China

As probably all of you know I have many ties to the Chinese people. When I was 20 years old I taught English in Wuxi, China for a semester and later that year was called to the Taichung Taiwan mission (speaking of that mission, for any of you mission friends who don't have facebook, did you hear Alicia Watterson is going to Taichung on her mission?)

My brother moved his family to Guangzhou 广州 last October. Both he and his wife served in the Taibei mission about 10 years ago. Zach was offered a great job at an architectural firm. They are currently contracted with Brunei government and the Chinese government to build airports. I guess they will soon be working on improvements to the Taibei airport as well. He really loves his job and I don't know that I have ever seen him happier.

With family in China Jack and I had an excuse to visit China that was hard to pass up. Although they plan on being there for some time, we decided it would be best to go before Jack starts his new program at Westminster. Having a brother-in-law who works for an airline also helped (yah for cheap stand-by tickets! Thanks again Kevin!).

I was having some serious anxiety about leaving Esther for 9 days. But I knew that she would be in good hands. And she was. She did great! Other than being a little shy the first morning we were home, I have to say she was a champ about the whole situation.

So, April 15th Jack and I woke up at 4 am and got ready to catch a flight to Chicago. Stand-by is a nerve racking process in and of itself. Both the flight to Chicago and from there the flight to Hong Kong looked great. But after we were boarded on our plane, we sat for about 30 minutes before being told that we needed to unload the plane and reload another plane. They asked any of us with a connecting flight to speak to the attendants at the desk. Chicago only has one flight in and out of HK each day. Did I mention that we initially only had an hour between flights? We were seemingly screwed. But immediately after unloading from the plane we were reloaded and some how made up for lost time in the air.

Have you ever seen Home Alone? The McAllister's running down the hallways of the O'Hare airport? Yeah, I've lived that. We arrived in Chicago and heard the final boarding call of our flight. I ran ahead to check in with the desk attendants so they wouldn't leave us, and Jack stayed behind to grab our carry-ons that had been placed below on the aircraft. The attendants were really nice but said Jack had to get there in 3 minutes in order to make it. I went to the hall and waited. My hands were shaking so badly. And then I saw him. A tall skinny breath of fresh air running down the hall with two roller suitcases following behind him. His hair was frazzled and his face was panicked, but we made it. Even if we were literally the last two individuals on the plane.

The flight was, as it always is, long. A little over 15 hours after we boarded in Chicago we landed in Hong Kong. Zach met us at the airport and we headed for the train station. When we reached Shenzhen we had to go through customs again. It was funny how it was clean and well maintained on the Hong Kong side of the the customs building. And as soon as we crossed the border it was dirty, smelly and packed with people! I laughed to myself a little bit and couldn't get a huge grin off of my face. I turned to my sweet husband and said, "Welcome to China!" He responded by saying, "It reminds me of Japan. There was this one street that looked like this." My brother and I both laughed and assured him that it was not just this one area, this would be all of China (minus the parks and historical sites).

The next day after church Jack and I were off. We hopped in a taxi and headed to White Cloud Mountain 白云山。We took a tram to the top of it and attempted to see the view of Guangzhou through the smog. The smog was especially thick because the clouds were ready to burst. We made it half way down the mountain trails and through a beautiful Buddhist temple before they split at the seams and drenched us from head to toe. I can't say I minded. It reminded me of Taiwan and it is always fun to watch the Chinese people scramble to safety. They hate getting wet.

Above: View from the tram to White Cloud Mountain

Below: View of a Buddhist temple from the tram

Above: If the smog weren't so thick you'd be able to see Guangzhou behind Jackie.

Below: Ginormous kissing bunnies. Who doesn't love ginormous kissing bunnies?

Above: Me outside of the previously pictured Buddhist temple

Below: Inside of the Buddhist temple

IKEA was also on the agenda for the day. I know, right? Who goes to China and visits IKEA? We do. It was one of the most bizarre places I have been in my life. There were so many people there. And what were they doing? Not shopping. They were sitting on furniture, using laptops, playing on their phones and napping. Seriously. Napping. I did not see one single bed that was still made because there were people laying in them. Bizarre I tell you. I guess the Chinese also love soft serve ice cream because there was a line that went half way down the block of individuals waiting for their IKEA frozen yogurt.

