Nanjing

Forty minutes by bullet train and I'm in Nanjing, the capital of this province.  Went there last Monday and spent almost 6 hours walking in the Zhongshan Mountain National Park- it's right in town.  

Nature here continually inspires me, especially the lush growth.  How many greens can there possibly be?  I so realise that I come from a dry land. 

Soon the lotus will bloom.  

I am waiting, (not so patiently), for that.  

"In the 19th century the Opium Wars brought the British to Nánjīng and it was here that the first of the "unequal treaties"  was signed, opening several Chinese ports to foreign trade, forcing China to pay a huge war indemnity, and officially ceding the island of Hong Kong to Britain. Just a few years later Nánjīng became the Taiping capital during the Taiping Rebellion, which succeeded in taking over most of southern China.
In 1864 the combined forces of the Qing army, the British army and various European and US mercenaries surrounded the city. They laid siege for seven months, before finally capturing it and Killing the defenders.
The Kuomintang made Nánjīng the capital of the Republic of China from 1928 to 1937. But in the face of advancing Japanese soldiers, the capital was moved to Chóngqìng in 1937. Nánjīng was again capital between 1945 and 1949, when the communists "liberated" the city and made China their own." Lonely Planet page 239

The mausoleum to the hero Dr Sun Yat Sen.  

(Known here as Sun Zhong Shan) 

The hills of plum trees.  At the beginning of spring people come here to see the beautiful blossoms.

All these animals are carved of stone.  It must be good luck to pat this ones nose. 

One of the gates in the original city walls.

Two peacocks

April Cafe Yixing. Could be Paris, Rome, Melbourne or Budapest.

April (or Ah Sr) is an amazing woman who I think should have been born 30 years earlier.  She loves music, books and films from the 60's and 70's.  The Beatles are her idols.  

"Aprils Coffee" is unlike anything I have seen in China.  It honestly feels like it could be anywhere in the world.  It has old "things" from China and all over: movie projectors, cameras, posters, radios, LP covers, kettles, a piano accordian, curios from China and so much more.  It may be cluttered, but it feels so warm and welcoming and homey.

And she looks after the local stray cat and its babies.

Bonsai which has been resuscitated in the plant hospital

Mr Depp I presume