15-Mar-26 (Sunday)
For several days the news Jing had been hearing news from China (via Guimei, her youngest sister)
was that her 88 year-old father was in the hospital with serious problems. Yesterday the outlook
was much more positive and perhaps he would even be able to return home soon. But early this
afternoon the news shifted dramatically. It looked like her father would die very soon. Jing
immediately decided to take the first flight to Zhengzhou that she could find. (Jing's hometown
is about a 1.5 hour drive from there.) She quickly was covered so she could leave her caregiver job
and she came home with a few hours to get ready before I drove her to SFO at 8:30pm. Sadly, Jing
heard the news that her father had passed away while she was waiting at the gate for her flight
to board.
The first thing Jing said to me after telling me she was going to China was "Do you want to come with me?".
Our relationship is fairly new, yet I felt it was going to be important to both of us that I be there
for her. If I had a visa for traveling to China, I would have joined Jing on the same flight that she took tonight.
(She didn't need a visa since she is a Chinese citizen with a Chinese passport.) After coming back from
dropping Jing off at SFO I started looking into how long it would take for me to get the visa. A friend
told me he was able to camp out at the Chinese consulate in San Francisco for a day and was able to
apply and receive his visa before they closed for the day. Unfortunately for me, that is no longer
possible. The new process is that you have to submit your visa application online. Then after they
review it and are satisfied with your information they update your application's online status
from "review in progress" to "submit your passport". Only then can you enter the queue at the consulate
office. I spent pretty much the whole night working on my visa application. The online form was confusing
to fill out and required me to make decisions based on missing information. It took me about an hour
to take a picture of myself that met all the stated criteria. Since the background needed to be white
I took it in front of the white door in my kitchen. But there was a faint shadow in the background
which caused the photo to be rejected when I submitted it for my application. I have fixed similar
problems with painstaking work in photoshop, but it occurred to me this should no longer be necessary.
I found a free image editing website, uploaded my picture, and entered "change background to white".
It instantly complied and the modified image was accepted by the online application.
16-Mar-26 (Monday)
By the time the sun came up, I had submitted my completed visa application selecting
"expediting processing" (which incurs a larger fee). I kept checking the application
status during the day although I didn't really expect to see anything update that quickly.
BTW, Jing is a fairly recent addition to my life so for those of you who haven't met her
I will tell you a little bit about her. I first met Jing a couple of years ago on Match.com, but
we were both casually dating other people as well and we only dated each other for a couple
of weeks. (I had some reasons for being pessimistic about our chances, but they have turned
out to be wrong or irrelevant.) Jing (pronounced as in "jingle bells") was a nick name she
had growing up and is easier to pronounce and remember than her real given name (Xifeng).
We reconnected in late December and remarkably she moved in with me just a week or two
later. She works full time as an acupuncturist, although she also has a side job taking
one 28 hour home care shift every week for someone who needs round the clock care. Our ways
of thinking are often dramatically different as is our upbringing yet we are finding a
surprising number of similarities as well. We have many activities we like to do together,
including ping pong, hiking, biking (on my tandem bike), and recently pickle ball and playing
catch with a frisbee. Not long ago we hiked to the top of black mountain - a 10 mile round trip
with an elevation gain of 2700 feet which we finished without taking even a single rest.
I've dated a lot of women since my ex-wife left at the beginning of 2018 and usually our 1st or 2nd
date was a hike. Not a single one of them would have been interested and able to hike
Black Mountain. More often they would be winded after climbing just a few hundred feet.
17-Mar-26 (Tuesday)
I would have to leave by Thursday morning at the latest for it to be practical for me to
attend the funeral was scheduled to begin Saturday morning. (One looses a day when crossing
westward over the international date line.) So I was really hoping to see an updated status
on my visa application today. But no ... at the end of the day it still said "pending
preliminary review". I discovered that none of the selections of the automated phone system
will connect you to an actual person. The consulate's website indicates that you can ask
questions via email, but when I tried that I received a form letter response thanking me
for contacting the consulate, but no attempt was made to answer my question. I made plans
to head up to the consulate in the morning, even though I expected they probably wouldn't
be able to help me until the application was processed. To avoid driving in rush hour traffic
I planned to bike to Caltrain and take my bike on the train so I could ride to the SF consulate.
