One thing that has really stood out to me here in Nanjing is how safe this place is for a city of its size. The most notable example of the city’s safety is the city’s take on storing bicycles in public. There is nothing to secure bicycles to and some don’t bother with using a lock, they just park their bicycles and go about their business. I’ve not heard of bicycle theft being an issue here, on the contrary, my teacher mentioned that Nanjing ranks as one of the top five safest cities in all of China. That is a very impressive statistic for this city, and I find it quite comfortable living in this type of environment. I recall in one particular assignment for my writing class, Xi Jinping was quoted in an article where he mentioned that if the country and nation are prosperous, then everyone will be taken care. In terms of public safety and crime, this sure seems to be case with Nanjing.
I learned this week that the famous Peking duck actually originated from here in Nanjing. Beijing has lacks the suitable environment for ducks that Nanjing has. However, presumably the famous dish carries Beijing’s name since it is the capital of the country. Even though Beijing is the current capitol of China, there are many times throughout history where Nanjing was considered the most important city. This history goes back over a thousand years to Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period and includes contemporary periods as well as recent as the year 1949 before the People’s Republic of China was created. The duck here is eaten on its own without sauces required unlike the Peking duck served in the capital. Another important tidbit our teacher shared is that a local delicacy is duck butt. He urged us all to try it but be sure to reserve portions in advance since a duck only has one butt and it sells out very quickly. Wonderful!
This weekend is a long weekend and I really mean long. We have seven days off for the holiday commemorating the new establishment of China in 1949. This is a special year as it’s the 70 year anniversary of this holiday, so there is a lot going on all over the country, especially in Beijing but also locally here in Nanjing as well. For my program, besides the mountain of homework that we have every week, everyone is getting prepared for our internships next semester. This includes doing research on suitable internship sites, making contacts, sending out resumes, and making site visits as well to report to our director. One thing to note here is that since the holiday falls on a Tuesday, our schedule has been adjusted so that we have our Friday classes on Sunday and our Monday classes on Monday as usual. It feels strange to have class on Sunday since this is seen as a rest day back home but it isn’t just our program but rather all universities all over China are following this same schedule. Nevertheless, the atmosphere during this special holiday is quite festive and it is an exciting time and a great opportunity to learn more about China.
Tony in China 