Xuanwu Lake (Originally posted Dec. 23, 2010)

Xuanwu Lake is situated about ten minutes from where I live in Nanjing, just outside the ancient city wall. Islands and bridges dot the lake, and you can easily take two hours to explore all of them and then get lost and end up crawling through a fence to get to a bus stop. Regardless of fence crawling, it's a beautiful spot. There are small paddle boats for rent, little vendors with food--some of which, on the outskirts of the park are of the Uighir minority and not really supposed to be there. But their sweet potatoes smell so good that the average citizen doesn't seem to mind.
















Note the odd effect the mix of evening and smog has on China's sky...