18-Mar-26 (Wednesday)
I was pumping up my bike tires and just about to leave when I got a call from Jing. She had
mentioned my visa problem to some relatives and one knew about a way to travel to China without
a visa. It's limited to 10 days in China and has a few other strange rules as well. I found some
information online about this "visa-less transit" travel although it seems to be rarely used which
explains why I hadn't heard about it before. I was originally thinking of staying for 14 days, but
10 days is better than nothing so I decided that the visa-less option was the best approach.
I booked some round trip tickets (which was a requirement) that looked like it would satisfy the
conditions I read about. The rules were not that clear, so I decided to visit the SF consulate
anyway to make sure my travel plans met the requirements. By now, rush hour had passed and I
figured driving to the consulate was the fastest way to get there. When I asked an agent
at the consulate if my plans met the visa-less transit conditions she said ... "yes, probably".
This answer was not nearly as definitive as I expected. She suggested I could call one of the
consulates in China, or contact the airlines to ask about the required travel documents.
I had already tried to contact the airlines (a Chinese carrier) and as with the consulate, it
was not possible to talk to an actual human over the phone. Calling a consulate in China sounded
difficult and I didn't think I would get any more information that way, so I just decided
to go with my current travel plans and hope for the best. I called my friend Laurens who agreed
to come to my house at 8:15pm tonight to drive me to SFO.
After getting back from the consulate I finished my packing and a few last minute errands.
Jing had asked me to get her a ticket on the same flights that I had reserved for returning
from Zhengzhou to SFO. I thought this would be a quick task but my credit card was rejected
on the Korean Airline web site. A call to Capital One indicated that my card was frozen due
to a fraud alert. None of the charges they mentioned seemed that unusual to me. I verified that
I had made all those purchases and they unfroze the card. While I had them on the line I told
them I wanted to make a report that I would be traveling in China to insure that they wouldn't
flag a purchase there as fraudulent. They said they no longer accept such reports, but that my
card would work during my travels. I tried again to buy the ticket but the card was still
rejected. (I later learned that Korean Air won't attempt to charge a card
until 24 hours after the denial.) The web site only saves one payment method, so I deleted that
card and entered the information for my Schwab debit card which was denied. They claimed the
billing address I entered did not match. (Possibly an extra or missing space in the street name.)
Every time a payment is not successful, the ticket information is lost and you have to start
over again. This and other problems made the Korean Air website nearly unusable and before
I new it I had spent 2 hours on the project and still did not get the tickets. By now Laurens
had arrived, so I spent a few minutes checking my packing and headed out the door.
I figured the airline ticket desk in SFO would be the most likely place to get turned
away if my travel documents were not sufficient, and indeed the airline agent after
failing to find a visa in my passport asked me where it was. (This confirmed my suspicion
that the visa-less travel option was rarely used, and this question was repeated every time
someone looked at my passport for the remainder of the trip except for the last time in
SFO after my return flight.) I explained that I was using the 10 day visa-less travel option.
At least the agent seemed like she had at least heard about it before. It took her, along
with another agent 30 minutes (while chattering with each other in Chinese) to verify that
I met all the requirements and to issue my boarding passes. (I had printed the boarding passes
at home during the online check-in but that was a waste of time. They were fake and could not
have been used to board the airplane.) I had Jing write me an invitation letter including the
address of the apartment where I would be staying, the
reason for my travel and other details which she emailed to me. (Actually I wrote it for her.)
The invitation letter was not strictly necessary although proved quite helpful here and at
immigration on entering China, as was the google maps route I had printed out from Zhengzhou
to the apartment. I read that the visa-less travel option was invented to encourage tourism,
but if China was really serious about that they would have made the rules simpler and more clear.
These suspicion were confirmed by the fact that I don't think I saw a single foreigner during
my entire stay in China ... even in Zhengzhou airport!
20-Mar-26 (Friday)
I didn't have any time during my short layover in Taipei, but next I had a 2 hour layover in
Hong Kong. The first thing I tried to do was to buy a travel esim so my phone would work in China.
It was just an $8 purchase for 2.5GB of data but disappointingly my credit card did not approve
the purchase. I soon found a similar esim that accepted PayPal, so I was able to purchase the esim.
