While in Nagasaki we visited Koshi-Byo, a Confucious Shrine that is the only one in the world built by and for Chinese people outside of China. It is a sovereign territory of the People's Republic of China. It is the ONLY place in the world where an individual can legally enter the People's Republic of China without a passport. So TECHNICALLY we visited China, would you count it? Travel Weekly has an interesting list of rules for counting countries, do you have any specific family rules?
The shrine features 72 followers of Confucius and has an awesome Historical Museum of China. The museum features Terra Cotta Warriors, a stone horse from Xi'an, stones from the great wall, and a lot of other treasures. However, it doesn't seem to be visited by Americans a lot so the signs are mostly in Japanese or Mandarin. It is a bright, colorful spot in a fairly monochromatic city.
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| Shrine inside the temple |
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| Instruments used for animal sacrifice |
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| Carefully carved ivory tusk and bricks from the Great Wall |
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| Scene carved into soft cork |
Nearby is Nagasaki's Chinatown. Called Shinchi Chinatown, it is the oldest Chinatown in Japan. Nagasaki port remained open to Chinese traders even during the Era of Isolation, but strict rules and curfews were put on foreign residents in Nagasaki. It is tiny (just a few blocks), but I have heard it is beautiful during the Nagasaki Lantern Festival. They have a few restaurants, shops, and street food vendors.
One of the popular local foods of Nagasaki is Kakuni Manju in Chinatown. It is a square of fatty pork slow cooked and stuffed into a soft steamed bun. This sweet vendor was happy to say that all their food was handmade and not store bought.
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| Steamed pork bun, and Kakuni Manju |
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| Soda flavor ice cream |
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| Chinese Pudding flavor ice cream, it was delicious! |
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