Back in the Netherlands.
Jingdezhen, China. It was fantastic, fun, weird and actually far too short, 22 days.
And actually back a bit too early because it snowed in Jingdezhen today, I would have liked to see that.
Chinese friends post movies and photos of the snow on WeChat, so I can follow it a bit.
Everyone uses WeChat, similar to our WhatsApp and Facebook.
Everyone is on the phone in the Shanghai metro. Most payments are also done with WeChat, in taxis and shops.
Business cards you hardly get anymore nowadays in China, one immediately asks if you have WeChat.
On the photo with Chinese men, they almost always look serious, so I look pretty .. well, ridiculous then with such a big smile. The ladies usually laugh then, or at least smile.
I have had to work hard to finish everything on time, especially the last days. The two large vases have come out of the kiln beautifully and I hope they can come to the Netherlands soon.
Very special that my good friend and painter from the factory, Xiao Feng, painted on every vase in Chinese characters the words "Made in Jingdezhen". Yes I can recognize some Chinese characters now, so I know that these words are actually there ;-)
The last day I walked around on a large factory site with a lot of smaller porcelain workshops, right on the Yangtze River, far outside the center of Jingdezhen.
A lot of porcelain waste, and even another big vases factory.
I did not really experience the Christmas holidays this year, those days I was finishing the last things.
Oh yeah I got a glass of extra strong rice wine on Christmas Day at the factory and that night I was (ridiculously) early in bed.
With overloaded luggage of Chinese imitation lego, tea, shards and a fairly old, large Chinese abacus back to the Netherlands. The 9 hour long night train trip (to Shanghai) I have spent about completely asleep.
One night in Shanghai in a hotel that looked like an 18th century palace, with a much too large luxury room, nothing to complain about!
This time, my fifth time in China was the most fun and intense time. It almost felt like I really lived in Jingdezhen:-)
Meeting so many lovely and wonderful people, welcoming and helpful, it is of course very nice to have new good friends in China.
The farewell was therefore more difficult this time.
Now I have to get rid of the rice wine addiction and fortunately I have been pretty much cured of my stubborn coffee addiction in 22 days.
The breakfast of delicious soup with mushrooms and a kind of meatball, and two fried eggs without salt as breakfast for 8 Yuan (1 euro) I will also miss.
Back in the land of the fries with mayonnaise and cheese sandwiches.
Ofcourse also very nice to be back home!
Mountains of photo and film material. So I have enough editing to do in the new year..
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