Last Night in Nanchang

So, since this is our last night in Nanchang I wanted to talk a little about our everyday lives while we were here... but first I have to share the excitement of our evening excursion. We have all been getting a little stir crazy here at the hotel and decided it was time to venture off the beaten path. We decided to grab a taxi and go down to this pedestrian mall type of thing a couple of miles from where we are now.

I am not sure how many cab drivers have had to stuff 26 feet of humans in their cabs before but after putting Alex in the front and the 3 of us plus Leah shoehorned in the back of a very small Chinese car...I gave him the written instructions from our guide and we were ready to go. Now, If you will remember from one of my first posts here, I talked a little about the traffic? Well..... O - M - G !

Imagine yourself strapped into a metal barrel on wheels and throw in a dash of Grand Theft Auto meets Space Mountain meets that screen saver with the stars that come flying at you ..... and that will give you the basic idea of our ride over to the mall. If I hadn't been gripping Leah with all my might next to my chest, I would have been able to take a picture of the terror on the rest of our faces as we careened through the streets, missing pedestrians, scooters, bikes and cars by inches. You actually had to close your eyes to keep from screaming. Of course, we all start getting those nervous giggles you get when you can't stop something inexplicably and inevitably from unfolding right before your eyes. By the time we got close to the place... and I kid you not... we appeared to be driving on a sidewalk.

Two blocks from our drop off we find ourselves in the middle of what they call their "Free Market"... which I would equate with our Saturday market but set in the wild wild west in the mid 1800's. A pulsating mass of animals, people, carts and booths selling everything you could possibly imagine. All of a sudden the cabby starts pointing and talking and pointing and talking and stops the car.... I am assuming it was something like: " Thank you for your patronage but I will be taking you no further on your journey. Please pass me your money and vacate my metal barrel quickly before we all get hit by other moving objects." Jan says, " I think he wants us out." Brad says: " HERE ??!!" Lauren says: " I don't WANT to get out." Alex is already out wondering why we are still in. Well, we all tumble out of the cab and into the middle of the market. To say that we drew some stares would be like asking the Pope if he is religious. We started moving up the street and found out quickly that it was not a good idea for us to stop in one place for any amount of time because of the crowds we would draw. We finally made it out of the market and up to the pedestrian mall in tact. As Evelyn stated it... .if you can drive in Nanchang, you can drive anywhere in the world.

I am planning on writing a post one night just to talk about the food here... but let me just say this one thing. Here in Nanchang you can get just about any type of food you could possibly imagine.... on a stick. That is all I'm saying. Janice wanted me to share that she had two different beggars follow us around and they actually both were hitting her on the arm with their cups. Alex and I are convinced that, like coyotes after the antelope, they were just trying to cull the weakest link from the herd. Grin.



We went site seeing today and visited the Teng Wang Pavilion, or Emperor's Palace. I have posted a bunch of new pictures to Flickr on the days adventure. As I mentioned, this is our last night and we are starting to get packed up for our travel day tomorrow to Guangzhou. We have been very fortunate here in Nanchang for our guides Evelyn and Karen. They have been utterly amazing. Not only do they make the impossible happen.... they anticipate each families needs before we even ask. Last night they went to the back of the restaurant and asked them to prepare us off the menu "western" type Chinese. Kung Pao Chicken, Sweet and sour pork, Fried rice and french fries. FRENCH FRIES !! How awesome is that? We send our laundry out each afternoon and it comes back the next day clean, folded and sealed in individual plastic pouches. We did like 2 pairs of jeans, 3 sweatshirts, 6 t-shirts, some shorts, underwear and socks yesterday... the bill ? $3.

The peanut butter and jelly we brought and the dried mangos have been a godsend but if I had to pick one thing in particular as the one item I am most glad we brought (and just by a fluke)? Starbucks Instant Coffee !!! Not sure what Janice and I would do each morning if not for the sweet, sweet aroma of Starbucks coffee wafting through the room.

One odd local custom I wanted to share and I will end this monologue. Each morning and each afternoon you can hear fire crackers going off in the middle of the street all over town. Not just one fire cracker... but 1000's by the string. It took a few days to figure this out but apparently firecrackers in the mornings are for weddings and in the afternoon for funerals. Both for the same reason... which is to scare away the evil demons from these sacred rituals. For the funerals, there is a long procession of people all wearing white, the customary color for mourning. For the weddings the bride and company wears red! So... there you go.

More to come from Guangzhou and the "White Swan" hotel that we will call home for the next week. Thanks again for all the fun and sweet notes we are receiving from everyone. Makes it almost like being home.