Below: Look closely for the skinny white guy participating in the IKEA atmosphere.

The man pictured below is literally under the blankets. Can you imagine seeing that in the states? Never!

After spending quite some time finding a taxi and meeting up with Zach and Meredith for lunch, we headed back to their apartment and packed our backpacks for an excursion. Meredith, being 8 months pregnant, wisely decided to stay home while the rest of us caught a 12 hour train ride to Guilin 桂林. Trains are really a fabulous way to travel and it is sad to me that they aren't more heavily used in the US. We had soft sleepers, which means that there are four beds in a compartment. Two on the top bunk and two on the bottom. We bought tickets a little late and so Zach and Royal were on the top bunks in one compartment and Jack and I were on the top bunks in another compartment.

Mine and Jack's compartment buddies ended up being so sweet. They were a married couple from Guangzhou. The wife was 8 months pregnant and her husband was accompanying her to her parents' so that she could have her baby there. I sat and talked to them for a little over an hour the following morning before we arrived in Guilin. I have heard so many accounts of female infanticide in China, especially in my anthropology classes. One of the most refreshing things that I heard that morning was when they told me that they thought they were having a boy. But immediately after the husband said, "But we don't care one way or another. Boy or girl, they will be our child and we will love them." Then he stood up and placed both of his hands on his wife's stomach while crouching close to his baby inside of her. I loved it! On a side note, it was also refreshing to know that I could still carry on a conversation in Chinese without problem for over an hour. Jack did a great job at smiling and nodding.

Guilin was instantly a favorite. I know you've seen pictures of it. Seeing the mountains in person was unreal. They were majestic and beautiful in a completely foreign way. It was like Dr. Seuss meets J.R.R. Tolkien. We took a motorized covered raft down the river. I took a lot of pictures but it just doesn't do it justice.

After about an hour and a half on the boat we came to the end of our river tour. We walked about 2 miles to a little village and wandered the streets. Jack felt like he had just walked into Paraguay. Cobblestone paths, buildings standing that by all logic shouldn't have been. It was like walking into the 18th century. Following our stroll around the village, we hopped on a bus and spent a few hours heading back to Guilin.

Above: Please notice the purple penguin seat covers. Not only were they covered beautifully but the seats weren't bolted into the van. They were moving with each turn and stop.

Limestone mountains from the Li River

Above: Zach behind his camera

Above: This was initially a jumping picture but I was a little late in taking it. Therefore Jackie just looks a little queer.

Above: A pretty bridge leading into the previously mentioned village.

Tuesday we woke early and headed to Long ji. Hands down the most beautiful place I have ever seen in my life. Mountainside after mountainside of terraced land. It is home to the Chinese Red Yao, known here as the Hmong, people. The women wear black skirts and bright red or pink tops. The women also only cut their hair once in their lives, around 16 or 17, and the hair cut is weaved back into their remaining hair. They wrap it around their heads and wear it in a large bun on the top of their foreheads. Another interesting thing that Jack was fascinated with is the way they build their homes. There is no metal at all. Rather than nails they use wooden pins.

It was undoubtedly the worst time of year to go, merely because there wasn't much growing, but it was still beautiful. Usually the terraces are filled with rice, vegetables and flowers. We were there all day. Royal was a good sport about climbing up steep paths to the top of one of the mountains.

The ride to and from Long ji was also worth mentioning. Driving in China in general is terrifying. Traffic laws aren't really followed. As we were on our bus, the driver would literally swerve from our lane and go into oncoming traffic to pass someone. That may sound normal, but when you do that in America, there aren't cars coming at you. As long as the driver honks the oncoming cars will pull slightly off the road and drive half on half off the highway. It is constant honking, swerving, and "I'm about to die" adrenaline rushes. But on the positive side, the landscapes that surrounded us on either side were breathtaking. It was exactly what you would imagine a Chinese countryside to look like, water buffaloes and all.

Above: Entering Long Ji

Below: Jack and me in the lowest village before hiking up.

