In the morning, we took a side trip to Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province in China. Fortunately we got the "Soft Seat" round trip ticket (112 Yuan one-way per person from Shanghai). We found out later that getting a soft seat ticket will usually get you into a "soft seat lounge" as well. The soft seat lounges in Shanghai have nice and comfortable sofas, very orderly with television monitors and are not as crammed full as the hard seat lounges.

Nanjing is situated in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and is the central city of the lower Yangtze Basin. It is 300 hundred kilometers northwest to Shanghai. It took us approximately 2 hours and 13 minutes by bullet train. I found Nanjing surprisingly a very large city with wide roads and highways, plenty of greenery, lakes and beautiful natural scenery. It's a modern city with a very rich history.


There are two things that we found interesting to visit in Nanjing; The Nanjing Massacre Memorial Hall and Dr. Sun Yat Sen Mausoleum. However, due to unanticipated time constraint, we regretted not being able to explore more of these sights.


We just found out that these two popular places of interests and attractions in Nanjing can be found in different far-flung areas. So we felt rushed and spent most of our precious time on the road. Had we known beforehand, we would've come earlier or stayed for at least one night.