Off to the side of Nanjing is a patch of green. That green is Zhongshan, a miniature range of hills, home to a few parks, Linggu Pagoda, the Ming Tomb, Dr. Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum and a tour-de-force-of-Chinese antitourism at it's very best.
This is the absolute pinnacle. This is what puts Nanjing on the map. They've managed to infest a couple hills with masses and masses of the sightseeing human.
At one point there must have been some trodden paths through the woods. Now they've paved the whole thing so that the actual woods are out of reach. Good thing because on a weekend, hordes of tourist snapshot their way shoulder-to-shoulder along each and every span of badly laid concrete.
Some folks don't get the appeal of a stroll the forest. No bother. Here's a fleet of oversize golf karts careening around like it's a woodlands rally. There's a couple companies vying for attention and you bet! they've got horns. It's like being followed around all day by an aggressive Chinese caddy because, well, that's what it is. One of the great antitourism wonders of China
Through a gap in the trees and all we could do at the foot of the stairs was stand and applaud. They've done it. They've managed to make a human scale replica of a termite mound. Amazing.
Amongst the general worker-tourists are shepherding guides toting stuffed toys on sticks. Armies of OAPs in battle-baseball-caps phalanx through the crowds as photograph after photograph is entirely wasted. Must. Photograph. Four. Characters
And they're willing to make man-mountains to get a crooked shot of four Chinese characters written on a wall.
Fortunately there's a relative oasis of calm on Zhongshan behind the 70RMB admission gates where the golf carts can't roam free. Even in 555AD they must have had the human-horde problem because old Ming went and put his house on a 30 meter plinth and built the world's largest garden wall in a circle around his garden.
That and the ripped off aztec terraces are admittedly the historic and aesthetic highlight of the mountain, perhaps embroidered thanks to their proximity to Zhongshan's south western exit. We escaped.
