2 1/2 Weeks in Nanjing

Beijing was interesting and historical, X'ian had dazzling shops and the Terra Cotta warriors, but in Nanjing, I could finally breathe. I came to China on a study abroad trip with 48 other students from Brooklyn College (New York, USA). Our group included African Americans, Pakistani, Latinos, and an age spread from 18 to over 50. It seems that in Nanjing, there is a restaurant or mall on every corner. However, I could not find anyplace to get my nails done!

How long did you stay in Nanjing? How do you like it?

I visited Nanjing for a day.  When my friend and I arrived at the train station I already hated it.  It's dirtier than Shanghai...and Shanghai isn't even that clean.

I don't like Nanjing either.  I've been there many times, but only to visit friends and because it was the biggest city I could get to when I was working near the countryside.  As much as I dislike Nanjing...Wenzhou was worse.  If I never go to Wenzhou again it will be too soon

I went to Nanjing several times, as I got a couple of friends studying there. I liked the place though, somehow, the universities are not far one from the other, you meet a lot of people and the nightlife is fun. I plan to return when I have time to visit finally the historical places.

I love Nanjing!! It still reminds me a bit of Shanghai 16 years ago. Many can argue that Shanghai's living conditions have improved and all but it has lost the Chinese "taste" over the years. I mean you could be standing in XinTianDi and imagine you are in London's Chinatown for all it matters. Or when you look out over the roofs of Shanghai the skyline with tall buildings could as easily put you in Singapore or any other city with highrises.

Shanghai was good back then!! So, when I want to get a bit of the China feeling of back then, I go to Nanjing!

I must be real "American" because I couldn't imagine being anywhere other than Shanghai or Beijing.  Shanghai is filthy, so if anything is worse than here, I'm cool.  I have a question for the Chinese members.  Chinese people are very neat and tidy with their belongings and homes, why don't they want to clean the outside buildings?  I have been to places that were filthy on the outside but once you go in, it is really neat and clean.

Chinese people are very neat and tidy with their belongings and homes, why don't they want to clean the outside buildings?  I have been to places that were filthy on the outside but once you go in, it is really neat and clean.

Wow! Are they really neat & tidy at their own homes? Some of my ex-Chinese friends have made themselves 'at home' at my place and believe me, that was a really...shitty experience for me.

My sister's got 2 male Chinese friends and she's had enough of them.  One of them kept spitting in her ashtray (like who's gonna clean that exactly?) and the other one kept peeing on her bathroom floor because he couldn't seem to aim right.

I'm the complete opposite, if I feel like messing up a place it'd better be my own place.

Ha Ha Ha...I love everyone's posts. Whether Nanjing is perceived as dirty or clean depends on where you are staying. I tend to look for "traditional" China. I stayed at the Grand Metro Hotel which is 1 block away from a beautiful lake. The entire area was very clean. However, I must say that in Shanghai, if you keep walking past the famous Nanjing Road area, or you take a bus outside the "developed" high rise area, you see Old Shanghai, with stores that have dirt floors, low rise shacks, and chickens, ducks and hams hanging on the clothesline with the clothing. However, no one was doing any spitting....

I guess being Black American I don't really believe in "good old days"  I don't see the lure of "old China."  I sure as heck don't want to go back to "old America."

I met one teacher here who keeps talking about wanting to see "real China"....what does that mean?  Do Chinese find someone wanting to see dirt floors, hanging clothes, rice fields, people living in caves, etc offensive?  I want to see continued prosperity...and hope it spreads to me.

Minghei, I feel you on your post; I don't want to go back to Old America either. However, I'm noticing that much of the world is starting to look the same. When I went to China, I wasn't looking for poverty but traditional Chinese art and culture; which is in danger of dissapearing with its modernization. I was looking for things like an abacuss, chinese silk, jade, cloissenne, a pre-modern chess set, chinese goddesses. In fact, I found a beautiful carving of Kwan-Yin, which was a far more intricate and detailed than anything I've seen in the U.S. I'm looking for traces of an old culture that has not been westernized. I was looking for the same thing went I went to Africa and Hawaii (the only formerly soveriegn nation in the U.S.). In the U.S., the art of African-American quiltmaking is nearly lost. I think that there is something to be said for cultural preservation.