About Nanchang

A little about the province in which Jada was born.  The Jiangxi Province (or "Gan" for short, signifying the major river in the province) is famous for its mountains; the province is 60% mountains.  Jiangxi means "west of the river," and the province has a considerable amount of agriculture, especially rice.  Their major industries are porcelain and manufacturing.  Nanchang is the capital of Jiangxi Province.  It is in the northern part of the province, while the Ningdu Orphanage where Jada was is a good five hours by car to the south.  Nanchang is, relative to other provincial capitals in China, small, although it numbers 4 million people.  It is much less cosmopolitan than other major Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai, as evidenced by the fact that when Amy and I go far from the Western-style hotel we are staying at, we get lots of stares, and have had more than one person point and say audibly, "That's a foreigner!"  This weekend, we will go to Guangzhou where the US consulate is, to finalize our adoption and clear Jada to travel to America.  Because it is so close to Hong Kong, Guangzhou is also much more cosmopolitan that Nanchang.  I'll write more about that city once we get there.