Taking note of China ...

The City Wall of Nanjing or 南京城墻

The first day of China was awesome! I arrived at the airport with a pack on my back and another on my front. Also fresh in mind were plenty of new places to see.

Things of note over DAY 1:

Nanjing Lukou International Airport does NOT have free wireless Internet. Really?!

People understand me when I speak Mandarin but I was having trouble understanding what was being said due to some strange accents.

The Metro system is much like Taipei's: easy to use, clean and cheap. The biggest difference was the noise level. Examples: boys playing video games with the sound turned up to the max. Men and women screaming obnoxiously loud into their mobile phones as if this were the only way the person on the other end would hear.

People were blatantly staring but to be fair, I had yet to see another white face.

Food stall #1 was located just outside one of the Metro stations. For 10RMB/49NT/CAN$1.78 you get a freshly made pita type thing that is baked in front of you. Spicy beef that has been sitting in a sauce for who knows how long is diced up finely with cilantro and green peppers, also right in front of you. So fresh, so delicious and SO spicy! This was an excellent introduction into the next two weeks of wonderful food!

Rundown electric bikes and scooters flew silently about the streets. People LOVE using their horns but not the lights at night because it runs down the batteries.

It was dusty and sort of third world like.

Tiny local restaurant #1 was a dumpling shop run by a family that lives upstairs. They have a huge variety of dumplings like chicken and mushroom, pork and bok choy, pork and celery, pork and Chinese sauerkraut, egg, etc. They offered chilies and vinegar as a sauce, which was a bit strange.

Boats running along the Qinhuai River near Fuzimiao

I got my first glimpse of the famous tourist spot in Nanjing called Fuzimiao or 南京夫子廟. Made a note to go back upon my return to Nanjing.

China was loud and exciting, which made it hard to get a good night's rest. Knowing that day two involved a 6am wake up call didn't make it any better. The one thing that kept running through my mind was that after many years of being on my 'to see' list, I had finally made it to China!