Nanjing, China

Topic: Arrival + Day 1

Well, here we are, on our first full day in Nanjing. Getting here wasn’t bad, but the flight was incredibly long. It took about 13 1/2 hours to get to Beijing, and then another 2 hours to Nanjing. 

It was a pleasant night when we arrived; not hot at all, and not too cool.  There was a certain smell in the air that reminded me of the way Beijing smelled last time I was there three years ago. I can’t describe what exactly it smelled like (though there was a slight undertone of burnt rubber in the air), but as soon as I inhaled, I immediately thought of Beijing. Maybe it’s all the air pollution that makes Nanjing and Beijing smell the way they do.

The hostel we’re staying at is pretty nice. I only have two complaints:

1) Our room doesn’t have any windows. None. At all. Later, Laura and I are going to see if we can switch to a room with windows.

2) The bathroom is basically a glass closet right near the door, which makes me wonder who thought it was a good idea to make clear glass bathroom? Luckily we have a shower curtain, but there’s basically nothing to block the toilet from the view of the occupants, which makes for slightly awkward situations.

Last night and today we all walked around exploring the neighborhood. We went to a Xinjiang food stand, located all the banks, found the nearest convenience stores, and ate the Nanjing version of jianbing, which is my favorite street food from the last time I was in China. The Nanjing version is much spicier and has slightly different fillings.

Soon we’re going to meet with the Amity people to find out our itinerary, and get help buying international cell phones and exchanging money.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 7th, 2009 at 3:28 am by Dena Kronfeld BMC '11 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.