Morning in jingdezhen and Chris and I have not bought anything yet, we asked in the hotel and they said nearby are many many show, they were not joking!
We went out and walked along and before walking too far had found some cheaper places, all of us ended up buying at least something, and considering how heavy I was very happy that we came by car!
We walked along and saw small china rabbits, china chairman mao statues and more pots and pottery than I thought existed! Market after shop after market after shop often selling the same thing, or the same pattern on a different style of pot, or some other minute difference, often the price will vary hugely too!
We all bought lots but Chris decided he must buy two painted plates for the teachers at school, the woman started at 200rmb (20gbp) each but by the smile on her face we knew she was in foreigner selling mode, we bargained down from that to 120, and eventually as we started to walk away for 80 each, but the seller was still suspiciously happy, ah well at least Chris was too!
After spending the morning shopping I decided that although I didn't find a beautiful ming vase that i wanted i had decided i never wanted to see any pottery ever again! We went together to a nearby restaurant and grabbed a spicy lunch and decided to drive to quzhou, a city about 2 hours back towards home.
We jumped in the car and after a brief travel sickness break we made good time on the nearly empty dual carriageway, including an amazing 30km long bridge. When the Chinese had to build roads through this mountainous area they used the rivers as roads by building huge elevated motorways along the side of the river with the pylons in the river itself, an amazon sight!
After a few hours of driving we were suddenly pointed off the motorway at a random exit for a mountain as the highway, as we could see, abruptly ended in pylons after that!
As we came off we saw a sign for a semi famous mountain in china, sanqingshan, and so after a brief think we decided to take a look!
I drove an hour or so into the mountain national park on some very twisty roads with amazing views of the cloud shrouded mountains, and eventually were dropped into a village made entirely of tourist hotels! Yay!
We arrived and parked up to think and a guy came over offering us deals on hotels, elaine in the passenger seat spoke for a while before muttering in English for me to drive off, i drove to the other side of the carpark but the guy walked over again to talk! So after asking in a hotel and getting told 40gbp a room (way overpriced) we decided to drive on and see, after a short while i saw the same guy behind us on a motorbike, i pulled over and drove the other way and the guy turned around again following us, i tried again and again he turned around and followed me driving in the car.
I sped off up the road and he sped up to keep his place behind us and as i slowed so did he, elaine explained he would follow us and demand a commission from whatever hotel we chose as if he was the agent that found it!
This really annoyed me so i pulled into the entrance of a swanky hotel and waited, sure enough soon he crept round the corner looking for us so i shouted in Chinese asking if he was looking for me, he mumbled than he only wanted to help, so i told him firmly we didn't need it and he still didn't leave asked him if he was staying for any other reason, after some more 'talking' he eventually slunk off to find easier to bully people to annoy!
We found a nice hotel, clean and despite showing rates of 60gbp a night for the cheapest room they offered it to us for 20gbp, not bad!
After we checked in and took some pictures of the pretty surrounding hills we walked into town to get dinner before coming back to the hotel with some beers and spending the night teaching the girls how to play hearts! They got it reasonably quickly and we had a good fun night playing together before a pretty late bed!
We went out and walked along and before walking too far had found some cheaper places, all of us ended up buying at least something, and considering how heavy I was very happy that we came by car!
We walked along and saw small china rabbits, china chairman mao statues and more pots and pottery than I thought existed! Market after shop after market after shop often selling the same thing, or the same pattern on a different style of pot, or some other minute difference, often the price will vary hugely too!
We all bought lots but Chris decided he must buy two painted plates for the teachers at school, the woman started at 200rmb (20gbp) each but by the smile on her face we knew she was in foreigner selling mode, we bargained down from that to 120, and eventually as we started to walk away for 80 each, but the seller was still suspiciously happy, ah well at least Chris was too!
After spending the morning shopping I decided that although I didn't find a beautiful ming vase that i wanted i had decided i never wanted to see any pottery ever again! We went together to a nearby restaurant and grabbed a spicy lunch and decided to drive to quzhou, a city about 2 hours back towards home.
We jumped in the car and after a brief travel sickness break we made good time on the nearly empty dual carriageway, including an amazing 30km long bridge. When the Chinese had to build roads through this mountainous area they used the rivers as roads by building huge elevated motorways along the side of the river with the pylons in the river itself, an amazon sight!
After a few hours of driving we were suddenly pointed off the motorway at a random exit for a mountain as the highway, as we could see, abruptly ended in pylons after that!
As we came off we saw a sign for a semi famous mountain in china, sanqingshan, and so after a brief think we decided to take a look!
I drove an hour or so into the mountain national park on some very twisty roads with amazing views of the cloud shrouded mountains, and eventually were dropped into a village made entirely of tourist hotels! Yay!
We arrived and parked up to think and a guy came over offering us deals on hotels, elaine in the passenger seat spoke for a while before muttering in English for me to drive off, i drove to the other side of the carpark but the guy walked over again to talk! So after asking in a hotel and getting told 40gbp a room (way overpriced) we decided to drive on and see, after a short while i saw the same guy behind us on a motorbike, i pulled over and drove the other way and the guy turned around again following us, i tried again and again he turned around and followed me driving in the car.
I sped off up the road and he sped up to keep his place behind us and as i slowed so did he, elaine explained he would follow us and demand a commission from whatever hotel we chose as if he was the agent that found it!
This really annoyed me so i pulled into the entrance of a swanky hotel and waited, sure enough soon he crept round the corner looking for us so i shouted in Chinese asking if he was looking for me, he mumbled than he only wanted to help, so i told him firmly we didn't need it and he still didn't leave asked him if he was staying for any other reason, after some more 'talking' he eventually slunk off to find easier to bully people to annoy!
We found a nice hotel, clean and despite showing rates of 60gbp a night for the cheapest room they offered it to us for 20gbp, not bad!
After we checked in and took some pictures of the pretty surrounding hills we walked into town to get dinner before coming back to the hotel with some beers and spending the night teaching the girls how to play hearts! They got it reasonably quickly and we had a good fun night playing together before a pretty late bed!
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