Odds and Ends from a Bygone Era

One of my teachers was lecturing about the Taiping Rebellion （太平天国）today, which just happened to have its headquarters in Nanjing from 1850 until 1864 when the Qing government succeed in suppressing the movement.  It also served as KMT headquarters for a bit during the 1920's and 30's.

So I decided to go downtown and see this bit of history for myself.

The Presidential Palace was quite spectacular, here are a few pretty things that caught my attention:

A pair of these lions stand near the entrance of the palace, people rub their heads for good luck.

A baby lion clinging to its mother, perhaps a larger cousin of the first lion I photographed.

One of many richly decorated roofs in the palace complex.

Another example of beautiful lattice work, this time in window form.

These tea mugs were in many of the receiving rooms within the palace.  Chinese people like to drink tea while managing diplomatic relations.

Old fashion elevator buttons!  There is actually quite an interesting mix of Chinese and Western architecture in the 总统府 even though that reality is not well represented with today's collection of baubles.


More on the the history of the Presidential Palace and pictures to come!