Yan Shi was parachuted straight into Qingjiang City to serve as the municipal Party secretary and acting mayor. His previous post was director of the Planning Division at the provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, a half-rank lower than his new position. Qingjiang City lies in southern Jiangxi Province, at the source of the Gan River, and is known as the first county along the thousand-li Gan River. It was formerly a county and has only just been elevated to county-level city status. Qingjiang is not unfamiliar to Yan Shi: it is his hometown, where he spent a happy childhood and adolescence. He left home to attend university and, after graduating, worked in the provincial capital, Nanchang.
