Nanjiecun #1: One of the Last Maoist Communes

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Despite the large amounts of beer consumed the evening before, I woke up hangover free. We headed to a nearby noodle shop for breakfast. The food must have been passable, but I can't remember what I had so definitely not amazing. I was feeling a bit dehydrated, so the quest to get some water started when we left the shop. We found a small convenience store on one of the backstreets and stocked up for our journey. Back at the hotel, we packed up, checked out, and ordered a Didi to take us to Nanjiecun. The journey took about 40 minutes and after we left the city, we were just on a straight road through the countryside.

We arrived in Nanjiecun, and our first stop wad the hotel in town. We had been unable to make a reservation online as the system required the input of a mainland ID number. However, when we turned up at the hotel, we found out that they do still accept foreigners. Check in was fairly quick, and we headed up to our rooms. The hotel was a little different from normal hotels as there was another reception style desk on each floor, manned by a woman. I kind of imagined it to be like the old Intourist hotel I visited in Estonia. The guide there explained that each floor had a desk manned by old woman to record the comings and goings of each person staying on the floor. I'm sure that wasn't the purpose here, but it did feel a bit like we were being watched. The room was very nice. I really liked the view from the window, as I could see some of the town's propaganda boards. It reminded me of a bit of North Korea.

Once settled in, it was time to head back out. We had some time before the guide picked us up, so we headed to East is Red Square, which is the centre of town and right next to our hotel. The square was pretty surreal, not the big statue of Mao in the centre, but the large portraits of Stalin, Lenin, Engels, and Marx, that surround him. There was also music playing that I presume was propaganda. It was pretty quiet, too, although that was probably due to heat as it was a scorcher of a day. It was reminiscent of North Korea, the only thing missing was the men in black suits watching your every move. We took a short walk to the main street that leads onto the square. There were some large propaganda billboards on the top of some of the buildings. These boards displayed different historical figures, who helped the new China, the PRC. Some of these figures may not actually be real, but they are good for propaganda purposes. We headed down one of the side streets and came to a small museum about the town. Since there wasn't a lot of information in English, I had to just look at the pictures to get some information.

One of the guides from the tourist association picked us up in a large electronic golf cart type thing and drove us to the tourist centre. Before heading over there, we went straight to the collective canteen for lunch. I wasn't that hungry as I was still feeling full from breakfast, however I cannot refuse Chinese canteen food as it takes me back to my (Chinese) uni days. Since it was quite late, the canteen was pretty quiet. We loaded a card up with some money and had a look around the few stalls that were open. There was one stall that was filled with different options. I got a huge mound of rice and three dishes. One dish was pork and peppers, which is a firm favourite of mine. Another was stir fried bok choy, which is simple and tasty. The third was an eggplant dish, I love all the different eggplant dishes available in China, this one was battered and fried and served in a gravy, very delicious. The town also makes its own beer, so we partook in some cans of the local Nanjiecun lager. It was pretty decent, I just wish it had been served chilled but China seems to like warm lager.

Feeling stuffed after lunch, we walked across to the visitors' centre and paid our entrance fees. We got to chill in the air con for a bit as we were meant to waiting for some other people to do the tour with, but they never showed up, so we had our own vehicle to drive about the town in. When I had seen Nanjiecun on the internet I really wanted to visit as it is one of last Maoist collectivist communities in China. We drove around the town, passing East is Red Square as the guide told us some of the history of the place. All communes decollectivised in, I think, the 1980s, but this place (and a few others scattered around China) decided that they didn't like the model and reverted back to being a collectivist society.

Our first stop was the noodle factory. Nanjiecun is famous throughout China for the instant noodles it makes. When I told one of my friends that I was visiting here, his reply was yum, noodles. I was really surprised at how quiet the streets were as we drove around Nanjiecun, there weren't many people or vehicles out and about, but it was a very, very hot day, so most sane people would be sheltering away from the heat. The noodle factory visit was pretty simple, you walk in and head up the stairs and look through the big glass windows to see the factory at work. I didn't really understand what the process what or what the different machines were for, but it was still interesting to see people working there. At the end of the factory, there was a shop so we bought some instant noodles to try later at home. They were pretty good. The factory also made and sold Pocky, the long thing biscuits covered with different flavoured chocolate. The factory supplies Tesco with their Pocky, so I bought some of those to munch on too.

