南京市 - Nanjing City

For those of you who do not know, the name of Nanjing (南京) literally means "southern capital," just as Beijing (北京) means "northern capital." True to its name, through various periods of Chinese history, the city of Nanjing served as the capital for all China . . . most recently, during the time of the Chinese Republic (1912-1949). Prior to that, during the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing was the world's largest city for about 200 years in the 14-15th centuries and was surrounded by what remains today as the world's longest, intact city wall.



As you can see from the slide-show above, I had the opportunity to visit the impressive Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum (the building complex with blue roofs); the Zhonghua Gate (中华门), the largest gate in the city wall; the Zhonghua Gate penjing collections; and old-town Nanjing. It was incredibly powerful to see the huge city wall in person. Looking closely at the large bricks forming the wall, one can see Chinese characters stamped into them. Upon inquiry, one learns that each brick-maker had to carve or stamp their name and home city into the bricks they made in order to assure the highest quality. If, for any reason, the bricks prematurely crumbled or broke, the brick maker and his entire family would be killed (as a means of assuring quality control). Considering the fact that the wall has survived for six centuries, it is clear to see that the bricks were certainly of the highest quality.

Some of the characters denoting the name and home town of this brick's maker - a treasure trove delight for historians and anthropologists alike

However, as I was on the city wall, I saw portions of the wall that were currently being reconstructed by the government. Later in the day, I was to visit the Nanjing Massacre Memorial Museum (http://www.nj1937.org/english/default.asp), and I learned that much of the wall had been severely damaged by the Japanese forces during WWII. The damaged wall had long testified to the siege of the city, but the Chinese government has recently begun restoring the grand wall back to its pre-WWII condition. The horrible atrocities depicted in the museum brought to life the horrible history that has since been called the "Rape of Nanjing." Walking through the exhibits of the museum, one comes away with a heavy somberness nearly identical to what one experiences at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

A portion of the damaged wall under reconstruction

The famous exterior of the original Nanjing Massacre Memorial - the new museum is off to the right