A Chill Day

Today was our most relaxed day so far. We slept in today more than before now that we are getting more adjusted to the jet lag. For breakfast we had a traditional chinese breakfast of what tasted like a giant cucumber shaped funnel cake thing dipped in a hot soy milk with sugar. Also we had some other pastry type things to go with it that have been common at all our meals so far. The pastries and things are starting to show a theme in their texture and taste. Most of the pastry dishes and sweets are much different than in America. Here a common pastry will be made with a biscuit type crust and a plain sugar inside, where in america a pastry will normally have a fruit filling with a sugar syrup. Also most of the sweets here are made with vegetables that would never be thought of as sweets like green beans or seaweed, but they actually are pretty good with enough sugar.

After breakfast we hung around the house for a little while and showered and took our time getting ready, basically until lunch. Max had to run a few errands and Gordon George and I just watched TV and chilled. When Max was ready we went to lunch in a Japanese noodle shop, but Max insisted that the restaurant was owned by chinese that it was just a franchise that he liked and wanted us to try. The noodles we tried were really good and the ones I had were really spicy.
After we finished lunch Max took us to the museum for the rape of Nanjing. This was a museum built in honor of the victims of the attack of the Japanese on Nanjing in 1937. This museum was a dramatic change in mood but really enlightening to understand why Max feels the way he does towards the Japanese. The museum itself is very impressive and well built as a structure but the content is disturbing. As soon as you walk up to the building there are statues on the outside that have some very scary quotes and graphic images people running from the japanese plane bombings. When we walked through the doors the first thing you see is the different languages in giant letters saying 300000 for the number of people killed during the attack. All throughout the museum the signs had the chinese letters above an english translation so we were able to read all of the signs on each exhibit as we walked through. some of the stories were very saddening but I think the most sad part about it is that many people had no idea. I know that I would have never known about that attack at all had I not met Max because I definitely dont remember reading about it in our history books. Just because it was caught up in the WWII hype and over looked because of the Nazi Holocaust not many americans have heard of this attack. It all started in august of 1937 when the Japanese first attacked Shanghai as part of their plan to take over Nanjing which was the capital city of the peoples republic of China at the time. The Japanese took Shanghai easily and made their way to start a 3 front attack on Nanjing in a matter of days. The city of Nanjing faught as much as they could, but were no match for the advanced planes and machine guns of the Japanese. While the Japanese had fighter planes made of metal with guns and bombs, the Chinese had the double winged wood planes we normally associate with the Wright brothers. This major disadvantage led to the city being taken and the slaughter of over 300,000 people in a matter of 6 weeks. Now if it were just a matter of the chinese losing a battle during WWII then some people might just think, so what. The problem is that Nanjing did not have 300,000 soldiers meaning many many of the people the japanese were killing were unarmed civilians including women and children. The museum had records of many disturbing testaments of cases where the Japanese soldiers were known for raping the women and mass killings by lining people up in front of the machine guns. Some of the instruction from the high up Japanese military generals included killing all of the people of Nanjing including the women and children with their justification being just to eradicate communism. Some of the worst cases were stories of survivors such as a girl who was captured as a POW but was raped 7-10 times a day where she contracted at least 3 major STD's before she was saved by some Chinese soldiers and sent to a church safe zone. Another story included a girl who played dead as she watched her family be murdered and her mother and 4 year old younger sister be raped before killed. The stories were extremely brutal and it all broke the laws of war set after WWI. There were some stories of repentance by Japanese soldiers afterwards but it is still amazing that this story is overlooked by most of the world except those who were victims. There were some war crime trials held afterwards as well, but how could something like that be justified. The museum was a great memorial for those who were victim to the attack and serves as a really nice monument for the city to never forget what happened.

The museum took up the majority of our day. Afterwards we took a cab back to Max's house and put on the movie "the Book of Eli." Max then went to pick something up from the mail which turned out to be a Hill China flag he had made so that we can take pictures with it on the rest of our trip and send to the Hill Alumni association to have posted on the Hill School website. After the movie it was just about dinner time and tonight Max's mom was cooking for us. This was our first home cooked meal that Max always raved about missing while in the states. All his praise of his moms cooking ability definitely met expectations because this meal was probably my favorite of all. She cooked about 7 dishes total including a fish, a nanjing style roast duck, a cabbage soup, and tomato eggs. The food was all delicious and I know my dad is sitting there thinking that I would never have eaten cabbage in the US and he is right, and I still wont because here it smells and tastes much better. But this meal was very nice because it was really laid back with just the 4 of us and Max's parents again just sitting around his house talking and enjoying each others company.


When we finished dinner we decided to take it easy tonight because tomorrow we have a flight from Nanjing to Xi'an to see the terra cotta warriors. Xi'an will be the first stop on this little mini trip because the next 9 days we will spend traveling the Sechuan south western and more inland parts of China that many tourists are not able to see. The Xi'an part is very touristy but after that Max's dad was able to talk to one of his friends at the TV station to get us connected with people in the rural areas to show us around. Also because Max's dad does so much backpacking he is able to show us the areas many people are not able to visit.

Even though I have only been here a few days it seems like a really long time. It might just be because I'm really tired, but the welcoming his family has provided makes it feel like I've been here forever. Our flight leaves at 8am so I am going to bed now but I will have my computer with me and hopefully will have internet for this trip within a trip. For now goodnight.


Marty