Suzhou-Nanjing: Day 3

After breakfast, we visited "Pan Men Gate" in Suzhou. I can't exactly remember why this place is special except that it is a nice park with a bridge that spans across yet another river. That's the problem with bananas you see... I have to pay special attention when the guide is explaining and write my own notes so that I don't forget where I've visited. Sigh...

From there, we were driven to the "Silk Factory" where they specializes in the production of silk blanket (Chan Si Bei). Here, we were shown the process of making silk pillows and blankets:

• To make silk pillows (refer step 1 and 2): Put cocoon in a pot of hot water and stir clockwise or anti-clockwise to find the head. With the head of the thread, hang it on the machine. The machine will bounce up and down to gather the silk. This kind of thread is only suitable to make pillow cases.
• To make blankets, (refer step 3, 4 and 5): Look for cocoons made by 2 silk worms instead of 1. Stretch it across a rattan "n" shape. Then gather and hang it to dry. 4 person then stretch the dried silk threads into a full piece. Unlike cotton, silk threads are very strong and sturdy. You can stretch it however you want, but it will remain in its original stretched stage.

Then we proceeded to have lunch. After lunch, we walked around the factory and found a nice looking pagoda. Only when I came back, I realised that the pagoda's located in main town center and was first built in the third century AD, and rebuilt in 1582.

From the "Silk Factory", we took another bus journey to "Nanjing" which took us approximately 2 hours from "Suzhou". The first stop was to "Nanjing Ta Tu Sa" - The memorial hall of the victims in Nanjing massacre by Japanese invaders. When the Japanese invaded Nanjing (the capital of China back then before Beijing), they killed 300,000 of the people in Nanjing and buried them (some alive). This memorial was newly renovated and reopened a week before our arrival; December 13 to commensurate the anniversary of the disaster.

The "Disaster of the Ancient City" - The sculptures, composed of a ruined wall, a broken saber, a historical bridge, a head and arm of a victim, an ever burning fire and cobblestones symbolizes the countless bleached bones of the dead and have the implied meaning that later generations standing on the bridge of history should recollect the massacre that happened in 1930s.

Within the memorial hall, there were also specimen of the bones found at the mass grave... Some of the skulls have bullet holes in them, others have nails in between the joints of their arms and legs... No one was spared... males, females, young or old... It was such a terrifying and sad sight... that one could only imagine the kind of terror and pain the victims at Nanjing went through.

This memorial was created not just to mourn the death of the 300,000 victims in Nanjing but also serve as a reminder that we should all strive for world peace. Prior to us exiting the memorial, there was this huge symbol of peace.

After that, we visited the "Chang Jiang Bridge". This bridge has dual usage. Train tracks at the lower level and highway on the upper level. The Chinese are particularly proud of this bridge as it was built in an era where such bridges were never made nor seen before. Even foreigners doubted the ability of China in building such bridges.

That night, we visited "Fu Zi Temple" (Confucius Temple). It is a shopping street but within it, a Confucius Temple (hence it's name). The area around the temple consists of a series of tourist shops, snack bars, restaurants and tea cafes which appeared to be in the architectural style of the Ming and Qing style.

Later in the night, we visited another cybercafe in Nanjing on our own. This time round, it was slightly more expensive. RMB2 (RM1) per hour but with twin sofa seats.

And that marked the end of our third day...