After my visit to the Museum, I headed back to the Hankou train station. My train left at 6:20, and the Museum had closed at around 5:00, so I had some time to kill.
I have started to play Baldur's Gate, a role playing video game based on my old-time favorite game Dungeons and Dragons.
The Three Kingdoms Period in China has the same myth and folk lore as a D&D game. There are lots of battles between swordsmen, tales of magic, evil creatures, the whole panoply of characters and myth that you find in D&D.
Jingzhou is a city that played an important role in the 3 Kingdoms period. It was the ancient Chu capital and is one of a very small number of cities in China to retain their ancient character intact.
I got to the Jingzhou train station after dark. It was kind of a shock to walk out o fthe station into darkness, rather than some heavily populated city.
Based entirely only a short peek at a map the day before, I started walking in what I believed to be a southernly direction.
In the large square adjacent to the train station, there were several hundred people dancing. This is common in China. You see people dancing on street corners and public areas. It is a sort of early evening enjoyment of middle age people. There are young people too, but it seems to be the stomping ground of the middle aged folk. They dance to a variety of music. I have heard people dancing to old Chinese songs, disco and various other melodies.
The walk south took about twenty minutes. I could see what I perceived to be a long line of lights that seemed to be on a wall, so I felt I was going in the right direction.
It was warm and the air was filled with sounds of frogs and crickets.
I reached a moat around the old city wall and again guessed that a turn east would be good. Soon I was in a sort of walking park. I passed through a large rock garden with some of the rocks 10 meters high. Parks in China are not full of illumination. As I walked, there seemed to be someone keeping my pace, on the other side of the moat. They kept clapping as they walked.
I reached a gate, which had more dancing people, kids on roller blades, and some fair ground type of amusements.
I headed in through the city wall's gate. The inside of the walled city has rather narrow streets. There are main boulevards, but the side streets are much narrower.
I made my way onwards, in hopes of finding a restaurant and hotel. I had no map and no idea where I was heading.
After about a half hour of circling along what seemed to be main thoroughfares, I found a busy restaurant.
I was seated and then made a fumbling effort to order food. I asked for soup, and then pointed at what I thought were clams. Fortunately, I did not get clams, but something much better.
In the spring time, around Wuhan, you see many restaurants offering large fresh water prawns. I had not been observant and had not noticed the many signs with prawns on them.
I was served some dumplings and then some very good chicken soup. The soup here is excellent and they are not afraid of leaving you some bones, These folks are fond of bones in food.
I was then brought a huge bowl of large red freshwater prawns. These are called lobster in the Chinese.
I can honestly say that the preparation and taste of these lobsters is one of the best dishes I have eaten. Maybe it was hunger or relief that I was not given chilled monkey brains, but the flavor of the seasonings and the taste of the prawns was among the top twenty culinary experiences of my life.
After I finished my meal, I again wandered around looking for a hotel. I ended up finding one after going in and out of several.
There ended my first day in Jingzhou.
The wall and one of the old towers are illuminated at night. You can walk around the city wall. Some areas are kind of crumbling, but the entire area is very pretty with alot of trees, birds and quietude.
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