Lost in Translation
Trip Start
Jan 22, 2007
1
36
75
Trip End
Ongoing
Nanchang,
China
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
From Nanchang we visited some small villages which involved taking several buses which then drop you off in the middle of nowhere. Visiting was calm and involved only walking through some fields of rice to get from village to village however getting back was another story. We ended up in the same cafe three times and finally they called a bus for us
View from Hostel Wuyaun
. Waiting for the bus we were surrounded by all the villagers who were fascinated by Simon's body hair - we assume so since they wanted us to go upstairs and "sleep". It would appear that a gesture of putting your fists together and rubbing your two thumbs together means to make friends (quite how friendly we're not sure!). Here we also discovered that peanuts grow underground somewhat like carrots.Arrival at Wuyuan was punctuated by an argument between some passangers and the driver due to the driver stopping inside the bus terminal and not outside. We had to push our way off the bus whilst some people we restraining the interested parties, the driver who had hold of a hammer. In town we were accompanied by a student lodging in our hotel who took us to the newer area of town for a drink. Most Chinese towns however small appear to have an old an new part although it's not always obvious which is which. There is so much construction going on towns appear covered in dust and dirt from all directions, it can't be long before the population suffocate from all the noise and pollution.
Just outside town we once again visited some old villages Likeng (big and small) and Qinghua. The larger Likeng is much more pleasant to see than it's smaller sibling since tourism has hardly touched it yet. In small Likeng they are selling a sickening mass of stupid trinkets, the shock of seeing so much cheap junk is not completly mitigated by the architecture of the place. We suppose that it's a sign of mass tourism, but this mass is all chinese as nobody spoke more than a few words of English, at least we avoided being hassled. In Qinghua we only visited Caihong bridge since we were running rapidly out of cash, each village was charging an entry fee which appears to be the way tourist sites get developped here, including those which are natural and should be free to all (like waterfalls, mountains etc).
