Departing from Chongqing to spend autumn in Nanjing

Spent a very leisurely day and a half in Nanjing. Because my friend and I didn’t have much energy and our goal was to see the autumn scenery, we decided on two places: Zhongshan Scenic Area and Qixia Mountain. 11.29 Saturday We started from Linggu Temple and toured backward to Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum. We didn’t go to Wutong Avenue, but the road in front of Linggu Temple was very easy to walk. We took a taxi to Linggu Scenic Area, and the driver said there was a section we had to walk ourselves. 【Photo 7】It was already 9:13, there were few people, and the scenery was beautiful. Online it says the Linggu Temple tour takes 0.5–1 hour, but we spent longer (laughs). We took some time taking photos at Linggu Pagoda; the light and shadow through the door frame made for nice portraits. (There weren’t many people, so we didn’t block anyone’s shots.) After wandering around, we leisurely took the sightseeing bus to Gate 7. We didn’t visit many places on the way and walked about 40 minutes to near Gate 3. If you just walk straight, it supposedly takes only about ten minutes. We first saw a bald cypress forest, but there were very few people, and we seriously doubted if we were in the right place. 【But I took a photo I really like here, Photo 5】Then we turned around and saw a huge crowd… It was only about 13:15 then, the light wasn’t good, and the tree reflections didn’t come out well, but we still tried hard to take some photos in the gaps. 【Photo 1】was taken at 13:24. By 15:00, the sun began to slowly set, and the light became a bit softer, so we started taking lots of photos again in the gaps. But this week, some leaves in the bald cypress forest had been blown off by the wind. They say last week was the best viewing period, but it’s still very beautiful! The reason we chose this week was to see Qixia Mountain! Otherwise, last week we couldn’t see Qixia Mountain, and next week we couldn’t see the bald cypress forest. By the way, in the evening we went to see "Zootopia 2." I used to think watching a movie while traveling was a “waste of time,” but now I feel like I planted another happy anchor point in Nanjing, totally worth it! 11.30 Sunday We started slowly at 9:10, thinking the 35-minute drive might get at most an hour of traffic, so it shouldn’t be too bad, right? But we didn’t get off the car until 10:30... Stumbling along, we followed the crowd to start climbing the mountain. I don’t want to recall that wild mountain path because I’m a bit afraid of heights, and there was almost no protection on the side of the path, which felt very unsafe TT. When we reached the fork near the palace ruins, we went down... didn’t visit many spots, felt like the 80 yuan ticket was a waste! But if we had visited all, I think my body would have been the one losing out... Still, I managed to take some beautiful photos of the maple leaves. Due to my technique, the overall shots didn’t look good, but close-ups felt more expressive. Once again, I marvel at how lucky the people of Nanjing are!! Such a beautiful autumn. Photos 1–5: By Yanque Lake Photo 6: Linggu Pagoda Photo 7: The road in front of Linggu Scenic Area Photo 8: The bird I caught Photos 9–16: Qixia Mountain Equipment: Nikon Z50 II 50–250 (First time using a big zoom lens; I feel bringing a 16–50 would be more convenient) Filter: Photographer Sun Yu’s GRpositive Film