Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Jiangxi


Min is currently living in the province of Jiangxi, highlighted in pink on the map.

Although little known outside of the province, Jiangxi cuisine is rich and distinctive. Flavors are some of the strongest in China, with heavy use of chile peppers, pickled and fermented products! Looking forward to some fabulously spicy food!

Jiangxi is the main area of concentration of the Gan varieties of Chinese, spoken over most of the northern two-thirds of the province. Examples include the Nanchang dialect, Yichun dialect and Ji'an dialect. The southern one-third of the province speaks Hakka. There are also Mandarin, Hui, and Wu dialects spoken along the northern border. With all this in mind I'm feeling less guilty about not knowing more Mandarin!

Jiangxi is well known for their incredible porcelain. Apparently the thing to get will be a tea set (child's) for Min. It'll be fun to take her around and let her choose one to bring home!

A little Jiangxi claim to fame: in 2007, Jiangxi (specifically the Zhelin Reservoir, about 40 km from Nanchang) was the filming location for the fifteenth series of the show Survivor. Too bad we don't/didn't watch the show. Maybe we should rent that series?

1 comment:

stlmichelle said...

Hey buddy! I'm on pins and needles about this trip of yours. Thanks for all the info--typical Y. teaching as you share. Love you sooooo much. and your whole fam. Miss you ever so . T and E want to know if they will get silk dresses too...