Nanjing, Part 1: A Revolutionary President

After my outstanding success exploring Hangzhou, I decided to go to another nearby city of great interest to me, Jiangsu's provincial capital, Nanjing (南京).

The train to Nanjing arriving at Suzhou station

Nanjing has a long and important history for China, serving as a a capital city for no less than eight Chinese dynasties going back more than 2000 years. It also served as the capital city for the Republic of China (中华民国) until the communists "liberated" China in 1949. The city has been a hotbed of revolts and uprisings as well, and has been destroyed and rebuilt many times over its history, but thankfully - at least for those who appreciate history - its most important symbols of its glorious history are still standing.

A brief stop at Wuxi (无锡), a city with essentially nothing of historical interest

Unlike my ride to Hangzhou, I decided to give 'first class seating' (一第座) a try, which, for a slightly higher price, turned out to be a great idea. My entire car was almost totally empty - a real change from the usually cramped and loud 'second class seats' (二第座). It was a real delight on the hour-and-a-half train ride not having to sit with the proletariat. 

My first stop on my itinerary for Nanjing was to see the Mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-sen (中山陵), the man considered to be the founding father of modern-day China.

The entrance to the park. We were apparently supposed to pay 70RMB for a ticket to enter, but no one was checking the tickets, so I walked in without paying anything.

Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925) - known in Chinese as Sun Zhongshan (孙中山) - spent most of his life attempting to overthrow the Qing Dynasty in the hopes of establishing a modern republic, and was finally successful in 1912, when proclaimed president of the newly-founded Republic of China, after a large uprising forced the abdication of the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty that same year. Sun was also the founder of China's first modern political party, the 'Nationalist Party' or Guomindang (国民党), which remains a major force in Taiwan's political scene to this very day. 

The stone behind me is just saying how this is the the 'Dr. Sun Yat-sen National Scenic and Historical Area'

Sun wasn't the president of the republic for very long, as political infighting forced him out of the presidency in March 1912, and China quickly fell into anarchy and was carved up by local warlords. Sun spent years attempting to reunify China under the Guomindang, but died three years before the Guomindang managed to reunify the country in 1928.

The characters in the middle read 'Universal Love'

What is unique about Sun is that he is universally loved by both the Chinese on both the Communist-run mainland and Nationalist-run Taiwan as being a great leader and patriotic visionary for China. This is because - after Sun was forced from the presidency - the Guomindang was desperate for allies, funding, and supplies in their efforts to defeat the warlords and reunify the country, and they were able to get all of those through an alliance with the tiny Chinese Communist Party, which received supplies and funding from the Soviet Union. It also helped matters that Sun's political ideology was socialist in nature, which made it easy first for the Soviets to justify supplying the Guomingdang, and second for the Communist Party to proclaim themselves the true heirs of his vision for China. 

The characters read 'The world belongs to the masses'

Now that you have some understanding of who this man was, dear reader, it should be easy to see why his tomb is also one of the most popular tourist attractions in all of China; however, almost all of the tourists visiting it are Chinese, since most non-Chinese have no clue who Sun Yat-sen was.

The stone says 'Here is buried Dr. Sun Yat-sen, President of the Chinese Nationalist Party'

Sun's actual sarcophagus is still ahead

An interesting aesthetic feature about the mausoleum is the choice of colours, white and blue. Throughout China's history, the colours always associated with the emperor were yellow and red, and the long-standing custom was for emperors to be buried in tombs coloured in this yellow and red fashion. The choice of white and blue not only reflects the Guomindang flag, but also signifies a break with China's dynastic tradition, implying that Sun Yat-sen was not just another imperial emperor.

Along the sides of crypt proper, the first constitution of the Republic of China was written out, entirely in classical Chinese characters (繁体字). I have gone out of my way to learn to read these kinds of characters, but the overwhelming majority of mainland Chinese cannot read them at all.

Not that reading law is entertaining in any language or script...

With my first major historical site completed, I left the revolutionary president's mausoleum and headed for the tomb of a revolutionary imperial emperor, which I shall cover in my next blog post.

The view of Nanjing from Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum.

Until next time!