Arrived at Nanchang train station at 8.30am after 20 hours on the train.

Chinese people have a hospitable culture. If there are someone coming from another place, they will usually give a warm welcome. A friend of CongTou, HaiTao whom I have never met took half day off from work and brought me to a breakfast place.
People from Nanchang like to eat noodles with soup for breakfast (6Yuan~USD$.9).

There is a big wholesale market for all kinds of goods at the west part of town. Hai Tao works as a credit card salesperson and I tagged along with him to his clients office.

On August 1, 1927, Nanchang was the site of one of a series of insurrections organized by the Chinese Communist Party. The Nanchang Uprising, led by pro-communist Kuomintang officers under Russian direction, succeeded in holding the city for a few days. The military force in Nanchang rebelled against the Kuomintang and this is the start of the civil war between the communist vs Kuomintang.

Memorial of Jiangxi revolutionary army

Most of the explanation is in Chinese and is even hard for me to understand.

About the long march

HaiTao then invited me to his place for lunch. Local home cooked food.

BaYi (August 1st) square.

BaYi is synonymous with the PLA (People Liberation Army of China) because August 1st is celebrated as the founding of the PLA army.

Nanchang is known for: The Tengwang Pavilion, a towering pavilion dating to 653AD and is considered one of “the Four Great Towers of China”

Side view

There is a museum inside the pavilion.
Hats of the official in the court.

View from the tower

In most Chinese cities, there are new and old districts. Across the gan river is the new part of the city with newer high rise buildings.

A Chinese cultural dance performance at the top floor of the pavilion

Took tour bus 1 which go towards the east part of the city. I just like to get on public bus going around the city. Went to the train station to get tonight tickets toward Fuzhou. Luckily I was still able to get ticket but only hard seat.

In Nanchang, it was said to have the highest water fountain and ferris wheel (Star of Nanhchang) in the world. Those 2 were located at the new part of the city. Tour bus no. 2 will go around the new city, however I took the wrong bus, bus no. 2 and wasn’t able to check out those places.

Visited China construction bank which HaoTao works at. Compensation in the bank is merit based. Every employee in sales is ranked weekly and everyone’s compensation is transparent on a board for coworkers to see. This line of work seems pretty competitive and unlike what socialism preachs.

My hospitable Nanchang friends.

Went to the train station and got on the 9.47pm train (87Yuan~USD$13, hard seat) towards Fuzhou.

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There are many guys carrying bamboo stick in ChongQing.

Because ChongQing landscape is hilly, those guys are sort of like porter, helping people to carry their goods.

Got on bus 141 towards the north ChongQing train station.

Greening of the train station

Got on the K806 9.47am train (196Yuan (hard seat)+90Yuan (hard sleeper)=286 Yuan~USD$42) towards Nanchang. It’s a 21 hours train ride to Nanchang and a hard sleeper cost 345 Yuan.
I bought a hard seat ticket and then upgraded it to hard sleeper in the evening and that saved me around 60Yuan.

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Typical scene on a train in China

Lunch on the train (10Yuan~USD$1.50)

It’s quite hilly on the way towards Nanchang. The train spent most time inside tunnels and I guess this must be some engineering feats to build so many tunnels across the mountains.