I figured I would need my credit card to work so I called Capital One to find out what the problem
was. Again they asked me about the same purchases I had already confirmed last time and before they
would re-enable my card they wanted me to go thru an elaborate process which involved typing in
a number that was texted to me, and then submitting photos of my passport and drivers license and
finally answering some security questions I had answered when setting up my account. Finally they
said my credit card was again functional. I tried one more time to buy the Korean Air ticket for Jing,
but that failed again. I sent Jing a message suggesting she ask her son (living in the US) to help
with the purchase. (Her son was able to buy the ticket for her, but by then cheapest fare class had
sold out and the ticket price when up from $1000 to $1600. Other airlines were even more expensive
since prices had been quickly adapting to the higher oil prices due to the Iran conflict.) I wanted
to activate my esim but I ran out of time and needed to board my flight. I wasn't worried about that
since I could use the airport wifi at my destination to activate the esim.
I arrived at Zhengzhou airport at 3pm. While walking to immigration, I selected the airport wifi.
As one expects with airport wifi, a page comes up asking you to agree to their terms, but this page
was entirely in Chinese. I tried all the button and checkbox combinations but I couldn't get the wifi
to connect. Now at the immigration desk, they look thru my passport and as always happens, they asked
where my visa was. I explain about the visa-less travel option and the 10 day limit. They accepted this
but then said I need to fill out a different entry card from the one I just filled out, so I dutifully did
that. I needed to enter where I was planning on staying in China, so I put down the address Jing had
given me in the invitation letter. They said they also needed a phone number, so I entered Jing's US
number which was working in China. But they said it needed to be a Chinese phone number. The apartment
did not have a phone, but I knew I could use Guimei's number (who is currently living at the apartment).
I said this should not be a problem and I would call Jing to get the number. So I opened the wifi page and
asked for help signing into the network. Their response was an emphatic "No Wifi"!. (I later learned the
wifi network was only for airport employees, which did not include the immigration agents.) So we were
at an impasse. I needed their help getting wifi so I could get the information they needed for the form,
and they were not willing to offer any help or give me a pass on this bit of information. A supervisor
came over, but nothing changed. By now, all the other passengers had passed thru and I was the only
passenger there. I basically just stood there hoping eventually something would change. After an hour
of standing around doing nothing they suddenly seemed to get annoyed with having me there and not knowing
what to do with me, and suddenly they just waved me thru! Jing had sent her daughter-in-law's sister
(Yvonne is her US name) and her husband to pick me up. I had told them to come an hour late, but I
figured they would already be waiting for me. I asked an airport worker how to get to the pick-up area.
She said that this was complicated (I guess there might have been several pick-up areas), and I should
wait in an area inside the terminal she pointed to labeled "Pick up Area 2". A asked if there was a place
I could go to get a wifi connection, and she graciously let me use her wifi security code. That allowed
me to contact Yvonne, and her husband found me about 5 minutes later. (I had met both of them once in
Sunnyvale when they were visiting the US.) It was about a 90 minute drive to Huixian, Jing's home town.
(She grew up on a farm at the edge of town.) Jing's apartment, which she originally bought for her
parents, is in a small village several miles away. (I'm not sure if the village has it's own name,
but it's postal address is still Huixian.) We arrived at the apartment at around 5:30pm and I was
relieved and so happy to finally see Jing. Jing had some food for me which had been
made for lunch earlier. It was simple and delicious. Happily I would spend every night here sleeping
with Jing in the same bed, with tonight being the one exception. Tonight Jing would sleep a few blocks
away at her father's brother's house (where her father had been living for about the last year).
There she was joined by most of her other closest relatives. I don't know exactly what is happening tonight,
but Jing later reported that not much sleep was actually taking place. She said she got maybe a couple of hours. This happened to be the
coldest night of our trip and I was a bit surprised at how cold the apartment was. It didn't have
central heating. There was a small coal furnace that they use during the coldest part of winter
which warms the living room by a few degrees (C), but now that it was "warm" it was shoved to the side of
the terrace room. I realized I should have brought a light ski hat, but I had enough warm clothing and
blankets to keep warm for the night. Guimei had set up the bed in the second bedroom for Jing and me with an
extra layer of blankets for padding so it would be soft enough for us. But it was basically blankets over a wood platform with no mattress at all. I used to sleep fine on even harder surfaces, but I'm no longer comfortable that way. I'm very comfortable sleeping upright however, so I just slept on the coach
in the living room.