Above: Jack and the Beatles enjoying the landscape

Seriously, Pleade slow down!

Above: Royal was really such a good sport. We hiked a mountain and although there were a few complaints, he is 3, he is entitled to a few.

Below: Look closely, all of the mountains that are in this shot are terraced. Can you imagine doing that without modern machinery?

Beautiful, right?

Above: Me and Jackie at the top of a hillside.

Below: Look closely, you can see a man working the land.

That night we took another 12 hour train ride back to Guangzhou. For the next few days we didn't see much of Zach. He was working like 16 hour days. But it was really good to spend time with Meredith. She took us to some great restaurants and took me SHOPPING! Unfortunately they haven't found a good DVD provider, but I did buy some knock off purses.

Now, turning it over to Jackattack....

As previously mentioned, we stayed with Zach and Meredith at their apartment. When we returned back from Long ji little Royal was a bit worn out to say the least. He fell asleep quickly the evening after we got back to Zach and Meredith's. This sounds rather benign up to this point but, it turns out in China door locks are a little different than the ones here in the states. So in Zach and Meredith's apartment their bedroom doors have actual locks that require a key, not a fingernail, to open. Unfortunately, when they moved in they were never provided with keys. That doesn't sound like that big a problem, all you have to do is leave the doors slightly ajar. Unfortunately, the wind blew the door shut to the bedroom that Royal was sleeping in. We knew that Royal was tired but we hadn't anticipated the Zen like sleep he was in. We pounded on his door to try to wake him up and have him open the door, but to no avail. Despite our shouts and assurances that if he "came to the door he wouldn't be in trouble" Royal didn't respond. After about 15 minutes of shouting and pounding we all started to worry about whether or not Royal was breathing; for surely no human could sleep through the racket we were making. After a time, we became so worried that Meredith insisted we hammer off the door knob. So, with her approval I pounded the knob off the door. This by itself had to have reached several decibels. However, when we entered the room Royal appeared not to have budged. Soooo tired.

We all had a good laugh about it. But, laughed again when Zach got home late at night and closed the door locking himself, Meredith and Royal in the room again. So, at 4am when Meredith's pregnant bladder awoke her she had to pound on the wall to wake Sausha and me up. We had to pound in the remnants of the door knob again in order to rescue them. The fact that this process happened not once but twice was to all of us quite humorous.

The next day Sausha and I went to the natural history museum. The building and exhibits were neat but it's unfortunate that the Cultural Revolution left so little culture behind. For as huge as the museum was and the richness of the Chinese people's heritage the museum was relatively bare. On a side note, the Chinese may be better at math and science than the U.S. but we have them beat in the taxidermy department. Their stuffed animals are losing a bit of stuffing to put it nicely.

When we returned from the museum Meredith, Royal, Sausha, and I went to a place called Beijing Lu, which is a giant shopping

Above: Guangzhou T.V. tower

Below: Guangzhou Opera House, followed by the Guangzhou Library

Below: Jack and his goat

Below: Please notice Jack is making the same face as the shark hanging above him.

My eyes are closed in the picture below, but the scenery was too pretty not to post it.

This is Sausha again.

We spent our last day of our trip in Hong Kong. But not even the whole day. By the time we took a train and went through customs and took another train, we checked into our hotel at about 4 pm. We didn't have a lot of time so we were only able to hit Nathan Road, Hong Kong Park and Victoria's Peak. I cannot express how crowded this city was. Unbelievable. And there were so many people from all over the world. It really is an international hub.

Above: Me at Hong Kong Park

Below: View of Hong Kong from inside of the tram going up to Victoria's Peak.

Above: Jackie looking out over the view from Victoria's Peak.

Below: Hong Kong! Wow! Can you believe Batman jumped off one of these buildings? He is pretty bad A.

It was nothing short of a miracle that we made our flights home. We were the last two listed on stand-by and I only saw one empty seat on the whole plane. But I must say, I was so happy to see the little face pictured below when we came home. What a trip?! Maybe I can convince my husband to move there one day.

I realize that this is the longest post ever. But it does cover most of the events of an entire week.