On Saturday the Chinese cultural class had its third fieldtrip, so naturally Alex and I tagged along to take some photos! This time we went to 中山陵 Sun Yat-sen’s mausoleum and the mausoleum of 明孝陵，the first Ming dynasty emperor. It was quite a trek! The two compounds are very near each other (connected by little roads for tourists and the like), because the burial sites have excellent 风水(fengshui). A leader’s burial place is very important, and should have a mountain to its back, a river to its front, and be very high up. This means lots of steps to climb! 
We found cotton candy!!! I couldn't believe it. No flavor, just cotton, not to mention it was the same price as a bottle of water, but mmm tasty!
Furthermore, it being close to the anniversary of 100 years since modern China’s foundation (1911), Chinese people were everywhere going to Sun Yat-sen’s mausoleum to pray. This meant that whenever I took a set of pictures of Alex, there were anywhere from 2 to 10 people behind me taking the same photos! As foreigners I guess it’s hard to resist snapping a few, some were even brave enough to come up and ask for a picture with us J While the main group went with Chen Laoshi to explore the cultural and historical significance of the places, we happily wandered off and found little nooks that had interesting Chinese-y pieces of art of architecture.
After seeing the two mausoleums we walked down a path that held carved stone animals, some real and some not，called the 神道 or Sacred Way. The Sacred Way has 12 pairs of animals of 6 kinds guarding the tomb.
I had no idea why that man was carrying around a life preserver and was contemplated following him, but (smartly) decided against it. I'll just guess that he's the Chinese version of a boy scout- always prepared.
Alas the weekend is almost over and then its back to classes. Ah well, time to go make some dinner with Lily!
Love, Maggie
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