up turning on the TV at all and just listen to music off my computer while getting my pictures ready to post.

posted by Tania @ 6:58 PM