The travels of Justin

“That’s China of the 1980′s,” says the man sharing my train compartment as the train slows to enter Nanchang City (南昌市). Easily spotting the red maple leaf I met Mr. Yan, a Nanchang student who spent 3-months in TRU as an enchange student and was kind enough to be my first contact at 6 AM in an unfamiliar city train station. We weaved through the crowd of hungry taxis and hopped into one at an easy exit point where we could set off for the school campus.

I was taken to the north campus of Nanchang University (南昌大学) and quickly learned that if I needed a taxi to bring me home, I’d better know the difference between the 3 possible campus locations: north campus (北区), south campus (南区), and the new campus (前湖校区). Like most schools at this time of year, the place is practically deserted compared to how it will look during the school year. While we stood outside a dormitory waiting for my administrative contact to arrive I preformed an impromtu dance number for the local workers in a dismal attempt to stop the aggressive mosquitoes who were feasting on my legs. It seemed like this was going to be my home for the summer, but then it became clear that the officials here in China who are handling my exchage neglected to register me with the university registrar.

Snce I am not a registered student, I cannot live in a dorm, so I’m staying in a hotel on campus. My new friends carefully selected the place from an advertisement on a bulletin board as we walked purposfully toward the dorms bent on finding a suitable temporary solution. Taking nothing for granted, I carefully inspected the 3-beds in my room, the air conditioner, and then walked down the hall to the public bathrooms and showers to be certain I was willing to live with this place. It wasn’t until my first evening that I took my first shower and discovered there is no hot or cold water; instead, there is a valve on the wall that, when opened, releases water from an open pipe eminating from the wall above my head. The water is cool, but not cold, and is welcome after a day in the Nanchang summer heat although winter visitors might have a different story to share.

Breakfast on the morning of my arrival was also memorable, because it was so horrible. My friends around the world have always said how amazingly open to different food. My mouth waters equally whether I’m dining at Thai, Indian, Chinese, Korean, or any other nation’s food that I’ve enjoyed in my lifetime. With this indifferent attitude, I approached the lone open window at the NanDa (the local term for Nanchang University, 南大) cafeteria at 7 AM and indifferently ordered a variety of Baozi (包子) — a steamed bun with filling. Somehow my friend enjoyed the delicious meat baozi, while my tastebuds were twice accosted by a spicy pickled vegetable (bean?) and a third filled with a square of white granulated sugar. In the spirit of friendship I concealed my discomfort to my hosts who certainly were not responsible for my bad choice. Rest assured, dear readers (and potential travellers), the spicy food here is actually very delicious and the style is noticably different from Tianjin. My dinner on my first day was also memorable because the restaurant, CBC (China Best Chicken), is almost a total carbon-copy of KFC, and has even registered a trademark for their brand name.

I’m safe and having quite the adventure already.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 27th, 2006 at 6:29 am and is filed under China 中国, Culture, Life and living, Nanchang (南昌市). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.