I decided to leave Jiangxi for Fujian. There was a need to go to Fujian to explore. On September 30, I arrived in Nancen. On October 1, I went from Nancen to Sanrao. Sanrao at that time was a war command center. I stayed there for two days. On the 4th, I entered the province of Fujian and went through Congan, Jianyan, and Nanping, and on the 5th, I arrived in Yongan. On the 6th, I arrived at Canding. On the 7th, I returned to Ganzhou. On this trip Mr Gong and Mr Tang accompanied me. Mr. Gong was the smartest person in the Jiangxi government. He was the governor's secretary and was well liked and praised by every branch. Mr Tang was a specialist in building highways and of all Jiangxi provincial construction of highways, he's the most famous. And he's the head of transportation. The three of us purposed to familiarize ourselves with the local conditions.
When we passed by Congan, I have to record a story: Mr Cen was a Fujianese and a good friend of Mr Gong and Mr Tang's. I had also met him once before. At that time, he was already retired but he was a famous scholar in Chinese literature, calligraphy, and painting. He had been the head of the City of Congan for many years. During his time as mayor, he did a lot of good for Congan so everyone loved him and respected him. Those people knew he had retired, so they invited him to return to Congan. They had him stay in one of the rooms above a dim sum restaurant. The same street where we were now staying too. We went to visit him but he wasn't there. He did not lock his door so the owner of the dim sum restaurant invited us to take a look at where he was staying. We saw in his room there were two big tables. One of the big tables was for his liquor bottles and books. The other big table was for his paintings. So the dim sum restaurant owner told us that Mr Cen every time after he got drunk, he started to paint. All his paintings after he got drunk were so good and all became famous paintings. Wherever he goes, he loves to travel around in Congan and whoever saw him he asked them to stay with them. So he often would be away for several days without returning. Once he returned to the room, a lot of people send him food and wine so he doesn't have to cook anything for himself. Some other people will come to do his laundry and clean his place, just like children honoring their parents. Also, he's a very nice looking person and friendly, all the kids love him and play with him and call him Yeye (grandpa). What the owner described to us, we were all impressed and his life sounds like a fairy tale. The three of us agreed he had a marvelous life there.
I left Jiangxi and planned to go to Fujian. Because I was now Vice Manager of Jiangxi Yuming Bank, I wrote a letter to resign from Vice Manager. I also had a director of China Tea Company position and was too busy to continue on Yuming Bank. The board was very good to me and trusted me a lot, so on December 3rd, they wrote me a letter. This letter said, "We received your resignation letter. Because your position in China Tea Company duties were busy, we approved your resignation and would like you to return the seal of your Vice Manager position. After we examined every procedure, we approve your resignation. This letter is to Mr Qu Jingzhou." In fact, I had already finished all the resignation procedures with Yuming Bank. I also sent a letter to Mr So to assign someone to take over my position in China Tea Company. And Mr So replied to say he approved my resignation but before the new person arrived, I was still in charge remotely. This year, on February 28th and October 5th, I had come to Fujian twice. Now, I am going to stay. After I arrived in Fujian, I missed a lot of my friends in Jiangxi, so I wrote a letter to Jiangxi that said: I've been working in Jiangxi for many years and I appreciate everybody's help and training. Now because of my work, I already moved to Fujian temporarily staying 44 Hun Street in the city of Yongan. I still hope you can remotely give me advice and teaching so I can continue to face all the challenges here. I miss you all and hope you all have a nice future.
Since November this year, I formally entered the Bank of Fujian. The Chairman of the Board of Fujian Bank was Mr Xu. After Mr Xu, the chairman was Mr Yan*. One of the board members was the construction Bureau director named Mr Bao. Another member was general manager of a trading company Mr Cen. Another member was general manager of South China tourism and transportation Mr Hu. And Yongan City mayor, Mr Lu. All these people are most capable, and the general manager was Mr Cho, I was assistant manager. Mr Cho was very ambitious and he likes to develop overseas business with China mainland. He usually traveled to southeast Asia to associate with their leaders. Every time he went on a trip, I took over management of the bank and all his duties. A good thing about this bank is besides the chairman of the board and the general manager, underneath there were people to manage documentation, accounting, personnel, and miscellaneous banking functions, department of overseas business. Every department has a director. All the directors and managers were all well educated and young and capable people. So it is a bank that has very good potential to develop well. As for me, I had lots of experience in managing the bank. Because previously I had worked China business bank and Jiangxi Yumin bank. So I had a very easy time to work at this new bank.
There is a nice stream, very clear and clean, called Yenxi, that flows through Yongan City. Fujian Provincial Bank was located on the north bank of Yenxi. The area was called Grass Plain. Because Yongan City was mountainous, level areas were few. Tens of acres of level area, built with dams so it wouldn't flood. On these acres of land, were the bank's buildings and offices, auditorium, dining hall, recreation area. Everything we needed was there. On the neighboring area, we built 20-30 dormitories for the employees, it became a community by itself. When I first came to Yongan, I lived in the city. Every morning, I needed to get a ride to Maoping to my office, even though it wasn't very far, I still had to commute. But not long after, there was a vacancy in the dormitory so I got to move in. I moved in on the 30th of December. This dorm had cooks and cleaning people, making everyone's life comfortable. This was 1949, my life moved from Taihe to Ganzhou; from Ganzhou to Yongan. This is my life situation.
*Mr Yan later became governor of Taiwan, and then president. My family and Mr Yan's family were very close. They had a daughter I played piano with.
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