Nanchang Things to Do

1. Adopt a Kid through the Chinese child for sale program.
2. See all the wonderful sites like the Hall of the Martyrs and Bayi Square where Mao got his ass kicked and fled on the long March. The CPC members gives their patriotic bull version,but basically Mao and the boys were on the run in 1927 with the KMT army chasing them.
3.Bars and Babes. Just outside my house there are 22 bars,massage? places and discos.

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On the banks of the oozing cesspit that is the Ganjiang river, sits the Tengwang Pavilion, one of the most modern buildings in Nanchang. It was constructed in 1989 to llok like the version that sat here during the Song Dynasty.

Inside the pavilion, at the lower level, is a hall showing the models of the Tengwang Pavilion trhough its many different periods. The poor old pavilion was destroyed during almost every dynasty and quickly rebuilt.

The mosr recent version, although extremely attractive, has been built exceptionally poorly, and just 20 years later the materials are broken, falling off and just decrepit. Sad really. But par for the course in Nanchang, I'm afraid.

Perhaps the most classic situation is the construction of a corridor that leads to a small outlying pavilion.....the corridor ends against a blank wall and the steps up to the pavilion are on the other side of the railing. Duhhhhhh. (See photo)

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The Ganjiang river flows through Jiangxi slowly winding its way to the Yangtze to the north.
Much of Nanchang city lies on the far, western bank, but this was barely visible through the smog when I was there.

The river can be seen from the Tengwang Pavilion - it's the huge grey flat thing with boats on under the huge grey flat sky above. As the two blend into each other, it gives you a curious sense of a warped reality.

To the south of the pavilion, there is a road and linear park running alongside the river, but with its damaged pavements, broken concrete, litter strewn grass and stunted trees it's more like a scene out of some post-holocaust B-movie. (The additional joy being that because of the constant smog the whole scene is in black and white).

Check out the huge lock just south of the Tengwang Pavilion. Men fish here and they say they take their catch home and eat it. Mmmmmmmm. The water looked truly disgusting.

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I have no idea if the Jiangxi Provincial Museum is worth visiting. When I turned up mid-afternoon, it had closed for the day.
It opens from 9.30am to 2.30pm only. I am not sure what the poor, overworked museum staff do for the rest of the day. It's a hard life.

There is a lot of information about the museum at the China Culture website, so see if you think it is worth your while. The truly woeful local home-page of the museum really isn't worth the bother. Three out of the four English language pages don't work - why does this not surprise me?

The outside of the building is in a gargantuan grey building - the curse of China - with its windows already broken and the weeds growing everywhere. Why is it that Chinese museums have this built in squalor?

When I was in Nanchang there was a very beautiful exhibition of Bonsai-trees. I like those small trees, which together with some stones build an landscape in a small pot.

It impressed me much to see, how much work people have to create this art. It takes many years to make the little trees look like the big ones.

The buildings looks like a very big Pagoda. There are also thick walls like a fortress. It is overviewing the river. Around it is a nice Chinese Garden.
Sometimes you can see special art-exhibitions in and outside of the building.

There is this famous pavillion in Nachang, which is one of the few "Must See"s. Along the Yangtse river existed a couple of pavillions, where wise men and poets gathered to discuss and do research and write their poetry. To inspire their work the pavillion was full of great art like paintings and beautiful vases.