21-Mar-26 (Saturday)
Jing came back fairly early. She had already eaten, so I had some more of the leftovers and
we walked over to her father's brother's house where the funeral was already in progress.
Before even getting to the house I could hear the musicians gathered outside the house.
As you will see later, the people mourning the passing of Jing's father wore white
sheet like clothing over their street clothes. Since these people on the street are not dressed like
that I assume they might be friends of some of the family members.
Note: Click on the picture to see the video.
Then click the back button to continue reading.
I believe this singer is the mother of the young singer in the next video. Near the end of
this video you can see a view into the court yard of the house. You can see the white garb they are
wearing including a white head covering and sometimes even white covers over their shoes.
Inside the court yard and to the right was the entrance to the
mourning room which included the casket with the mourners gathered around praying.
There was also some crying as well as sounds that I wouldn't call real crying.
I think I would call it stylized or fake crying perhaps by family that is not as close
to Jing's father. There was a little bowing ceremony involving four bows to enter this room.
Although I went inside, I didn't feel it was appropriate to take any pictures there.
Click on the picture to see the video.
Jing spent most of her time in the mourning room whereas I was generally on the street.
I found this young singer to be quite charming. She stepped up her already admirable stage presence
when I stood up to record her. I didn't try to disguise that I making the recording since I wanted
to be close enough to get a good shot.
Click on the picture to see the video.
When this barrel of homebrew fireworks was lit I was impressed by how loud it was. I didn't reach
for my phone since I assumed it would be too brief to catch it, but it went on for
nearly a minute, and finally I opened my camera app in time to record the last few seconds.
Click on the picture to see the video.
Nearing mid-day this man was cooking food from the bowls around him in this huge pot. I was just thinking
about going up to get some when someone I didn't recognize placed a huge bowl in front of me with a pair
of chopsticks. It looked like way more than I could eat, but it was very delicious and I must have been
more hungry than I realized. I finished the whole bowl.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
In the early afternoon, the most dramatic part of the ceremony was about to begin. They started
to assemble a procession to the burial site. The man in front was holding a picture of Jing's father.
One relative motioned for me to join the procession, but I'm pretty sure that would have been
inappropriate.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
Others started assembling a cart which would be in the procession. Here they are lifting a decorated
structure onto the cart which I believe represents the house that the departed will need in the afterlife
as well as money (not real money) and other things that he may need. Finally all the many pieces of
decorations that had been set up were dismantled and placed in a large precarious pile on the cart.
Alter the burial, the whole cart and everything on it will be set on fire allowing everything to
follow him into the afterlife. I think the casket was transported in the precession using the same
cart, but I can't remember for sure. I followed behind the precession as they walked thru the
village streets (while playing their drums and other instruments) to the field which contained the
burial site (perhaps a 10 or 15 minute walk).
I wouldn't have guessed that the large field was being used as a cemetery, although there were a
few isolated piles of flowers in the field which marked burial sites used by a few other families
in the village. The spot where we stopped was the location where at least 4 generations of this family
had been buried.
Everything related to his death was handled by the family, from putting his body into the casket
to wait for the funeral, to digging the hole in the ground with shovels before the ceremony, to
lowering the casket into the ground using wooden poles as you can see in this video. Then the
women started pushing dirt over the casket leaving the rest of the work to the men to complete
with shovels. No government agency was involved so I don't think there was even a death certificate.
It doesn't happen this way in the cities. There are just too many people and so cremation is
mandatory in most areas.
Click on the picture to see the video.
During and after the burial, the mourners were praying at the site with some women crying.
Guimei (Jing's youngest sister) was crying for quite a long time in what we would think as overly
dramatic, but I don't think this is unusual for them. Her crying was mixed with words although
I'm not sure if they were intelligible to the others. Jing was comforting and stroking her sister
the entire time. Guimei was the only one doing this, but also she was her father's primary
caregiver during his last couple of years. The ceremony was terminated by setting of a large
stream of homemade fireworks on the ground near the burial which went on for an impressively
long time and made an impressive amount of noise. That signaled the end of the ceremony and the
mourners removed their white over-clothes.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
At the same time, the cart I had talked about earlier was set ablaze on the other side of the field
producing an impressive amount of flame and smoke. Now that the ceremony was over, Jing's family
obligations were completed.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
We walked back to Jing's apartment and had some dinner with Guimei (who has been living here).
