Subway Stops

Zhujianglu.  Xingjeikou.  Zhangfuyuan.  Xuanwumen.  Xiamafang.

Whew!

When we first arrived in China, these words were quite intimidating.  How do we begin to pronounce them correctly?  Yet, we had to know them, because they were some of the subway stops in the area where we stay or where we travel for school visits and trips around Nanjing.  Most signs are written in Chinese characters, so we were fortunate when we could see words written in Roman letters.  By now, some of these words are rolling right off our tongues!

What’s even more interesting is to learn what the words of our subway stops actually mean in English.  Some of them translate to : “Three Mountain,” “Pearl River,” “Drum Tower,” or “Dismount a Horse.”

Place names are often poetic and reflect nature or events from the past.  Some of us have visited the Yuijiang Tower on the Yangtze River, which translates “Enjoying-the-River” Tower.  While there we were amused by a sign in English that said, “Love-sickness carrying pavilion.”  Say again!?

Today was our last day for classes, and tomorrow we’ll be free for a bus tour to an outlying district.  We hope to see where Hudson Taylor lived and worked, and also where Pearl S. Buck grew up.

We then will reluctantly say good-bye to China, and expectantly say hello to Thailand.