April 4, 2009

Since time was very precious, taxi was by far our best option. Our first stop was the The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall and Museum located at Shui Xi Men Da Jie (free admission). This is the memorial hall to the victims in the Nanjing massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanking. Occupying an area about 28000 square meters with a floor space of 3000, it was built in 1985 in memory of the 300,000 victims in the event, and has been closed for renovations and reopened on December 13, 2007.

outside the memorial hall
inside the huge complex

As stated by Iris Chang (author of the controversial book titled The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of Word War II), "The Rape of Nanking is one of the greatest atrocities of world history. In December of 1937, the Japanese swept into the capital of China, which was then Nanking, and within six to eight weeks they butchered, raped and tortured hundreds of thousands of Chinese civilians". (Read more about The Nanjing Massacre and the Memorial Hall).

Outside the memorial hall, there are life-size statues that appear in a variety of poses placed on a pedestal in a clear shallow pond of water. One side of the statue base bears a Chinese and English caption. We just had a couple of shots here, before heading to Dr. Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum, which is about 40 minutes away.

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