National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival

During the first week of October there is always a holiday for the October 1st National Day and this year another holiday, Mid-Autumn Festival, which occurs eight months after the Chinese New Year (all according to the Chinese lunar calendar), fell on October 3rd this year, so there was an extended break.

I saw some sites in Nanjing during those days off, including a huge fish market near the Yangtze river, a ferry ride to the other side of the river, Purple Mountain, and a memorial to John Rabe in his former home. Rabe was a German who lived in Nanjing in the 1930s and 40s, when he saved thousands of lives during the Rape of Nanking by offering refuge to locals in and around the Nanjing University campus) I also made the trip to an IKEA store in the southern suburb of Nanjing. It was my first time to an IKEA but from what I saw in the Nanjing store I’m fairly certain that Ikeas everywhere are all the same. Swedish meatballs and other family friendly food are served in the attached cafeteria and I recognized several pieces of furniture, a clock, paintings, and other things that my family has at home. I guess the only difference is that IKEA stores in China are packed, especially over a holiday, and are popular places to take pictures, as in, “so this is what an oven looks like!”

I taught a couple of English classes, went to a party organized by my English school for Mid-Autumn Festival, and was a involved in the opening and ribbon cutting at a new school location.

Pictures here