I took the photos with either Canon EOS 1D Mk III + 70-200/f4 IS (KMK’s) or Nikon D200 + 17-35/f2.8.

On October 20 we took the express train from Shanghai to Nanjing. It took us a little over 2 hours to reach our destination. After checking into The Central Hotel (4-Star and quite centrally located – you can take MTR to the Train Station for RMB2 only) we explored the neighborhood and had lunch @ a local restaurant. (Photo 1 -3)

Then we headed for our first stop, the Dr Sun’ Mausoleum (Photo 4 – 26) and The Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum (Photo 27 – 56), the tomb of the Hongwu Emperor of the Ming Dynasty. It lies at the northern foot of Purple Mountain or the "Purple-Golden Mountain". We didn’t have time to go to the third tourist spot, Linggu Temple and the Nanjing Massacre Museum nor the botanic garden. So for the Purple Mountain or Bell Mountain you can spend a whole day. When you look up from below the Dr Sun Mausoleum you see the narrow steps and from the top the broad ones only. The main architect said to die two years after its completion at the age of 35 or 36 from stress and over dedication.

In the evening we went to the Temple of Confucius or Fuzi Miao (Photo 57 – 80). We didn’t tour the temple but spent our time checking out the night market which said to have nearly 200 different kind of snack. Personally we prefer the Hangzhou’s Qinghefang History Street.

On October 21 we visited

i) The Presidential Palace (Photo 81 – 101);
ii) Mei Yuan New Village - Chou En-lai’s temporary home (now a museum) for 8 months during the brief cooperation between the Kuomintang/Nationalist Party and the Communist Party versus Japan. Its about 300 meters from The Presidential Palace. Nothing much to see but for extra RMB10 you can visit both places.(Photo 102 – 104); and
iii) The Xuanwu Lake. (Photo 105 – 157).

We didn’t go to other attractions such as the Qin Huai River (The river used to be the most flourishing part of Nanjing in the old days. In many Chinese novels, it is renowned as a place which nurtured beauties and romance) nor the ‘Rain Flower’ Terrace as part of the place is under renovation.

We returned to the Hotel for our luggage before catching our train back to Shanghai. And same as the night before there were two wedding banquet receptions and I took some photos. (Photo 158 -161)