the popular city in china , Nanjing

Nanjing travel guide
Lies on the south bank of the Yangtze River, Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province, is one of the most delightful of Chinese cities. Known as the Capital City of Six or Ten Dynasties in China's history, it has a brilliant cultural heritage.
History
Yuecheng, the first recorded military defense constructed in early 472 B.C., opened the long history of Nanjing. In the following years, the city reached its height of splendor at various times. In 229, Sun Quan, one of the three heroes in China's Three Kingdoms Period (220 - 280), to strengthen his influence in the middle valley of the Yangtze River, moved the capital of his kingdom to Jianye - present Nanjing. From that time on, the city served as the capital for several dynasties in China's history. In 1356, in a peasant rebellion, Zhu Yuanzhang, later the Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644), conquered the city and renamed it Yingtian Fu. In 1368, Zhu established the Ming Dynasty - the last feudal dynasty ruled by the native Han people - and gave Yingtian Fu the new name of Nanjing. Ten years later, the emperor made Nanjing the capital of the country. The mausoleum of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang is perching on the southern slope of the Mount Zijinshan in the northeastern part of the city. Following officials' advice of "building walls and producing grain to consolidate the rule", the emperor ordered the construction of city walls. Today's majestic walls in Nanjing, the longest of its kind in the world, are the result of that phase of construction. Zhonghua Gate , simply meaning 'Chinese Gate', is a noted attraction for tourists in the present city center.
In spite of its glorious times, the city also witnessed the hardest moment of this nation. In 1839, the Opium War burst out after Lin Zexu, an assiduous official, burnt twenty thousand boxes of opium in Humen. On a battleship in Nanjing's Xiaguan, the corrupt Qing government, under threat by Britain troops, signed the notorious Nanjing Treaty, the first of the 'Unequal Treaties' which ceded Hong Kong away from China for more than hundred years. Following this treaty, invasions and colonial rule of the western countries intensified and China sank into a harder and darker time.
Peasant groups of Taiping rebelled against the Qing government in 1853 and established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Jinling, Nanjing's name at that time, and formed an army. Unfortunately, the peasant regime was short-lived and in 1864, troops of Qing government won the city back. Nowadays, in Xuyuan Garden , one can still see part of the palace of Heavenly King of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.
It was the Revolution of 1911, the Chinese bourgeois democratic revolution led by Dr.Sun Yat-Sen that overthrew the Qing Dynasty. On the first day of 1912, Dr. Sun Yet-sen gave his simple but sublime address on the inauguration held of the new Republic of China. Today, a memorial hall in the Mausoleum of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen , houses a statue of Dr. Sun sculpted out of white marble.
There are two further negative memories of the city. On April 18th, 1927, Chiang Kaishek launched the counter-revolutionary 4.12 Coup and established his power in Nanjing. Also, in 1937, the inhuman Nanjing Massacre happened. In six weeks, more than 300,000 Chinese people were killed including women and children.
No atrocity can go unpunished. After eight years of resistance, in 1945 the brave Chinese people eventually drove the barbarous Japanese invaders out of China's homeland and the war criminals got what they deserved. However Chinese people will never forget the history. Pictures of the atrocities of Japanese soldiers taken by Japanese army photographers are exhibited in the Memorial Hall to the Victims in the Nanjing Massacre.Finally, on April 23rd, 1949, Nanjing was liberated by the People's Liberation Army and Kuomintang's power in China was ended.

Wuhou Memorial Temple
Wuhou Temple (Temple of Marquis Wu) in the southern suburbs of Chengdu is dedicated to the memory of both Liu Bei (161-223), Emperor of the Kingdom of Shu in the Three Kingdoms period (220-280), and Zhuge Liang (181-234), Prime Minister of the Kingdom. The board hung above the gate reads "Han Zhaolie Temple" (Zhaolie was a title given to Liu Bei posthumously). But the temple is commonly called Wuhou Memorial Temple (Zhuge Liang was conferred on the title of Wu Xianghou after his death). The memorial temple, dignified and simple in style, houses 47 statues of Liu Bei, Zhuge Liang and other civil officials and senior generals of the Kingdom. The temple is furnished with many inscribed stone tablets, the most famous being the Tablet of Triple Success of the Tang Dynasty (618 -907) with its text by Prime Minister Pei Du, calligraphy by Liu Gongchuo and carvings by Lu Jian. The couplets written on scrolls and hung on the pillars in the temple are well-known for numerous aphorism.