I can't remember if we made something or had leftovers.
It was an emotionally exhausting day and I gave Jing some space for quiet reflection.
After a period of meditation she wrote this:
Something will be lost in translation, but this is what I got from Google Translate:
My father has passed away, leaving me behind, with boundless gratitude.
Thank you, Master, for setting aside everything to arrive immediately
and help my father successfully pass on to the Pure Land!
Thank you to all the kindred spirits, Master and fellow practitioners,
for chanting sutras and setting up a memorial tablet for my father's soul!
Thank you to my brother and sister-in-law for their meticulous arrangements
that allowed my father's body to be laid to rest with dignity!
Thank you to all my relatives and friends for their tireless efforts
in offering condolences, companionship, and financial assistance!
Thank you to my younger cousins for their respectful chanting for my father's soul!
Thank you, Paul, for traveling so far to offer your warm companionship!
Thank you, Dr. Yang Dingyi, for teaching me surrender and gratitude!
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Enlarge the chinese characters by clicking on them.
Then a few minutes later she started writing again:
Everyone is a star.
From the moment you emerge from your mother's womb,
the curtain rises on the stage of life, playing countless roles,
acting with unparalleled skill, so convincingly realistic.
But no one knows that they surpass any Oscar winner
and they don't even realize they're acting.
Everything is real, visible, tangible,
a kaleidoscope of colors, family, love, friendship,
the small family, the big family, the nation,
love that makes you dizzy,
hate that makes you grit your teeth,
joy that makes you ecstatic,
and sorrow that makes you want to die.
Even when you see the actors around you taking their final bows,
you still can't believe you're just an actor unaware that
everything you've experienced is all a dream.
22-Mar-26 (Sunday)
For the rest of the trip the apartment household (the 3 of us) always woke up pretty early, especially
for Guimei it was always at the crack of dawn. But this morning was different. The sisters were so
exhausted from the events of the last few days and little sleep that they slept in (perhaps until 10am
or so). Then Guimei made us some breakfast and went off to do an errand.
Jing had some ping-pong paddles and balls at the apartment, so we walked two blocks to the nearest
ping pong table to play. Evidently this level of disrepair is the norm. There are a few large holes
on each side of the table and as you can see the net is mostly hanging of the side. I tried to see
if it could be bent back into shape, but that clearly was not going to happen. However the net frame
was still intact and even though it was bent low in the middle it was still better than playing
without a net. Some very young children wandered by and seemed oblivious to the game we were trying
to play, sometimes leaning against the table and getting in the way. Another little girl thought it
would be fun to grab the end of the net hanging off the table and wildly swing it around for 5 or 10
minutes straight, which also proved quite distracting. My sense was this isn't something I would see
from children of similar age back home, or at least if they behaved that way, their parents would
intervene. (In this case their parents did not intervene, or perhaps didn't even notice the behavior.)
Click on the picture to the full size image.
The main goal for the afternoon was so go to Taihang shan (shan means mountain) to collect as much yinchen as
possible. All 3 of Jing's sisters decided to join us. Yinchen is a much sought-after vegetable
valued for it's medicinal properties. It's most often used as an herb for seasoning and in some
traditional snacks, but these sisters ate it in large quantities as a leafy green vegetable at
least once a day after we collected the stuff.
It's only found in mountainous areas and must be collected in the early spring to be used as a vegetable.
Actually I thought it tasted terrible so I asked Jing if she really likes this stuff. Her response
was "It's not so bad". I'm pretty sure the only reason they eat it is because they believe it is so good
for you. I asked what is it good for and she said "clearing your liver heat" (sometimes called "liver fire").
Until I see that my liver is engulf in flames, I'll pass on the yinchen.
Here is Jing with her yinchen collection bag empty since she is just starting the search.
At first I tried to join in the search but I found it was difficult for me to contribute.
