I had the wonderful experience of being selected as a token foreigner for a photography and sight-seeing expedition of northern Jiangxi province! The entire weekend I was treated to free food, free accommodation, free transport, and free entrance to various sights to behold in The Best Province in China.
After teaching my (one!) class on Friday morning, I headed off to lunch. I had been invited to the opening of a new restaurant by my bartender! It was easy to spot by the giant pile of red firework debris on the entrance. Yange joyfully lit off a spare package of Extreme Deafening Power when I arrived.
After stuffing myself silly I bought some street strawberries for 7RMB and headed home for a nap. I had a long weekend in front of me.
That evening Chad, Ben and I were invited out to a feast sponsored by the Jiangxi province government. After arriving at a fancy hotel, I paid my fair share of 1RMB on a 16RMB fare. This was the be the beginning of our whirlwind tour.
Before we could eat we all we could eat we listened to a few short speeches about how wonderful Jiangxi province is by some da tudou (literally “big potatoes). As if we didn’t know! Interestingly, no mention was made of the weather.
Two days after St. Paddy’s, it was over eighty three degrees (American, 27 degrees Terrist) during the day. Last night the temperature dropped below forty (about four and a half Terrist).
We gorged ourselves on Western and Chinese food and met a few other foreigners invited on this glorified photo opportunity (when I say “glorified photo opportunity” I am in no way complaining). There was a good mix of “honkeys” from various nations, a few Indians, an Arab guy and someone from Ghana. We were almost every one of us English teachers.
There are two engineers who work on helicopter manufacturing in Jiangxi. One is from Germany, and the other is a ‘Mer-kan who has spent much time in Seattle. Additionally, there is a family of Aussies who work on bus manufacturing and plan to spend many years here in China.
In between plate four and plate five, I urinated in the fanciest bathroom I have ever used.
I paid 11RMB for the taxi ride home.
Daily Expenditure 19RMB.
Total Expenditure (Twenty-five days) 2,238.4 RMB