Our next stop was the hospital and old people's home, which are located together. It might seem like a bit of a random place to visit, but these are kind of the everyday ordinary Chinese things that I never see, so it was exciting for me. The old people's home wasn't too big, just one floor, unless there were more upstairs that we didn't see. Each person had a small room filled with their belongings. I quite liked it as I'm a person that doesn't need much space, but I can see why some people would hate living there. It would be too stark and a bit too bleak. I suppose it would also depend if you got on with the other people that lived there. There was a communal TV room/hall, which also seemed to double as a parking space for e-bikes. The part of the old people's home that I really liked was the garden. I loved the traditional green wall around it and the little pagoda in it, which residents used to hang their washing from. I could imagine happily chilling in the garden on a not too hot day. The hospital was rather empty when we headed over there. We took a look around the ground floor, which seemed to be some kind of outpatients clinic waiting room as there were lots of IV stands in between the seats. I think it must have been outside of opening hours as there was no one there. We headed upstairs to take a look around, but weren't allowed in anywhere, which is fair enough. Healthcare is covered by the collective, which, although the place looks a bleak, is good for the residents as a lot of Chinese people worry about getting old and paying medical bills and treatment.

We drove around some more and headed to the final place that we would visit on out tour, the botanical gardens. The gardens were quite pretty and it was nice to walk around them apart from the searing heat. There were a lot of replicas of places that are important in Communist history, and it was like the place we'd visited in Shaoshan, except a bit smaller in scale and not as impressive. There were lots of interesting plants in the greenhouses, but it was just too hot to stay in them for any length of time. It was nice to get to get to the shop at the end of the tour and buy a cold drink. From the garden, we headed back to the hotel to rest up and relax in the air conditioning for a while.

We headed out for dinner, but since we weren't feeling too hungry, we decided to take a walk around first. We took a walk around East is Red Square and saw another foreigner, the first one we'd seen since leaving Beijing. There were also a lot of school kids, ranging from elementary aged to middle or high school aged exercising near the square. We headed to the canteen, the room next to the one we'd had lunch in earlier, as the tour guides were rehearsing for a show that they would be putting on later in the month. I think we gave them a bit of a shock when we walked in, but we sat at a table at the back and enjoyed watching them. We were also befriended by a couple of kids, who were a bit bored. Their mother was in the show and I wondered how many rehearsals, they'd had to sit through. We also found out that they weren't locals, and had moved to Nanjiecun from another province. After a while, we decided to head out and we went for a walk in the large park nearby. It was a chill place with families all hanging out. We posed for photos with some of them. At the edge of the park was the end of the collective town, and the neighbouring non collectivist city. It was a pretty big contrast; cars and noise everywhere. We headed back into to Nanjiecun to an all you can eat restaurant for dinner. This place was really cheap, all you could eat and drink for about 70 or 80 RMB. There was lot to choose from. I got some pre-made food (more Hong Shao Rou and other traditional Chinese food) to eat while we grilled meat on the barbecue. This place also sold Nanjiecun pineapple beer, so we got to sample a few cans. It was pretty sweet and not too alcoholic, so we decided to sample every different kind of baijiu that the restaurant had. Some were definitely nastier than others. One I was unable to drink as the fumes hit my eyes first and they started watering so badly that I had to put the glass down. Once, you've had your fill of barbecue, you can switch out the grill for a hotpot pot to cook more food in, we skipped it though as we were full from the barbecue and had ran out of time. We were the last to leave the restaurant and the staff were ready to go home. They were super nice about it though, and we posed for some photos with them before we left. When we made it back to the square, it was all lit up and looked really good. A great end to the day.

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