There are many very similar looking plants and I usually ended up passing over the good stuff
and picking the useless look-a-likes. So instead I decided to enjoy the scenery and watching
the intensity with which these 4 sisters sought their gold.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
Usually the yinchen was found in greater quantities on the hilly terrain, but this flat piece of
ground had a fair amount of the stuff allowing them to get a good start on filling their collections bags.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
They soon headed for the hilly terrain which they said offered more reliable pickings. This picture
is of Jing and Guimei. This terrain is actually pretty step and slippery due to the loose dirt. I
often felt as I was at risk of uncontrolled sliding. The sisters didn't even seem to notice the treacherous
terrain. I could explain this for the two younger sisters since they worked in construction, but the
two older sisters were just as comfortable. Perhaps they have been here often enough or just so focused
on finding their treasure.
I was in a short sleeve shirt which seemed appropriate for the weather but that was because I didn't
know what I was up against. There was lots of sharp brush and so my arms were getting cut up trying
to keep up with the sisters. Guimei eventually noticed this and since she was wearing at least two
long sleeve layers, she gave me one of them which made following them much easier.
As the collection bags grew large and larger I kept thinking that surely
they have enough by now, but no, they continued to collect more and more over nearly a 4 hour period.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
Here I caught Jing on a rare break from yinchen collecting just enjoying the flowers. I have to snap
very quickly because if she catches me she will put her hands over her face claiming she is either ugly
or silly looking. Of course I strongly disagree with that assessment :) After they finally decided they
had enough we retreated from the mountain and headed back for dinner at Jing's middle sister's house.
(Her name is Xuemei - Xue means snow and mei means flower).
While waiting for dinner to be prepared I saw that the work was not yet done. We threw the collections into
a big pile and began to separate out the roots and grass with the valuable stuff remaining. I was
able to contribute somewhat to this effort although I was not nearly as fast as the sisters. We were perhaps
only done with 20% of it when it was time for dinner. I believe Xuemei later finished the task on her own
since on the next visit to her house Jing and Guimei picked up their portion.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
We got back to the apartment in time to play a little ping pong before it got too dark.
After that Jing started her meditation and soon after began to write:
Father is gone.
More than half the meaning of life has gone with him.
The things I bought for him have lost their value.
His image is on the sofa.
His movements are in the room.
His voice is in the air.
His scent lingers in the streets and mountains.
Every corner bears his trace.
I inhale deeply the scent of his clothes.
I want to bring him back to life.
I pray to be his child again in the next life.
I'm sure Jing will still be thinking about her dad often as I know he was quite important in Jing's life.
Jing sometimes talked about both her parents during the trip and it became clear to me that they were
both remarkable people as well as remarkable parents. But as far as I could tell tonight pretty much
wrapped up her period of intense mourning.
The previous night we slept on the bed in the room
that Guimei made up for us, but it was so hard that I wasn't very comfortable. When getting ready for bed I
suggested we try sleeping on the flat area of the couch on the other side of the room. Jing was fine either way
but I found it way more comfortable, so that's where we slept for the rest of the trip.
23-Mar-26 (Monday)
In the morning we headed back to Xuemei's house for breakfast. This is Xuemei in her courtyard hanging some
vegetable that she had washed out to dry. (I think it might be sea grass.) To the right you see their
electric scooter. I saw these scooters everywhere, dodging around cars and pedestrians. Gas is expensive
for them, so they prefer to use these scooters whenever possible. After breakfast we headed out to a different
mountain called Jiu shan. This was famous for the temple at the top.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
Actually, there were also many temples along the path to the summit. So many temples! And the sisters
went into every one. Whenever they went into a temple without fail each of them in turn would bow three
times in front of the Buddhist statue.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
The way up was quite steep, but made easier by the stairs and railings on most of the path.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
This is Jing on the final stretch up the mountain. She was lagging behind to take some photos
and also to look for a photo she had taken of her father on this very spot two years ago.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
Here is that picture from two years ago that I just mentioned. Impressive that her then 86 year-old
father was still able to climb this far.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
At the top there was an expansive temple with many sections and many rooms. Each room had several statues
such as these. I can't say this picture is representative, because the rooms as well as the statues
were all quite different.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
They purposely chose the most difficult path back down which was treacherous in many spots. But they are
all quite sure footed and had no problem making their way down. Still it wasn't hard for me to outpace
them and perhaps by now the two younger sisters (ages 56 and 58) realized they weren't dealing with
a typical 72 year-old man (as Jing already knew well).
