China, day 4: Nanjing

We were getting a little tired of chasing hotels and figuring out what to do, so we decided to book a three day organized tour to Huangshan - the yellow mountain. For that, we had to go first to Nanjing.

So not a lot happened that day. We took a train to Nanjing, then a taxi to the hotel, then looked for the tourist agency for a while because it was totally impossible to find. Once the tour was booked, we went to a hot-pot place, bought some snacks for the ride, gloves for me (the pattern spells out “SHOWFLS”, which was probably supposed to be “SNOWFLAKES”) and earmuffs for Julia, and went back to the hotel.

This is a good time to talk about the Chinese perception of personal space.

And we’re done talking about it. There is no perception of personal space in China. People will walk straight into you, stand right in front of you, and push you for no reason at all. Unfortunately for them, I am both Israeli and vengeful, and so I quickly developed a variety of techniques to deal with them, most of them involve the use of a bag. If I have my backpack, for instance, I turn quickly and have the bag shove my offenders off of their course. When I’m carrying our travelling bag in my hand, I just aim it to the knees or pelvis of whoever is blocking my way as I try to get of the subway.

The main attraction of the day came in the form of this group of old people doing some kind of an old-Chinese-people-group-workout-thing in the middle of the street. I have a video for you guys. Of course I do.


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