Jingdezhen

So, I have finally arrived in Jingdezhen, after riding trains nearly nonstop for 3 days. It felt really good to finally make it into a hotel - I was extremely stinky and felt exceptionally gross. Most of the time, the train trips were rather boring, however, I did have a great conversation with a Chinese intellectual guy on the way to Ji'an from Longyan all about my perspectives on Chinese government, China's involvement in the world, etc. He tried to pull the "China is different from Western countries, because China has never occupied (qinlyue) another country" one on me. It always bugs me that so many Chinese are blind to their own history, that they don't realize that for thousands of years, China was an EMPIRE - meaning they conquered lots of people. The Han Chinese homeland is a small area along the yellow river in Shaanxi Province - everywhere else was populated by other nationalities. Also, China has at various times controlled Mongolia, Korea and Vietnam - so I asked him whether the people in those countries would agree that China has never occupied another country. I also asked him whether a Tibetan or a Uighur would agree with that statement. His rebuttal was that unlike the Europeans, when Zheng He sailed to Africa, he just did some trade and returned, but didn't colonize them. So I asked him if you have to sail a boat to occupy a foreign country, and he eventually conceded that, yes, China had occupied foreign countries. Anyways, it was a great conversation - we also talked about Iraq (I am really glad Canada didn't get involved there), the debate between human rights and the sovereignty of a country, and all sorts of stuff. It was heaps of fun, and I don't think I've enjoyed talking to a Chinese person as much for a long time - so many conversations are exactly the same (ie. What country are you from? Canada. That's where Baiqiuen is from, right? yes. Man, your Chinese is incredible! How many years have you been in China? I've only been here for over a month - I learned Chinese overseas....blah blah blah - you get the point), so it was really nice to have an actual conversation. About half of the people in the train crowded around us to get in on the foreigner vs. Chinese guy debate action - heaps of fun.

Anyways, after transfering trains in Ji'an, and running into a drunk Chinese Canadian who lives in Vancouver (he pulled out his driver's license, social security, and health care cards to prove to me that he really does live in Canada), I finally pulled into Jingdezhen at 5am. I really don't like getting into town this early, but the way the trains work, sometimes it is the only way. Nothing was open, and so I ended up just sitting by the riverside watching the Chinese do their early morning exercises. I love watching the Chinese people do these early morning exercises - it always cracks me up. For whatever reason, the Chinese seem to have no shame, or sense of how ridiculous they look when they do these - I wish I could video it, but it would be a little strange.

Anyways, I got into my hotel at around 7am, the Jinsheng Hotel on Zhushan Road. This is a well-run hotel that seems to be very busy - business is good. However, it is also reasonibly affordable at 100 yuan a night. Nice place. So, I went out in search of the porcelein for which Jingdezhen is so famous.

I really don't have a concept of "good" porcelein - so I wasn't even going to try to test whether something was "legit" or whatever - the vast majority of the porcelein here is probably cheap factory knockoffs, but I don't really know enough to distinguish, so I figured I'd just go for the cheap stuff and be satisfied. I first visited the small porcelein museum (10 yuan student ticket), which was nice because it gave me a sense for what would be available, and what I thought looked nice. Then I went to the large porcelein market, where there is China heaped everywhere - huge vases and tiny teacups and everything in between. I ended up getting a 56 piece dinner set, because Melanie and I don't really have a matching dinner set, so I think that will be nice - it cost me 230 yuan - I didn't really bargain hard like I probably ought to have (you kind of have to be in the bargaining mood), but I did visit several shops before finally settling on this one, but I have no idea whether I got ripped off or not. I think I mainly got it from this shop because the owner was extremely laid back, and did not try to force anything like other shop owners often do. He was like the epitome of Daoist Wuwei (non-action), and only moved when I asked him a question. Just the way I like it.

However, Jingdezhen has largely disappointed me, because I was expecting a vibrant arts scene - I guess I was hoping for more than just porcelein, which is a little tough to bring home, which is probably a wrong thing to expect if you are visiting the China capitol of China. I think I was also expecting something like Fenghuang, Hunan - that place was cool - old city, and lots of tiny little art shops with really beautiful art (and porcelein too) - I should have just gone back there after I was done biking and picked up stuff - it was a cool city.