Day 7 in Nanchanghttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6080423343833249821

This trash pile is outside the house that we visited. There is no trash pick up and nowhere to put their garbage, so they throw it outside or in the creek.

Their water supply is the creek that they throw the garbage in.


When they kill a duck or chicken, they hang it out for 40 days to dry out. Then it is ready to cook or whatever they do with them.




The above is the living room of a house in the countryside. There were two chairs, a toy car, a set of tires and a motorcycle in it. Very little else. Bare concrete floors and no heat.


This was the bedroom of the same house. The person who lived in the house was very proud of his house and his life. He smiled and asked us to come in and look around.


This is the rest of the bedroom area. There was one bed for the three people in his family. People in China can only have one child unless they pay a large tax.


This is the kitchen of the house, it only has a propane stove top with one or two burners. They have no electricity and no refrigerators.




Day 7 in Nanchang

Their water comes from the creek that runs thru the community and is carried to some of the houses while a few (this one) had running water to one spigot on the outside of the house. The toothbrushes and a bar of soap set in the window outside by the spigot.


This is our last day in Nanchang and we are very glad! It means one more stop (for a week) and then we are headed home!

We leave tomorrow for Guangzhou for the final paperwork and visa stuff for Coee, then we catch a plane out next Friday for Hong Kong and then Chicago, and then to Nashville, TN. What a day that will be for an 11 month old baby and two 8 yr old boys!

Today we went to the porcelain market in Nanchang and to the countryside, just outside of Nanchang. It is shocking to see how people live outside the US.

We bought a few things at the porcelain market. I am sure the stores love it when a tour bus pulls up, we are kind of a captive set of customers with fewer options than their normal customers. Jiangxi Province, where Nanchang is located, is the porcelain capital of China.

Just a few things about the areas we have been to and what we have done that we haven't reported on so far:
1. The pollution in China is incredible. Beijing was bad, Nanchang has been worse. It looks very hazy most days and the air stinks and makes your throat burn.

2. The food is pretty good, but not really kid friendly. Trey and Dillon have done pretty well with it, but the food is just quite a bit different from the States. Breakfast at our hotel is very good. They have bacon and eggs every day and both are excellent. The fruit bar is also very good with honeydew, watermelon, grapefruit (peeled), and fuji apples.

The scary parts of breakfast are the braised goose intestines (today), dim sum, corn in milk, beans for breakfast, various types of braised parts and many other interesting dishes that would be right at home in a Survivor episode.

3. Traffic- like nothing you can even imagine! There are very few traffic lights even though there are tons of cars/scooters/bikes and pedestrians all sharing the road. When cars approach an intersection, they just go in accordance to who gets there first and they honk their horns to let you know their intent. Traffic lights would just get in the way of the flow! Their are no parking lots or room for them, so you just park on the sidewalk and sometimes you drive there too! Imagine the mall parking lot and streets on the friday after Thanksgiving with no stop signs and people just making their own way.

4. Living conditions- again, like nothing you can imagine. We are posting pictures of some of this today and in the next few days. Most of the buildings are made of concrete and are very sparsely furnished. People hang their clothes out to dry in the polluted air and hang out their meats for food also. A duck hangs outside for 40 days before it is dried out enough for dinner!

The stores are on the first floor of the buildings and there are appartments above all of them in high rise buildings. The stores are all lined up and there seems to be 4 similar stores in a block, with no rhyme or reason to any of it. All of the buildings are also in some sort of disrepair.

When construction of a building is going on, the workers live in the building being built.

Michelle will post again about our personal stuff, I just thought that people might be interested in this stuff.

For Mrs. Sanders class:
1. Bailey: The Great Wall of China is approximately 6400 km (4000 miles long).
2. For the Daily question: There have been 11 Dynasties in China's history
3. For Natalie: Most of the food is good, especially the noodles, bacon and eggs. We are not a fan of the squid on a stick!
4. For Isaac: We only know- Shia Shia (sounds like sha-sha) is "thank you". Everything else we do is by sign language or pointing. We have a guide/interpreter with us most of the time.
5. For Emily: Coee is 11 months old. She was born on New Years Eve last year.