I planned to make a few stops along the way to China's Northeastern park so my second stop of this trip was Nanchang (南昌), the capital city of Jiangxi Province (江西省), located on the east of Hunan Province, took me 5 hours on a slow train coming from Zhuzhou. The city witnessed the famous historical events Nanchang Uprising on August 1st, 1927, which marked a new stage for Chinese Red Army, and August 1st has been the Red Army Founder's day. Picture above is the monument for Red Army's flag at a square downtown, on the flag, it says August 1st.
The site of the old Red Army's office building.
The most interesting site I've always wanted to check out in Nanchang was the Prince Teng's Pavilion (滕王阁). It was built in the year of 653, had been restored a couple of times in history, one of the 3 most famous pavilions in China, and it's the icon for the city. Prince Teng wrote an epic preface for a poem book there.
Situated by Gan River (赣江), the side that faces the river has a porch, tourists can walk around to see the river view. The pavilion is big enough to be able seen from every angle in the city in a clear day, but I still had not been very lucky with the weather, it seemed to be raining everywhere I went. There's one huge main pavilion in between the other 2 smaller ones. Most tourists are here for the architecture, the history and the poem.
The pavilions looking over the river, witnessing the ups and downs of the city.
Very typical Chinese roof style.
More pictures of the pavilion.
Inside the pavilion.
It was raining heavier and all the street lights came on after touring the park. I figured I'd tour around the city to check out the city's night view before I went back to the hostel. And it turned out to be a really good decision. I wouldn't say it was great compared to other big cities like HongHong or Shanghai, but with all the LED lights on the buildings, it was something to see for someone from a small town like me.
The August 1st Bridge downtown.
If there was one thing to see in Nanchang, I would recommend the Jar Soup (瓦罐汤), the very specialty from Jiangxi Province. It's even sold in Yangshuo, too! They put all different kinds of ingredients into small jars and then place the jars into a huge continuously heated pottery, every time their customers want to eat a jar of soup, the owner of the restaurant take one from the pottery. Yummy!
Thanks for reading, my next destination was a popular domestic tourist destination, Wuyuan (婺源). To be continued...