Click on the picture to the full size image.
After we got back to the car we headed directly to the nearby natural springs of Bai Quan which is
a popular scenic destination. There was an entrance fee but it was free for seniors 60 and older. (Jing
just makes the cut.) The water is clear and beautiful and filled with thousands of brightly colored carp.
The bubbles you can see on the surface in this picture are where the water from the springs are entering
the lake. One can see many dozens of such spots.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
One of the many interesting structures on the expansive property.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
And here as well, there were more temples and many more statues ... just in case I haven't yet seen
enough statues for the day!
Click on the picture to the full size image.
I don't think the excursion to the natural springs was part of the original plan, and we extended the
plan yet again. After dropping Xuemei off at her home the three of us decided have dinner at Guimei's
son's house where he lives with his wife and two very cute daughters, ages 7 and 9. Actually I think
it's really Guimei's house which she bought so they would have a place to live. I don't remember exactly
where it was, but it was about a 30 minute drive to get there. It took me a while
to realize that the plan was for all of us to go out to a restaurant for dinner. This took
longer than expected since the piano teacher for the younger daughter arrived 30 minutes after we
got there and stayed for her full 1 hour lesson. Guimei's grandkids seemed to like me and wanted to
practice their English which was somewhat minimal (especially for the 7 year-old).
It was quite endearing when the 9 year-old wanted to hold my hand while we were walking to dinner
after parking the car.
We went to a pretty fancy restaurant which Guimei was paying for. It was probably in our honor although
Jing and I would have been at least as happy at a much more modest one. Her son mentioned that he had
never even been to this restaurant before. I thought we should be paying but Jing told me that it all
works out since she often sends money to her youngest sister (and to her parents when they were alive).
Actually we never had a chance to change any of our dollars to yuan so Guimei payed for everything.
Also Jing didn't have a Chinese account to link to WeChat which is the way transactions were made
at most vendors, and in fact they don't use cash very often. By the time we got back to the apartment
it was time for bed.
As an aside, now that I have been on the roads for a while I can say that it's somewhat more chaotic
from what we are used to. One difference is the huge number of electric scooters on the roads and
they weave around more unpredictably than the cars do. Jing had mentioned that traffic rules are now
enforced much better than it used to be making driving a lot safer. However I have seen Guimei and other
drivers sometimes drive totally against traffic for example if one overshoots a left turn and doesn't
wait for a legal spot do execute a U-turn. They just seem to expect that the oncoming cars and streams
of scooters will simply get out of the way. Also the use of the horn is a lot more common here. It's just
chaotic enough that I'm glad I didn't have to drive here.
24-Mar-26 (Tuesday)
We woke up early as usual and packed up for the day (actually for 2 days) and went out to breakfast
with Guimei to the same place a few blocks away. Also as before, the sisters brought our own bowls
and utensils. (I'm not quite sure why they do this.) This time I asked for half a bowl now that I
know how big the standard size is. I have a generous appetite for an American, but the Chinese seem
to eat even more. Next we picked up Xuemei and started the 1.5 hour drive to Zhengzhou. First we stopped
at a couple of government offices where Jing needed to take care of some paperwork issues. Then the
two younger sisters dropped Jing and me off and headed to their construction jobs in the city. They
will spend the night in the dormitory style living quarters provided by their workplace. Jing and I
walked around awhile and then found the restaurant where we were planning on meeting Yvonne, her
husband and her new baby (the same trio that brought me from the airport to Jing's village when I
first arrived.) Yvonne's brother and his girlfriend also met us at the restaurant where we had lunch.
Our table was in a private room and we were treated to a wide variety of traditional foods. Then they
dropped us off at a fancy hotel that they had booked for us. We freshened up with a shower and then met
up again with Yvonne and her husband and walked to the nearby school that they had founded. It's a private
English language school where children are taught English during off hours (when the kids are not at
their regular school). The school was
preparing to hold an English language public speaking contest for any of their students who wanted
to enter. This in fact was the reason for our visit to Zhengzhou. They wanted to make 3 videos,
the first to introduce the semifinal round to the contestants and families, the 2nd to introduce the
finalist round and the 3rd to explain the judging criteria. Although they have many skilled English
speakers at the school there were no native English speakers. Since they valued the example a native
English speaker could be they asked if I would be willing to be the speaker for these three videos.
