Week of January 19, 2003

	Ling Gu Pagoda (Soul Valley) The Ling Gu Pagoda is really neat. It is 60 meters high (9 stories), has great granite facing, pretty green tiled roofs, and a spiral staircase in the middle to climb to the top. Paul only went up three levels because of the haze. You really couldn't see very far, maybe a half kilometer at best.
	Ling Gu Temple Tablet Stone What we really liked were the stone tablets that are carried on the backs of a mythical beast. (Paul thinks they look like a turtles). This mythical beast is supposed to be the ninth son of the dragon. It is noted for its strength to carry great loads. The tablets were neat with all the Chinese characters on them as well as the "turtle."
	Sun Yat-Sen Mausoleum. From the entrance to the memorial hall there are 392 steps in four flights of stairs. This is a must for anyone who comes to Nanjing to visit. There were a lot of Chinese tourists here, even at this time of the year. I got to the first step and decided it was a good time to visit the tourist shops that we had passed. Paul climbed to the top, took the obligatory pictures, came back down, and came and found me.
	Statue of Sun Yat-Sen Sun Yat-Sen is the founder of modern Chinese government. After the abdication of the last Chinese Emperor in 1912 , Sun Yat-Sen was instrumental in forming the Nationalist Party and was elected Provisional President of China. The capitol was Nanjing. Later Yat-Sen was forced to stand aside for the leader of the army, who died the next year. Then the local warlords took over parts of the country, and Chiang Kaishek took control of the party.