This morning I walked across the street to the small restaurant where I've been eating breakfast every day since I've been here. I've been going there every day because it's the only place nearby that sells breakfast. There used to be another place but I think they've moved out now that there are no longer any college students in the area to provide them with business. After I finished eating, I went around the corner of the building and onto a side street where one of the other teachers on my hall had told me you could buy vegetables. There were a few people selling vegetables and a guy who was chopping up some meat on a table. Soon after I passed the produce stands I walked by a small brick house with a vegetable garden out front.


I didn't expect to see that style of house, but the street that I came to a little further up the road was even more surprising.


People I've talked to say that Xinyu is a fast-growing city. Slogans on billboards, the city's website, and all the construction going on throughout the area all suggest that they're right. Thus it was strange to find a neighborhood that reminded me so much of the villages my friend Red and I had traveled to last spring when were studying Chinese in Beijing. There are many villages not far from the outskirts of major cities in China, but it was strange to find a sort of mini-village actually in the city and within five minutes walk of where Xinyu University used to be.

After walking around the neighborhood, I took a bus to a park near downtown Xinyu. I walked a loop through the park and as I was coming back to the main entrance I heard Chinese music. It was about three in the afternoon and a large group of retirees had gathered in a little clearing just off the path to play and listen to music. I found out later that they come here every day, set up their mobile amplifiers and play music.

A man playing an erhu approached me and, after he and some other people found out that I could speak Chinese, talked with me for a little while and then invited me to listen to the group of musicians who were playing just on the other side of a small hill. As we were talking, a woman from the group went down the hill to sing a song with the group. When I went over to listen she introduced me to a few of the musicians. There were two guys playing the erhu, one guy played the flute and sometimes sang, another guy provided some percussion with two wooden blocks albeit not always to the beat. And there was one more guy playing an instrument like a banjo but with three strings. I think he was only playing single notes, no strummed chords. There were also two women and two other men who would sometimes sing.


I sat and listened to maybe six or eight songs and then said goodbye.
Tomorrow, I meet Doreen, the head of the English and/or foreign studies department, and possibly the other teachers.