Day 55 - Finally arriving in Jiangxi and sleeping most of the day away

Due to our noisy night's accommodation, we ended up with no sleep, and boarded our train (by the way, this was our second 6 hour standing journey) rather exhausted. Knowing the ropes, after having already accomplished a standing train ride, we were on our guard to claim seats as soon as they became available. We spent the first hour or so perched on our packs, but Adam fought hard for two side-by-side seats, which we occupied for the entire journey to Nanchang.

The journey to Jiangxi province's capital city was non-eventful and we arrived at 10am, approximately 24 hours after we set out for Nanchang. On arrival, we were hit by the heatwave - if we though Changsha's heat was unbearable, Nanchang was a huge wakeup call to the fact that Mid-China is one big sauna!

Jiangxi province is famous for its pottery, at one point in history the Emperor declared that only pottery from this province could be used, and Jiangxi's contribution to China's communist history stems from the fact that the long march began here. In addition Jiangxi is home to 2,400 rivers and lakes, and 60% of its area is in forest - a reminder of what we left home in NZ.

We spent the first hour and a half searching the train station area for a hotel, finally settling on one more luxurious than we're used to, but still under what we were prepared to pay.

Aware that we hadn't eaten for a while, we headed out for breakfast/lunch/beer, and returned to the hotel (Adam with an extra beer under his arm) to catch up on some much needed sleep. While we planned to rest for a couple of hours and then head to an internet cafe and dinner, those plans were shattered when we awoke after 10pm to some mysterious phone calls. It wasn't until a scantily-clad women knocked on the door an hour later gesturing to a boxer-clad Adam that she might come in, that we realised the origins of the phone calls! Still exhausted, it didn't take much to return to la-la land.

Adlibing Jiangxi to la-la land.