Nanning is the capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China and the next stop on our Southern China trip. Nanning is also known as the Green City due to the many city parks and lush greenery, which we can confirm was in full effect during our visit. We spent most of our time exploring the many parks. With a population of 8.74 million people, Nanning did not seem as big as it felt; here is the view from our hotel room, and there were many, many apartment buildings as far as we could see, on all sides.
Here are some more, newer apartment buildings we saw in the suburbs of Nanning:
Having arrived via 6-hour sleeper train from Zhanjiang, it was not the most relaxing trip, as we were situated on the middle bunks of a six bunk car; unluckily for us one of our cabinmates snored quite loudly for four of the six hours, making us take refuge in the dining car, where we had a basic lunch. Here’s Jessica in her bunk, and an example (ours was not as nice) from the web.
Once we arrived at the hotel and dropped off our bags, we went looking for dinner. In every city we’ve visited so far, there are so many restaurant choices, it becomes a bit overwhelming. We meant to head toward the nearest night market, but actually went in the wrong direction, and since we were hungry, stopped for dinner at a Thai Restaurant. We ate sweet chili fish, pineapple fried rice, and egg rolls; it was quite good, and different than the typical Chinese food we had been eating for most meals.
As we were too full, we walked a bit more, and saw a yellow and black spotted light house and walked toward it:
We found we were at the The Up Town, a grouping of bars, restaurants, shops, a kids playground, and vendor stalls, all pretty new, with a western-y vibe to them. It was pretty relaxed given it was past dinnertime on a weekday. We took some cool pictures and later returned another night for a dinner of a burger and pizza and beer, when we were craving some American food (and which has been difficult to find thus far). Sometimes we just wanted a taste of home.
We stayed next to a large mall, named Wanda Plaza, that we also returned to at a later time to eat another dinner, where there were so many restaurants on one level we were overwhelmed with choice. It also looked very cool at night.
Our first full day we visited the Nanning Confucius Temple, which is similar to many of the Buddhist Temples we have visited so far in the setup of three large buildings, all in a row, and multiple smaller ones on the complex site, and trees and bonsai scattered throughout; but as this temple was built for Confucius, there was not the typical Buddhist statues. It was an interesting contrast. Here is the entrance gate:
The second, middle building:
And the third and most grand building; note that all the red and yellow seen throughout are from Chinese New Year.
The statue of Confucius was center in the hall; he was flanked on both sides by his four most important disciples. We know of Confucius as the author of “The Analects” who existed nearly 2500 years ago (he died in 479 BC), and that wisdom can and is still followed by many people to this day – whether they know it or not; he taught of the virtue of exhibiting love and respect for one’s parents, elders, and ancestors (Filial piety) and the “silver rule” (Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself).
The descriptions of his disciples were in English as well as Chinese, and learning about them and Confucius himself made me want to learn more.
Directly across the street is the Yong River, and it provided great views of the city along with the many, many bougainvilleas that were in full bloom.
A fifteen minute river walk from the Temple and we visited the Guangxi Museum of Nationalities, which was a treat and will be featured in my next post!
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