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Kissing Fish in Nanjing

 

July 21, 2015

By Sarah Ann

 

We started the day off by eating the best breakfast I have had for a long time. There were pieces of bread with this toaster and awesome jam to spread, pieces of watermelon and cantaloupe, and theses crescent bread things that tasted amazing with butter. We all ate a TON, and were super full. Then at 10:30, a graduate student took us to Jiming temple, Buddhist temple. (On this trip, we have someone showing us and driving us around everywhere we go.)

 

The Buddhist temple was really neat. I think that the statues of the Buddha are really cool. What I also found interesting was that the temple was build 300 A.D., and back then there was another temple for the men, so just the girls used that one. They were doing some kind of ceremony where the monks were singing. They were wearing interesting robes and had their heads shaved. Of course, like always, I had to tell Christian a story so that he didn’t cry that his feet hurt. But it was all right because we got ice-cream afterward. The ice cream tasted especially good because it was very hot. And very, very, humid.

 

The monks at Jiming temple

 

After that, we went to the city wall. Nanjing has the biggest city wall in the world. It was 22 miles long (of course, we didn’t walk the whole thing). Most of the other city walls in China were destroyed by the communist government. On the top, everyone in my family thought that it was so hot they were going to melt, but I didn’t think it was that bad. I loved the view.

 

A Nanjing city gate

 

Then, we took our van to KFC. The graduate student said that people in China love KFC because it tastes almost like Chinese food, unlike McDonald’s. I guess that is probably because people in China love chicken. Christian only ate French fries and had orange soda at KFC. The graduate student even got him a second order of French fries. My mom would’ve never let him eat that in the U.S.

 

Then, we went to Xianwu Lake and saw a fish pond. The fish in the fish pond were the most interesting thing I have ever seen, which is saying a lot because I have seen lots of things. You could buy these bottles on a stick, and in the stick was little brown balls and water. When you put the bottle in the water, all the fish come to the bottle and push each other out of the way so they can suck on the bottle.  You could feel the whole stick shake when the fish sucked on the bottle. When you put the bottle a little above the water, the fish jump up to get it. They make a sound like they are kissing. It’s hilarious. Taylor was sitting and feeding the fish and suddenly he disappeared. He had fallen into the pond – the part without fish! He got some scrapes but he was okay.

 

Feeding the kissing fish

 

After feeding the fish, we took a boat around the lake. I really wanted to jump in the lake but my mom wouldn’t let me. I did get to the drive the boat though. The view was beautiful.

 

We went to dinner at a place that specializes in Nanjing food. Here are some of the things that were on the menu (I promise I am not making this up):

-Boiled chicken paws with spices

-Duck intestines with black bean sauce

-Duck blood with chili

-Stewed duck knee with soybean

-Stewed pick stomach and lung with thick soup

-Salted duck head

-Stewed pig foot in soy sauce

 

And our favorite: Eggs with legs

Or in other words, eggs with actual chickens (cooked) inside them. Yum.