Giant Panda Breeding Research Base

The Giant Panda Breeding Research Base is located on the mountain of Futoushan in the northern suburbs of the city, 18km away from the town center. The Giant Panda Museum is a unique museum set up for Giant Panda's in the world, it collects and shows fruits of human knowledge, review and research on the Giant Panda. The Museum shows almost 300 rare, fine pictures and scientific , full & accurate charts about Giant Panda, exhibits literatures and monograph on Giant Panda's at all times and in different places of the world. It shows practical specimens of Giant Panda's from fossils to every part of dissection, dejection and main types of food bamboo etc. The Museum also built many large zoology scope-boxes with an area of 300m2, such as remote antiquity as Giant Panda zoology environment, Giant Panda danger situation, and Giant Panda zoology environment in Qinling, Liangshan, Xiangling, Minshan, and Qionglai Mountain. The Museum systematically and completely introduces Giant Panda's evolvement history, ancient and nowadays distribution, general situation, condition and research of human to Giant Panda's. This lets people roundly know Giant Panda's, understand efforts made by our government to protect and save the animal which is loved by people all of the world and consciously arose the feeling to love and protect Giant Panda's and their natural habitat.
We recommend that the best time to visit is in the morning, between 8:30 and 10am, during feeding time. Outside these hours it's likely the bears will be indulging in their favorite pastime, sleeping!

Fu's Thatched Cottage
The Thatched Cottage of Dufu, located by the side of the Huanhua Stream in Chengdu's western suburb. It was the residence of Dufu, the great poet of the Tang Dynasty when he took refuge in Chengdu.
Du Fu (712-70 AD),one of China's most famous poets, left home at the tender age of 20, becoming a court official at the former capital in Chang'an (near Xi'an). Du Fu's civil service duties did not last long however, and he was captured by rebels and forced to flee the city for Chengdu after only a few years. It was in Chengdu, at this small and simple house, that Du Fu was inspired to write more than 200 poems which are regarded today as masterpieces of realist poetry.
Dufu's Thatched Cottage covers an area of 16 hectares. The Gate, the Screen Wall, the Lobby, the Hall of Verse History, and the Gong Bu Temple are lined one by one along the middle axis, flanked by corridors and other auxiliary buildings. The bronze statue of Dufu in the Hall of Verse History is broad-minded. The clay sculpture of Dufu was enshrined in the Gong Bu Temple is very lifelike. Among and between them are trees and bamboo groves, winding brooks and linking small bridges.
All these give the place an atmosphere of solemnity, meanwhile a sense of beauty and grace. Around the hones are bamboo fences and inside the fences are vegetable and herb plots, easily remind people of the scenes described in Dufu's poems. While taking a quiet walk in such a historical and cultural environment, visitors are apt to be brought back to the ancient times.

Sichuan Opera
As one of the major opera schools in China, the Sichuan Opera has a long history. It originated at the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty. At that time there were several different forms of popular theatre in the Sichuan area which gradually developed and blended with the local culture to finally merge into the present Sichuan Opera.
Sichuan Opera is well-known in China, and is characterized by solo singing, skillful acting, rich percussion and incredibly funny comedies. Special characters use stunts such as quick face changes without makeup, jumping through burning hoops and hiding of swords. The magical face changes are particularly famous.
Face changing is the essence and highlight of Sichuan Opera. It is a kind of stunt which involves the on-stage change of mask or facial makeup, via masks or facial painting, without the audience noticing. It is amazing that, with a magical sweep of a hand, the actors can change their masks successively in an incredibly short time. Face changes first appeared 300 years ago. Initially the opera masters changed their face during a performance by blowing into a bowl of red, black or gold powder, which immediately stuck to their oiled skiny. By the 1920s, actors began to use layers of masks made of oiled paper. During the performance, actors would peel off one after another in a very short time. Now, the masters use painted silk masks, which can be worn in layers. No matter how closely you watch, you don’t see the mask being changed.