Sanming is located in the western part of Fujian province (Fuzhou, where I live, is in the eastern part of the province) about 3 hours away by car, 6 by train. Sanming is the city where Melody went to high school. It's actually about an hour away from Mingxi, a small town where her relatives live, and an hour and a half away from Gaiyang, an even smaller town where she was born and lived until she was 12. The first part of our journey was to spend a few days in Sanming, checking out the town and hanging out with her friends from high school.