Next morning we started our day by wondering a bit around the neighborhood, running into a small market selling random stuff, finding a large number of birds in cages hung on trees, and visiting the Drum Tower.

After that, we made a failed attempt to find a place that sells train tickets downtown, then took a taxi to Purple Mountain (Zijin Shan), where we spent the rest of the day. We started with Sun Yatsen’s mausoleum, which was packed with tourists – or should theybe called “pilgrims”?

We then took a little bus to the nearby Linggu Temple area, which had more Kuomintang memorials.

Finally, we headed to Ming Tombs, where Hongwu, the founder of the Ming dynasty was buried. Hongwu lead a rebelian against the Mongols in the 14th century, and ended up installing himself as an emperor, with his capital in Nanjing. Most of the historical stuff around Nanjing was built during Hongwu reign, since the capital was later moved to Beijing. Hongwu burial mound and Sun Yatsen’s mausoleum provide an interesting comparison: one is all about keeping people out (layers of walls with narrow gates), the other is all about pilgrimage trips (wide staircases and open arches). After many gates, you end up in a small park on the top of the hill inside which Hongwu is buried – his actual tomb has not been escavated.

After spending much of the day on the Purple Mountain, we took a taxi back to Nanjing and headed for a Sichuan restaurant (Sichuan Jiujia) that we found in the Lonely Planet. I had a small moment of triumph in the taxi when I managed to successfully say in Mandarin “171 Taiping Nanlu”), which however, was followed by a brief crisis as we stared at the Mandarin-only menu. We were finally assisted by a waiter who spoke enough English to explain to us that the dishes were actually on display in the other corner of the room, and we only to point our fingers. I picked some kind of meet with a massive amount of small orange peppers. I later successfully asked for beer to solidify our victory, only to be confused by the question of whether I wanted it ice-cold (“ping dao”).