The Family Travels East

One year into my self-inflicted exile, my family came out to visit for three weeks. The timing was perfect: I had just concluded my year of Chinese studies JiaoTong University and since returning to Shanghai have just started working at an internet startup (which will be the topic of my next post). My family and I shared wonderful travels through Shanghai, Guilin, Hong Kong, and Bali. See photos!

Shanghai
My parents are not city people and had low expectations for Shanghai. Fortunately, we were able to exceed them. My father had imagined China as more of a police state (based on his travels to Russia, and other former Soviet-bloc nations), while my mother appreciated a window into my local life here:

• Dinner my Chinese friends, at which we introduced them to fortune cookies, which are never offered in Chinese Chinese restaurants.
• The $1 麻辣 (numbing spicy) soup restaurant I frequent.
• Neighborhood scenes of men strolling the streets in pajamas accompanied by the evening sounds of Chinese instruments.

We also checked out several Shanghai sights that I hadn’t made it to yet:

• The Urban Planning Museum, with a detailed model of the entire city
• The Shanghai Museum, with an outstanding collection of jade carvings
• And Suzhou, the nearby city of many gardens, in support of my father’s dream of constructing a Japanese rock garden in our backyard at home; he’s on a mission to survey all kinds of shrubs and boulders.

To the dismay of my mother, but in the Chinese spirit, much of our days revolved around food:

• We sampled a diverse range of Chinese food from Shanghai, Sichuan, Taiwan, Dongbei (Northeast), Canton, and Xinjiang; we ate our way through China.

Shanghai was a hit; my parents began to understand why I want to live here for at least a few more years.


Guilin
I've been disappointed in a few previous travels through China (see the "Rural China" entry), but the Guilin area was a stunner. It's known for its soaring karst limestone peaks, which look like they were lifted from a Dr. Seuss book. The Chinese say Guilin 山水甲天下 (Guilin's scenery is number one in the world!).

We escaped the crowds by staying tiny town of Xingping instead of the tourist traps of Guilin city or Yangshuo. Days were filled with leisurely bike rides through the countryside amongst citrus orchards, farmers employing water buffalo to plow their rice fields, and sleepy towns with residents peering out of their cool abodes with curiosity to inspect the passing foreigners. One evening at dusk we went out with a cormorant fisherman to see his flock of diving birds shoot below the water like feathered torpedoes to zero in on hapless fish. Similar to rural TaoYan, we were also able to convince a few rural families to cook for us. Chinese country food is the best: simple dishes with fresh vegetables and little oil or sketchy meat. It’s a shame that's so hard to find in Shanghai.

Hong Kong
My first trip to Hong Kong was but a three-day affair consumed primarily by visa issues, a classic headache for young foreigners in China. While in Hong Kong, we stayed in a run-down labyrinth in Kowloon known as the ChungKing Mansions, also the setting for Wong Kar-wai's Amélie-esque 1994 film, The Chungking Express. The upside to the sketchy surroundings was that I had a handful of futuristic-looking Hong Kong Dollars left over to gorge on the scrumptious, authentic Indian/Pakistani food joints found in the "Mansions." In the end, the visa was successfully sorted (I’m in China as a German citizen) and Hong Kong makes it onto my "revisit in further detail" list.

Bali
We realized my mother's lifelong dream of visiting Bali. The scenery was, like Guilin, criminally beautiful. The sub-tropical climate ensured lush forests and rice terraces brimming with water. One walk through a mountain range led us through fragrant coffee plantations, clove trees, pineapple plants, and other tropical flora and fauna. My favorite stretch of transportation was a one-day bike ride drifting down from one of the island's tallest volcanoes. Along the way, we stopped off to peek in on scenes of local life, such as villagers preparing a ritual feast: butchering chickens, mashing chili peppers, and making banten, the daily offerings to Hindu gods. A few sunny days were also spent on the beach, including two scuba dives over the 130-meter wreck of a U.S. ship, torpedoed by the Japanese in WWII. While the fish and corals weren't on par with Honduras or Thailand, it was the best wreck I've ever dove.

Bali also boasts the inviting islander mentality befitting of a vacation destination. Locals spent lazy hours on the porch stroking their cocks, preparing the birds for the evening fights held at local temples. Bali recalls a simpler, contented life that I could never live. China lacks Bali's restfulness; it's home instead to furnaces firing out relentless progress and pollution.

In Conclusion
It was an unforgettable family vacation. My parents my parents' energy and openness to new experiences as they age astounds me! My sister is a riot as always. Definitely a memory to cherish, it had been too long apart. Next time in South America to visit Maya & the Incas!!!

Coming soon: my next post will be on my working life in Shanghai. As an aside, I'll likely be back to the U.S. (Petaluma, CA bay area) in February—clear your calendars!