4-20 Liuyang, China or How the Super Rich Live

 Liuyang is one of the very small cities, only 800,000 people, in the area that Lisa is in charge of outside of Shanghai.  Small cities in China average between 15-20 million people.  Shanghai's population is 24,890,000 and Beijing at 21,893,095.  Through some unusual circumstances we were invited to visit Liuyang.  

Lisa, Michael and I took the bullet train from Shanghai to Liuyang with a change of train in Nanjing, a city we had visited in 2016.  There were two people waiting for us at the train station in Liuyang.  They whisked us off around to the back side of the train station where a car and driver were waiting in a special area.  As we walked through special empty corridors - someone stepped out to ask for our passports.  We waited only a few minutes until they returned them.  No waiting in public lines for these VIP's.  Donald and his assistant, (a young woman whose name none of us can remember) were our guides for the two days here.  

We headed to the local historical museum - parked right in front of the building, walked in and were greeted by a private tour guide - no tickets needed.  She did not speak English so Donald and co took turns interpreting.  The history of China goes back over 37,000 years - so it was a lot to take in.  Our museum guide picked out only a few of the exhibits to talk about.  

  After the museum we headed to our hotel so we could freshen up before dinner.  Pictures of our accommodations are below.  We ate in the hotel restaurant.  These meals are always held in a private room and multiple people serve you.

At our fancy dinner - driver, Donald, Michael.

Red wine and Baijiu were served - only the baijiu was drunk.  Baijiu - the national drink of China - is usually distilled from sorghum, but can be made from rice, wheat, corn or millet.  Here is where I learned a new tradition.  You can only drink alcohol when you toast someone else or they toast you.  A toast can be made to everyone at the table as well.  I never did figure out when you were supposed to get up and go to the person who toasted you or whether you can just click glasses while seated!

Dinners like these have a lot of different dishes.  In China the dish comes out to the table as soon as it is ready - so things come out in random order.  You know the meal is over when the fruit is served!

A view of the city from our accommodations up in the trees.

Our two story villa is just like these - that are just across the valley.  There is a main hotel at the entrance (that is where our guides slept) and then dozens of villas scattered amongst the trees on the hills.  Cars are parked in the garage by the main hotel.  You are whisked around in a battery car from villa to hotel and back.

We took a lot of photos the next morning.

The hills around us are also used for cultivating tea.

Our bathroom has two sinks and this gigantic spa tub.  A helper comes up at night to prepare your bath.  Sort of like turn-down service only water service.  The bathroom also includes a separate spacious shower room and a toilet room.

Our bedroom.  A desk on one side - with a huge bed facing the window.

The living area.  On the other side of the front door are stairs leading down to the second bedroom.  The balcony there has a small infinity pool,  It was a little to cold to use it.

Morning photos before the fog burned off.

Our balcony is covered outside our bedroom.  We had hot tea out here.

The balcony area from the living area is not covered - it had rained during the night so it was all wet.

There was a scroll and books teaching you how to write in Chinese characters.  I have also learned that while there are multiple spoken dialects, all use the same Chinese characters to write.

One of the battery cars that whisked us around the property

Our front gate.

We had no kitchen - but no problem - our breakfast was brought to us by battery car.  I had asked for eggs over easy and toast.  Michael wanted noodle soup.  There was a lot of confusion about my order - so I changed it to scrambled eggs and toast.  The kitchen had never made these before.  I got scrambled eggs with vegetables in it - including tiny bits of carrot!  And no toast.  Hot tea is served in glasses so it is a bit of a challenge.  But all was good.

These meatballs were delicious!  Here that means there is meat - but also lots of rice and other things in them.  They remind me of a meatloaf.

The villas next door.

A tea plantation.

We and our luggage was picked up by battery car and driven down to the garage where our driver and car were waiting to take us for more touring before we head back to the train station and Shanghai.