Friday in Nanchang

Friday was our day to do the things we hadn't got to. We had 3 places to go: The Ferris Wheel, Porcelian Street and the Flea Market.

We met at our usual time, 10:00, and headed to the Ferris Wheel first. The Ferris Wheel is in New Nanchang.

These are newer apartments in New Nanchang. We also passed quite a few that are still under construction. On the way there was some fun going on in the back of the bus.

Norah is looking quite stylish in her fashionable shades but Daddy is jealous.

So Shannon, Norah's dad, has to try them on. Jenna found this very amusing.


The Ferris Wheel is so large it was extremely difficult to get a picture of it. But maybe this building and the trees will give you some perspective as to how tall it really is.

Here is looking up from the bottom. It is the second largest ferris wheel in the entire world!

The only people in our group that decided to go were Jim, Shannon and their girls. I would have gone but I had no idea how Ryan would react. The wheel takes 30 minutes to make a complete rotation so I decided that was a long time to deal with an unhappy child. Jenna wanted to go but wanted me to go with her. Jim offered to let her go with his family but she said no, not without her Mommy. This surprised me because she loves Ashley and Brooke, but no Mommy, no ride. Nevertheless, there were many tears on her end and I felt really bad for her but she knew the priorities for this trip:

Priority #1: Ryan
Priority #2: Emma
Priority #3: Jenna
Priority #4: Julia

Ryan needed Mommy so no Ferris wheel ride.


Here are Jim, Shannon and their girls. The rest of us waited in the air conditioned bus. Shannon, Penny's husband, felt badly for Jenna so joked around with her so that her tears were soon dried up.

After the riders were done we were on our way.

This is August 1st Square. It is right next to Walmart. For some reason this seems odd to me. The symbol of the beginning of communism right next to the epitome of capitalism.

This is the tower in the square. There is a flag at the top made of concrete. It is the Army's flag. That must be why there is a rifle as its mast.

Mom was holding Emma and she fell asleep. I thought this picture was cute.

And here is porcelain street. We went to 3 stores there. Jiangxi province is known for its porcelain. It makes the best quality porcelain in the world. The one thing I wanted was a tea set. I had seen one I liked at the Teng Wang Pavilion the day before but didn't want to lug it around and didn't have enough money to buy it. I figured I could find it on Porcelain Street.

Wrong.

I did find one that I really liked but as Evelyn said, I have expensive taste. It originally cost 1200 yuan but they came down to 1000 yuan. It was gorgeous and I'm sure it was worth the money but I knew that everytime I used the tea set I would be scared to death that one of the tea cups would break.

So I settled.

And even though I settled, I didn't do so bad. This set is hand painted and is done by a well known artist. Notice his picture in the box.

I also decided to get a vase.


I really liked this one. It is also hand painted, although not by a famous artist. So that means that it cost less. ;>)

After our short trip to the porcelain stores we were on our way to the flea market. On the street of the flea market I saw these signs:


They were every where but I have no idea what they mean. I didn't think to ask Evelyn.

Here is the entrance to the flea market. When I heard flea market I thought of a flea market in the US, again I should have known better. There were actual stores and booths inside. Here I bought a Chinese baby songs CD and flash cards with Chinese characters, pin yin (how the Chines word is pronounced) and English. I also bought a large suitcase to fit all my new porcelain in.

After a stop at McDonald's to get lunch to go, we were back on the bus headed back to the hotel. There was packing to do. We are leaving first thing in the morning for Guangzhou.