Rice is Nice

In our attempt to find a laundry place, which we did, we (again) inadvertantly walked through a live poultry market. So even though doctors tell you not to walk through live poultry markets in Asia, it's hard to avoid, because sometimes they just kind of pop up out of nowhere. I feel fine though. And the birds looked healthy.

We visited the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Museum. Taiping was a mid-19th century rebellion that controlled much of central China for about a decade. Millions of people were killed in the conflict between the rebels and the imperial forces. And the rebellion was also religious in nature, as the leader believed that he was Christ's brother. I guess I'd fight for Christ's brother, too. But the land reforms these guys promised weren't executed properly, and they fell into infighting. Of course, they were defeated. We walked some of the older streets nearby and found food. Then we attempted to go to the memorial for the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Invaders. About 300,000 people in this city were killed by the Japanese, and the memorial is supposedly built partly out of the remains of the dead. We are not yet sure, however, as the memorial is closed for renovation. That is a recurring theme in China. Partly, there are a lot of things to renovate. Partly, they are really dressing up the country in anticipation of more visitors. And partly, I think renovations here are executed on a relaxed schedule. So we went to the Presidential Palace, which I had assumed would just be a mansion in which Sun Yat-Sen and Chiang Kai-Shek lived. Actually, it was a palace that was used by the Ming emperors, then by the Taiping, and then by the Republican government. It's another huge complex, with an odd jumble of imperial, colonial, and modern architecture. But it's worth checking out. The section devoted to Sun Yat-Sen has a kind of inspirational, classical music piped throughout, and you almost feel inspired to become a Chinese patriot.

Republican meeting room, when Nanjing was the capital