Ni Hao From China - Part 1 - 2009

This trip back to my parent's homeland and home(s) was very memorable and eye-opening for me. Throughout my childhood years my parents were always telling my siblings and I stories of how hard their lives were when they were growing up: That they walked miles by foot to school; that they never had a closet full of clothes to choose from nor toys to play with. Of course, I figured all parents say that to their children just to let us know that we have it 'real good' here in the U.S. of A. It wasn't until I saw with my own eyes and touched with my own hands the house and area that they not only lived in but they were also born in too. They were villagers who could not afford hospital costs. Midwives would come and deliver a child when the time comes. There was no doctor nor sterile environment for the mother and unborn child. In fact, I learned that my oldest auntie died after giving birth to her second son. I met my two eldest cousins for the first time in China. Before this trip I never knew that they existed. But I'll reflect more on that in Part 2 of my blog post. Below is a summary of the 'old' vs 'new' - ness of China. Yes, China is one of the fastest (if not the fastest) growing country economically; Yet there is still many who are poor and live very simple rural lives and the importance of maintaining the traditional culture my parents know as old 'China'.

Written October 17, 2009

Just a quick update: we are in Hong Kong now and are on the last 5 days of our trip just exploring the city, shopping and eating. It's been a very memorable trip for us and we are thankful for your prayers of good health and safety. Please continue to pray for us as we return home on Weds. Everywhere we go there are posters about the N1H1 virus and prevention so we still need to be careful. Elevator buttons and handrails are usually sanitized every 2 hrs.

On to the fun part: I've included pics of the old and new in the cities we visited minus Zhongshan (where my parents are from .. we took a ton of pictures there because we actually had the privilege of visiting each of my parent's village to see and enter the home where they were born in (yep.. they were born there.. no hospitals in 1940's for the poor Chinese). It was a very humbling experience and I got to see my parents in a different light when they each shared their childhood experiences. My dad even found some of his childhood homework books and pictures of his oldest sister (one of whom I did not know existed until I arrived in China) who passed away when she gave birth to her second son when she was in her 20's. I met her two sons: both are my cousins who are in their 60's (as old as my dad) who I also did not know existed until this trip.) So sorry.. no pictures (for now) of Long Mei, Zhongshan (where my mom is from) and Dai Lang, Zhongshan and our last city HK because Matthew's laptop is full and he had to put all of those pics on the external drive. Next time..

The history of all the places we visited was fascinating and it helped us understand how China became what it is today. We visited the HK Museum of History today and continued to appreciate what the Chinese went through.

We also visited Noah's Ark in HK. Earlier this year, they finished building an actual life-sized replica of the ark and explained through factual evidence the existence of it and God's existence in the world. It was very well done I thought.

But what I can show you is the old and new from each city we visited at the beginning of the trip:

NEW BEIJING: the water cube where Michael Phelps won his 8 gold medals..the inside is smaller than it looked on TV but just sitting in the seats and imagining what happened last year is incredible

OLD BEIJING: Great Wall -- we hiked up and down hundreds of stairs which were all different depths and lengths to get to the part where we could toboggan down the mountain. My knees were shaking from all the down hill stairs..A great workout though and the weather was perfect.. not hot, not cold, not windy... the Wall was incredible!

NEW SHANGHAI: Did you know that all of the east part of Shanghai (Pudong) was developed starting in the 1990's? In just 20 years, the city is full of amazing architecture and is the financial mecca of China. The building above (that looks like a bottle opener) is the Shanghai World Financial Center and is the 2nd tallest building in the world (I think it has 101 floors). And the city continues to change and build. They are preparing for the World Expo in 2010 so the city is under 'remodel'.

OLD SHANGHAI: Silk Worm Factory. Silk is renowned in Shanghai and we got to see how they make it.. from silk worm cocoons. They dethread the cocoon on a machine. We even got to keep some of the cocoons samples. Great science lesson... :) yes I'm thinking about work still..

SUZHOU: This little city is an hour from Shanghai and is called the Oriental Venice because it has manmade canals and a leaning tower.. well in China it's not a tower but a pagoda.. it leaned before Pisa's.. it's a lot older. But first we visited the largest private garden in Suzhou called the Humble Administrator's Garden. An administrator of the emperor built an incredibly beautiful garden. It took 14 years. And after he died, he gave it to his son.. who lost it in one night of gambling.
Suzhou has 300 private gardens. And they are all HUGE!! Many buildings are in the 'garden'.

 Okay.. that's our first week..