Off to Nanchang for a recruitment day on the Saturday. Nanchang is located 60 km south of the Yangtze River and is situated on the right bank of the Gan River just below its confluence with the Jin River and some 40 km south of its discharge into Poyang Lake.
Nanchang has a population of 3,934,445 people and a metropolitan area consisting of 4,990,184 people.
So Friday morning at 10.30 meet Jacob and head off towards the train station for the journey to Nanchang the train is delayed by 45 minutes which in my limited experience for trains in China is rare they are normally on time, any way we board the train we have seats in one carriage but it looks busy so we sit in another emptier carriage and hope no one has the seats booked.
The journey should take 6 hours 30 minutes so we should get to Nanchang about 6.30 pm Friday evening.
The train is clean comfortable and the views of the countryside are interesting and varied. My only problem is i have had no breakfast so need to find something to eat on the train.
The food options on the train are fairly limited but manage to buy some snacks to get me through the journey.
I am amazed at the amount of cotton growing in the fields as I have never seen a cotton field before its a strange sight to me.Also the amount of people beavering away in the fields is quite something to see.
After a couple of hours on the train a guy starts a sales presentation for a metal puzzle maybe he thinks the captive audience have left common sense behind on the platform. Later he tries again with socks apparently this is normal on trains and the brand of socks is famous in China now and they have the monopoly for trains.
Hopefully Richard Branson wont take up the idea or God help the travelling public if he does.
Arrive in Nanchang at 7.00 pm on Friday have to say the journey was good one thing i wanted to mention was that every ones id cards were checked and I was asked in perfect English where I was travelling to and from.
Book into the hotel a Jin Jiang Inn nice room clean comfortable.
Jacob and I meet up to go for some food and eventually settle on a hot pot restaurant near to the hotel. Food was fine a little spicy but very nice although we did not go for the hotpot and ordered various dishes.Afterwards we go into a jazz club adjacent to the hotel for a beer a and to chill out a little.
Saturday morning early start we have to be at the Job Fair at 8.30 so quick breakfast in the hotel of coffee and toast and jump into taxi to the job fair.
The job fair is similar to one one I attended in Wuhu but a little bigger.The job fair is fairly busy but as we do not Fresh Graduates the amount of potential recruits is limited.
At 1.30 we call it a day and pack up and head off into centre of Nanchang Jacob is off to see his friends near to his old university.So I decide to wander around the shopping area I have plenty of time as our Train is not till 9.45 Saturday evening.
Grab a quick coffee at K F C the coffee in KFC is reasonable and always available so a good option if you are struggling to find some coffee in China.
I wander into a shopping mall with no real idea of what I'm looking for just mostly to browse around on the 3 rd floor is the luggage section and as I want to replace my bag which I carry my day to day stuff and camera in. Find a bigger bag which will hold everything comfortably priced at 675 rmb before discount.Eventually agree price of 425 rmb, the one thing different in China is you don't pay in mall at the point of sale you have to go central cash desk and pay then return to the section and collect your goods.
In this mall we go from the 4Th floor to the first at one pay point i pay 300 rmb and then at another 120 rmb not sure why and how complicated can you make paying for something!!!.
Anyway I'm delighted with my purchase so much that i empty my previous bag and start using the new one immediately.
Leave the mall and head off towards a central square called Bayi square the second largest public square in China, after Beijing's Tiananmen Square. please see attached pictures In 1937, it became famous when on August 1, Zhou Enlai led an uprising against Chiang Kai-Shek’s nationalist army at Nanchang before retreating to the nearby Jinggang Mountains to form one of the first armed forces of the Chinese Red Army. Today, the anniversary of the uprising is celebrated each year in China as the day the People's Liberation Army was founded.
Wander off down main road to see what else I can find spot a monument on the opposite side of the road but can cross without using the underpass which aren't just for getting from one side of the road to the other in China they are full of little shops and what I would call cafes you could spend hours under the roadway shopping and eating to your hearts content.
Eventually make my way to the monument and take a picture please see link to Nanchang pictures on the blog.Continue along and spot a shop selling ipods which is of interest as i want an ipod to load some Chinese lessons on to after much bartering agree a price of 1,500 rmb includes charger and leather case for an Ipod Nano which i am delighted with.
By this point its late afternoon and i decide just to go down some side streets and see where i end up unfortunately it decides to rain so spot a coffee shop opposite a park area which sells coffee so settle down in a seat at the window to watch the world go by and enjoy my coffee.
After several cups of coffee i decide to do some more shopping and find somewhere to eat before my train journey towards the centre spot a belt shop and as my belts no longer fit me decide to buy a new one try unsuccessfully to barter and end up paying 99rmb which if I'm honest is OK belt seems good quality.
Decide to go for the safe option of Pizza hut however as usual a packed waiting area suggests this may not be so easy but as its just me reckon i can get a table for one quite easily.After 15 minutes and having seen people come in from outside and be seated i give up and head back to the coffee shop of the afternoon and eat there.
Later meet up with Jacob for the return journey to Wuhu which means we arrive in Wuhu at 4.45 am Sunday the sleeping section is fine and i do get some sleep.
Sunday get up late and go to English corner nothing really of note chill out Sunday night then back to work Monday.
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