Day 8

Today started off early again. Every time Ruthie awakens from sleep or from a nap, it is a bit like starting over. She is weepy and seems a bit disoriented and closed off. But, after a few minutes, she warms back up. 

We had another fun breakfast at the hotel. Ruthie enjoys leaving the room, and loves to see herself in the elevator mirror.

After breakfast, we went to the Nanjing massacre museum. Nanjing used to be the capital of China, and in 1937, the Japanese attacked Shanghai and then moved up the river to Nanjing. When they reached Nanjing, they attacked the city from 3 sides, bombing extensively and killing 300,000 innocent people in the process (more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined). It is one of the most atrocious acts in wartime history, and countries all over the globe spoke out against what had happened. I won't go into much more detail, because you can google it to find out more, but it is essentially the Chinese holocaust.

The museum was very well done, and was incredibly moving. I think, too, we all needed some emotional release. One of the most fascinating aspects of what we read at the museum said that the Japanese media was in a frenzy to cover the advance of the Japanese troops into China. As a result, many of the Japanese soldiers were particularly interested in doing "heroic" things so that they could bring honor to their country through the media. So, on some level, the over-hyped media coverage was to blame for the extent of what happened. A fascinating commentary for our times.

Our guide shared with me that to this day, many Chinese dislike the Japanese. She said that in Nanjing, no one will buy a Japanese made car, or will support Japanese businesses. 

After leaving the museum, we traveled to a jade store. They pulled out all the stops for the American tourists, setting us up in a swanky back room, serving us tea, and then telling us all about new jade, old jade, and Jadeite. Of course, jade is very popular in China, especially for women. Interestingly, jade is not native to the Nanjing area, but Nanjing is known for intricate carving. That is a skill that was honed here, and apparently they still do a lot of hand carving here. The store was fun to look around at, because of all the carved pieces. We ended up getting small jade animals for each of our kids, and they have enjoyed them. Ruthie in particular keeps showing us her necklace that we got, so that is fun. It was also fun to bargain with them over the price, since that is not something we get to do every day.

At the store, many of the young ladies who worked there were fascinated with Calla's hair. They asked us a lot of questions about her and about her hair. Of course they asked about Ruthie, too, and the store manager told us, "You have a good heart."

By the time we were done there, Ruthie was pretty tired. The other couple we were with wanted to go to the IKEA and eat lunch there, but we didn't think that was a good idea. Our guide was going to take us to a local Shanghaiese restaurant with dumplings and noodles, but the other couple didn't want that.  

Because the kids were tired, we settled on going to the market in the mall (the same one having the American Food Festival) where they will cook you fried rice to order. This worked out well, especially because our guide offered to help us order. We got some rice and fried dumplings. On the way back to our room, we walked through a different part of the mall (did I mention how big this mall is?) and we walked past a Subway restaurant and a Papa Johns (didn't see that coming). So, we treated ourselves to Subway for dinner, since the kids like that. We got sandwiches and chips. All the flavors of chips here are much different than in the US, but the Subway had "Texas Barbecue" flavor Lays, so we couldn't resist. We should have resisted, in hindsight.

After Ruthie's nap, we ventured out of the hotel. We are walking distance from a Confucian temple, so we went to see that. Our guide said that it is not really a temple in the true sense, but it is more of a gathering place for shopping and that sort of thing. And, she was right. It was basically an outdoor mall built around an old temple building. The building was pretty, but the shops were mostly junk. There were a few interesting stores, but not many. Still, it was nice to walk around and kill some time in a place that was not the mall. One store that caught our eye was a store that sold leather bags and belts, called "Mexican." The sign even had a picture of a guy in a sombrero and pancho. Weird.

We spent the rest of the afternoon with Anne doing laundry in the hotel bathtub and Kris working. Elliott continues to watch Chinese cartoons on TV. Ruthie followed Anne around the room like  a little shadow, but was less clingy, so that is good. She let Anne give her a bath for the first time, so we're glad about that. Some other fun things we learned about her today: we taught her to say "belly button," in English and she keeps saying it over and over for fun. Several months ago, we mailed her a care package with a few things, including a board book called "The Belly Button Book." We've been reading it to her at bedtime and nap time. She also enjoys fist bumps and high fives, with all of us. She gave us all kisses (though Kris' beard kind of surprised her). And, she loves seeing her pictures and video on our iPhones. As we wound down into bed, she went around kissing all of us and high fiving and fist bumping us all. Then, it was like someone flipped a switch and she was out.  

Random travel tip: simplynoise.com is a fantastic website for when you are sleeping away from home. It is just a white noise generator that helps everyone sleep. Especially when there is a weird Chinese concert happening on the street outside your hotel.