Outside of Jingdezhen, Groching’s father took us to a museum/resort that the city was constructing. It looked like it was close to being completed…here are a few images I took of of some pieces decorating the area outside. I loved these, so different from the other porcelain I would see later that day.
My first train ride in China….7 hot and sweaty hours to Jingdezhen. Such an interesting experience!I had a great time observing the fellow passengers.
Love this man…he sat quietly for the entire trip. I had to wonder about his life…such an interesting man!
After many hours of watching, we “make contact”…Cliff was playing solitare with this gentleman.By the end of the train ride, we had played cards, shared music and food….life is AMAZING for sure…!
Now this was great sport….part way thru the ride, the train employees did ” infomercials”…they would sell anything from a toothbrush, mechanical pencil to tiger balm. Crazy…
Some info about the Tiger Balm…??? Josh actually purchased a bottle of it.
Groching, our Chinese friend, guide and host! Such an amazing young man!
This is the Sheng Jin Ta ( the Rope and Gold Pagoda). It is the oldest building in Nanchang; dating to the from the Qing Dynasty. This tower was named this because during construction, a box was found containing 4 bundles of gold and ropes, 300 luminous Sarira stones and 3 ancient swords. It is said that the city will fall if the temple is ever destroyed.
Offering a prayer
The octagonal pagoda is topped with a cold-plated copper tripod, reached by a wooden staircase.On each of the seven floors are hand-carved eaves and cloisters.
On a recent bike ride to a village behind our campus ( Jiangxi College of Foreign Studies), we discovered a barn with the local women working. Curious as to what they were doing, I poked my head in….to my surprise, they were spinning rope from the dried stalks of the recently cut rice harvest. WOW…so interesting! these ladies were so friendly and were gracious enough to allow me to take a few photos.
This is the machine they use to spin the rope…it is powered by electricity, at first it thought it was “people” powered.
Everyday,we are exposed to new and interesting life differences …life in America verses the life of China.
Surrounding the countryside around my campus are rice fields for miles. It has been fascinating to watch this process: from the cutting of the rice from the fields, the bundled, then onto the thrashing.
Once the rice is separated from the stalks,
it is onto “winnowing” or the separation of the rice from the small pieces of “stuff”…to drying the rice in the streets ( yes, you drive over it)
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For our Mid Autumn break , a group of 6 of us went for our first “road trip” in China….WOW…remind me to never do a “prepackaged” Chinese tour … we could not understand a thing the guide was saying, and the forced march just wasn’t the pace we wanted…but hey, we did get to see some amazing sights…and now know we need to go out on our own. First stop was Guifeng Mt. Can I say ..WOW!
A Nanchang Life Adventure 