Losing My Banana

I made a bit of a fool of myself earlier when I told a girl that worked in the hostel that I had lost my camera and wanted to buy a new one tomorrow. I said 'wo diule wode xiang jiao' instead of 'wo diule wode jiao xiang ji'. I basically said I lost my banana. the girl showed me her wedding ring. Banana has a sexual undertone in Chinese. Ooops. She's been telling everyone about my blooper. The guitarist at the hostel was playing losing my religion. I changed the lyrics to 'zoutian, wo diule wode xiang jiao' (yesterday, I lost my banana). They loved it. I also called my glasses Nanjing instead of Yanjing. I wish I did have enough money to buy a city.

I've managed to get a pair of glasses, a jar of coffee, Tropicana orange juice, a camera and go up the worlds 8th tallest building all in the space of a day. I felt really chuffed with myself once i got all those things. I thought getting an eye test would have been difficult with the language barrier, it was easy enough and cheap. Nanjing is so modern. It feels western even though there are no westerners. KFC billboards adorn the sides of a building at almost every junction. I could live here. A dude on his motorbike stopped me to give me a flyer for a job or teaching English. It's that easy. I don't want work in Nanjing but it's nice to know that I could get it if I wanted. 

 The Greenland Plaza. One of the world's tallest buildings designed by one of my favourite Architecture firms (Skidmore, Owings and Merrill). The landscaping around the building is really nice. If I don't set up a business after my travelling is done I'll definitely consider taking a degree in Urban Planning. I find that topic infinitely interesting.

 I stayed here for at least an hour. Even though I didn't get to see the horizon, it was really peaceful watching the city whiz by me. You notice a lot of things from above that escape your attention when below. I liked watching the vehicle's brake lights create Mexican waves as they rushed off then were ground to a halt. Lewis Mumford described Cities and Language as being humanities greatest work of art. I'm inclined to agree. Whereas most people visit a city to see it's collection of works of art, I visit a city to see it collectively as a work of art. maybe that's why I like cities that nobody else does.

Twilight Reflections

I'm a bit annoyed that Jennifer booked a train from Luoyang to Nanjing the day of the journey and got a hard sleeper. Two days earlier I was told hard sleepers were all booked and paid 100 kuai more for a soft sleeper which doesn't even have a soft mattress. I got scammed 100 kuai which is only £10 but that's a days living expenses and a tenner here and there adds up in the long run.

I've had a day climbing Mount Nanjing (450 metres above sea level), the visibility at the top was about 10m but I still enjoyed it. There was a fair amount of biodiversity, probably 11 different species of mosquitoes. I am off to Suzhou to relax in their world famous gardens and tea houses along the canals. I've picked out the gardens that are free or cheap to enter and I'm currently at my hostel having a coffee with an Israeli then I'll head. Here's a couple of photos of the amazing vistas from my epic climb up the mountain.