Another trip to Tongren to see the 100th anniversary of a college of Education.

My friend Angela, who was the second person I met after arriving in China, now works at a college of education in Tongren.  I met her at Guiyang railway station when my 'chaperone' Wendy was buying some McDonald's!

Long story short, her college is celebrating it's 100th anniversary this weekend and she invited me over.

It all started with a taxi ride.  She is well connected in Jiangkiu because her husband use to work here, and she knows many different ways of getting to and fro… Tongren.  In this case she booked a private driver for me.  This is a taxi operated by an individual who gets calls from prospective passengers and when there are enough passengers the journey commences.  In this case I was the first passenger.  We then went to the bus station and picked up another passenger.  Then to the other side of town and picked up another passenger.  Then back to the bust station for passenger number four.  Then the fun started.  The police arrived.  Four up in a car.  My best guess is that parking here waiting for passengers is not allowed and every now and then the police enforce it.  The driver of my car was not there so the police went to the next car.  The driver left quickly.  My driver suddenly returned and drive off, hiding his car between a building and the police....In doing so he managed to attract the attention of a potential passenger, and when the police left the passenger jumped in and we were on our way!  After that, the journey was not particularly eventful, and as first passenger I even got the front seat!  We did pass a few.motorway litter pickers, not a job I would want!  Wearing dirty red jackets with a small green reflective strip back and front they wander the motorway picking up litter!  No big signs no warning messages just the dirty red coats with the green reflective strip back and front.  Easy to miss...And no doubt easy to hit! 

Just thought I'd include this.  It is very common to wear your coat back to front whilst driving your scooter/motor bike.  Not really seen this in the UK!

Could be an interesting day weatherwise. So far the weather has varied from thick damp mist to clear blue sky and sun!  Forecast 10 to 20 degrees!

I arrived at my hotel, well I call it a hotel, it was a block of flats with various hotels in different floors with apartments in between.  I went in at the ground floor, or first floor as the Chinese call it and jumped into the lift.  I asked someone what floor the hotel was on.  They looked puzzled.  That was because there were various hotels in the same building.  Anyway, they pressed the button for the 'first' hotel.  I got out and looked around it looked like the picture Angela had sent.  I was just about to go to reception when Angela texted, asking where I was as she was now downstairs!  Good question.  I was not sure what flour I was on or which hotel I was in!  I told her that I was probably in the hotel she had mentioned.  She came and met me.  She helped me book in as the receptionist was not sure whether foreigners were allowed to stay in the hotel.(Only certain hotels are allowed to accept foreigners). 

Anyhow, I was allowed , booked in, dumped my stuff in my room, my room was in the 24th floor with quite amazing views!, and went to brunch with Angela in a tiny restaurant downstairs at  street level.  Egg fried rice with Chicken.  After brunch Angela showed me.her new apartment, which was in teh same building.  I then left her, went shopping in the big supermarket and shortly afterwards, back to my hotel for the requisite afternoon nap!

Later I met Angela and went to the school canteen for lunch and on to the show.  The show, like most things in China, was quite spectacular,and due to my position I. The audience, was very difficult to film!

For me, by far the most spectacular part was the art work.  There was a singer.singing about Fanjingshan mountain, whilst in the background there was a screen showing film.of the area.  Between the two was a series of 10x4 canvasses.  Whilst the singer was singing, the painters were painting with big household brushes.  Reminiscent of Rolf Harris but without the child abuse (alleged).  The results were amazing!

the live painting on stage just after the canvasses had been joined together.

the live painting on stage just after the canvasses had been joined together!

I later found the canvasses abaondoned near the school canteen and took a brief movie of them bit am.struggling to upload it. So below is a link.  If it does not click, copy and paste it.

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AnTXs8bPCbfPrL9GGmbJW8TyqShQ7g?e=ffeoMF

Anyhow, Angela got a message and had to go, but she picked me up later.  I thought we were going straight back to the hotel, but it was not to be.  She had arranged with her friend Leo to meet downtown and share a BBQ.  So we jumped into a taxi and headed downtown, i.e. the city centre.

Angela and Leo at the bbq table.

We met Leo outside the restaurant and headed in.  It was busy, but we found a table and sat down.  Angela and Leo ordered and soon we were cooking.  For me, this 'cook it yourself' bbq meal is strill strnage, but I am getting the hang of it!  After eating he drove us both back to where we were staying.  Angela popped baack to my room briefly and we ate some fruit and exchanged a few gifts.  It was late and she left shortly afterwards after arranging to meet the follwing day.  To cut a long story short, we met teh following day, Angela arranged a taxi to taek me back to Jiangkou and I left.  The week end was not quire what I expected, as I had wished to spend a littel more time with Angela, catching up on 'things'.  However it was a nice weekend and one I would certainly choose again!