Impressions from the Southern Capital 南京: A Walk in the Park (Qingliangshan Park)

The woman (Helen) who manages our apartment feels a responsibility to share the sites of Nanjing with us -- even on her day off. I returned home from my Thursday night classes at about 10 p.m. this week, and Brad said that Helen planned to meet us at 8:30 Friday morning to go to a park. I know you can imagine my groans, and Brad even said I didn't need to go. I thought I had every excuse to back out -- so tired and we had made plans to talk to Leslie for her birthday--not easy to arrange with the 12-hour time difference.

Entering the park

When Friday morning arrived, I decided I couldn't be rude to Helen and got ready to go (I did refuse to wash my hair!), Facetimed with Dano to rearrange the birthday call, and we were off.

We met Helen as planned and headed off to Qingliangshan Park. First stop was the bus stop to catch the #6 bus. Helen said it was only two stops to the park, but, having ridden the bus before, it's not obvious where the stops are or what you need to do to make the bus driver actually stop the bus. We rode through a part of Nanjing we hadn't seen yet and watched Helen to get our cue when to get off.

The park opened right at the bus stop. The entrance was beautiful and we began our journey.

Everywhere we turned we saw something new. Since it was Friday, most of the other people in the park were older men and women, out for a little exercise. People walking quickly, swinging their arms, and many walking backwards. Badminton is a favorite sport of Chinese people of all ages, and there were a man and a woman playing badminton, with no net. They were really good, even without the net. They served over hand and kept the birdie in play for multiple volleys--very impressive. As we continued our walk, we heard music playing and found a group who had brought their traditional instruments to the park just to jam. Two or three were going over some music, while others just played. We weren't sure if they were actually playing the same piece, but somehow it worked.

Our new cute friends

As we walked further, we came across a gazebo where some women were just chatting. We sat down with them, and they were so cute. They wanted to tell us their ages (all in their 80s), and they made fun of my size 11 walking shoes, which, compared to their tiny feet, looked gigantic. We all had a good laugh!

Helen started to hurry us along to another part of park, and as we walked we started to hear the sound of birds singing. Helen had told us earlier that this park was known for the birds. We pictured the bird markets in Europe, but that's not what we saw. All along our path, bird cages had been hung up in the trees. We soon learned that the men brought their birds to the park on nice days for the birds to get some fresh air.. The men then sat around and shared bird stories, we guess. Sounds a little strange, but we decided it was not any stranger than the dog parks in the U.S. I included some pictures of what we saw because I know it's hard to imagine trees filled with bird cages. Brad also shot some video, to chronicle the sounds of the experience.

I'm glad I didn't miss it.