Not far from Meiling Palace, stand the remains of the Ming Dynasty city wall.
This 600-year-old military defense system adopted a winding, free style, based
on the city's complex topography, making it very different from the square or
rectangular city walls of Beijing and Xi'an.
It was designed by Zhu Yuanzhang, the first emperor
of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), after he established Nanjing as the capital in
1368. The whole project took about 20 years to complete.
Take a walk along the city wall, and you may find
that every stone tells a tale; and if you turn over some of these age-old
stones, you are sure to see a colony of insects.
Very likely, you will spot the Carabus (coptolabrus)
lafossei, whose metallic colors make for a dazzling sight. Unsurprisingly, this
beetle species is under State protection.
Or, you may return home with a cool pet - the Whip
Scorpion. This ancient-looking creature is strong and black, and its first pair
of legs serves more of a tactile function that helps offset its extremely weak
eyesight. It does not possess a poisonous sting but can spray acetic acid from a
whip-like tail, when threatened. This is one scorpion that you can hold in your
palm - and be none the worse for being left with a strong smell of vinegar.
It is probably a better choice as a pet than the
currently popular spider or rain forest scorpion.
The journey up the mountain usually ends at the Sun
Yat-sen Mausoleum, the resting place of the "father of modern China".
At the top of the 392-step climb, the entire memorial
spreads out in a grand panorama - blue-tiled halls and archways dotting a sea of
green trees, with the skyscrapers of modern Nanjing rising in the distance.
From here, you can enjoy a view of the city and also
treat yourself to a musical concert, thanks to the various singing insects.
Most of the species endemic to China can be found in
this mountain. For example, you may encounter Sclerogryllus punctatus - a
cricket which is know as the "percussion bell" because it sounds like the
Buddhist percussion instrument made of bronze and shaped like an alms bowl. In
addition, there are numerous other crickets like Mecopoda neiponensis, Truljalia
hibinonis and Trigoniidae scattered among the tea garden and maple trees.
