5 August 1999

        This is the last leg of my trip. The previous month was spent in Hong Kong job hunting and waiting for the annual mainland floods to subside. This trip will probably be the most physically challenging since I’ll be going to Tibet and Xinjiang during the hot summer months. No matter how much weight I lost and how much training I have done still cannot assure me of physical readiness.

        Anyway, I boarded the 17:18 train for Nanchang and arrived by noon the next day. The only bit of sightseeing was done at Teng Wang Pavilion. According to my GPS, Nanchang is a mere 676 kilometers away from Guangzhou. No wonder it is just as hot. My next stop is Mount Lushan, where temperatures should be cooler.

        A 3-hour bus ride took me to Lushan, the relatively cool mountain resort. The driver dropped us off at a hotel, where undoubtedly he received a commission for each guest that checked in. This backpacker wasn’t going to comply that easily; so off I went in search of accommodation.

  Zhou Enlai's residence

        Had a cola for breakfast the next morning and headed for Meilu ( Soong Mei Ling’s residence ). Took a wrong turn and ended up in Violin Lake instead. Had to backtrack all the way to Zhou Enlai’s residence and then to Meilu. While I was at Meilu, I found the kerosene refrigerator; the piano Madam Soong used; and Mao’s favorite vinyl records and open reel tapes. Meilu had actually belonged to a foreigner, but was presented to Chiang Kai Shek who renamed it after his wife.

        Checked out of Lushan and headed for Jiujiang, 38 kilometers away. There is a fast ferry service in Jiujiang that runs to Wuhan under 4 hours and costs RMB 130; whereas the slow boat would take overnight. I decided, though, to go by bus which only costs RMB 65. From Wuhan I would then figure out how to join a 3 Gorges trip.

        The only sights I visited in Jiujiang were Yanshui Pavilion, Pipa Pavilion and Zhenjiang Tower. Back in the Tang dynasty famous poet Bai Juyi bid a friend farewell at one of the ports when he heard a pipa singer plying her trade. Bai composed an allegorical poem ostensibly about the singer’s capricious fate, who had fallen from grace as a lady in waiting to a street performer. In fact, he was also lamenting his career downfall in a hostile bureaucracy. Townsfolk built the Pipa Pavilion in honor of the poet; but what remains today is only a replica of the original.