We are in Nanchang

We are safe and sound in Nanchang. We have been hanging out at the hotel since arriving around 1pm - a "rest day" for us. Here are some pictures from the hotel window.

Notice that Doug is still near an athletic field! Our guide, Mary, will be taking us tomorrow to meet Nyah around 11am so for those of you in the US, when you wake up Monday morning, whether it is 2am or 9am (it is a holiday kids... let the adults sleep in!), we should have pictures.

Our hotel is nice... the room is bigger than the room in Hong Kong and bigger than the hotel I stayed in during my last trip here. At the same time, it is much more formal so that offers new challenges when you will have TWO children with you for 5 days. It is in the middle of the city and on the major road (named "August 1" after the Nanchang uprising that led to Cival War and is now considered the anniversary of the People's Liberation Army) so going out for a stroll is not really an option and no play room. There is a pool though and Caleb did try it out today but he had to take a warm shower after because the water was so cold; now I know what will make him bathe!

Caleb had a hard time staying awake at dinner and is asleep. Then again, so is Doug. We told Caleb he was letting his public down not doing a blog entry! And since Doug didn't mention food today, I will... we ate at the hotel's Western Style buffet though not much of the food was food you would see at Golden Corral (which made me happy but Doug, notsomuch). Caleb ate ice-cream for dinner (and a token piece of watermelon) and giggled a lot when he saw that Grandpa's shrimp had eyes. And Doug made huge progress... he ate his potatoes with chopsticks though I had to tell him that stabbing your food is not proper etiquette.

Nanchang's population is around 4 million and is considered a medium size city for China since you have to have 6 million to earn the large label. Our guide, who graduated from the local university in 1985, gave us a historic overview of the province. There were many details but the big ones are that the Jiangxi Province is mostly agricultural (rice especially) and is one of the poorest provinces. So Doug gives you all the sentimental stuff and I give you a history lesson! But as some say, opposites attract!

Make sure you visit Jodi's blog... her family is in our travel group (she is in a different province now but we will meet up in Guangzhou) and she met her daughter today, a day earlier than expected! I have been stalking her blog waiting for pictures.

Of course, more, much much more, tomorrow...

Kate