Although I agreed to help I tried to tell them that I'm not really a good choice for this kind of job.
If they picked 100 random people off the street (in the US), 99 of them would be a better choice. My natural
mono-tone style is more adept at putting listeners to sleep than engaging them. They seemed to dismiss
this account, plus they didn't have 100 native English speakers to select from, and in fact they didn't
have any other native speaker options.
Here I am at the location of the shoot for the first video reviewing the script. It was mostly complete
although they were still collaborating on various versions. There were none of the grammatical errors one
usually encounters from foreign speakers, although I did suggest a few changes that made it sound more
natural to me and they accepted all of those. They had a teleprompter, although one difficulty was that
the camera was directly in front of the teleprompter. If I didn't remember a word that was blocked by the
camera I would make up a word that sounded right which was occasionally dramatically wrong requiring yet
another retake. Different words were blocked on each take since one of the production crew was doing the
scrolling manually on her computer. After the first take of the 3rd video they realized it was far too
long and went back to an earlier and shorter version.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
They gave me the shirt that the contestants would be wearing and wanted me to wear it for the shoot.
You might also be shocked that I'm wearing jeans. I haven't owned a pair of jeans in 5 decades, but
these are Jing's jeans which she convinced me to wear. The scrub pants I had brought where a bright
turquoise and even my backup pair was similarly bright. Evidently the Chinese don't wear such bright colors.
I have a pair of brown scrubs which I would have brought if I thought for even a second about it. I didn't find
these jeans comfortable only because the pockets were far to shallow, so after today I went back to my
usual scrubs. Being a foreigner is already enough to stick out like a sore thumb, so I'm thinking the
pants aren't going to change that equation by much.
I tried to avoid my usual monotone delivery style as well as I could, but frankly I think
every one of the production crew could have done a better job (except the camera man who
didn't speak any English). But evidently they valued pronunciation above any other skill,
and they went with the videos we shot that day, which you can see here if you want a laugh :)
Click on the picture to see all 3 videos.
After my 2.5 hours of hard work we walked back to our hotel for a "nap". Sharing the apartment
with Guimei hasn't inhibited our intimacy, yet it was nice to have some alone time, especially
with the relatively luxury of the hotel setting. Soon we were being picked up outside the hotel by
Yvonne, her husband, their 7 year old (Leon) and their 7 week old baby. Leon I knew well since
Jing used to bring him over to our house occasionally during the time he was in the US. I hadn't
seen the baby before, although she had been born in the US. The restaurant was a bit too fancy
for our taste with rich sauces on most items. I was already full and thinking the meal was
winding down when the main fish course arrived followed by the noodle course. I had one of these
"you've got to be kidding me" moments when that was followed by the soup course with a bowl put
in front of me big enough to be my entire meal. It was late by the time we got back to the
hotel.
25-Mar-26 (Wednesday)
I was hoping we would have a lazy morning and a late breakfast (which was included with the hotel).
Xuemie stayed at work today, but Guimei skipped work today and showed up at our hotel at 6:30 wanting
to join us for breakfast (which wasn't even served until 7am). The hotel graciously let her eat
with us even though they were aware that she wasn't a hotel guest. There were some vaguely breakfast
like foods but it was more things we would think of for dinner. It was buffy style, with food
you would expect at a 5 star restaurant. The fine food was somewhat wasted on me since I'm not
that hungry early in the morning, but the sisters went back for seconds at least. Then we stopped
at Yvonne's apartment and picked up a large suitcase so we could pack a lot of books that Jing wanted to
bring home including many books she had ordered recently.
Then we headed back, stopping in Huixian
(Jing's home town), a few miles away from the village where her apartment is located. There we
had tea at the shop of an acquaintance of Jing. He is an artist and sells beautiful rocks in his
shop that he finds in the nearby mountains. He also paints beautiful calligraphy on parchments for sale.
In fact he had just painted a dozen or so of these parchments and had them spread out on the floor of
his shop to dry. He stepped around them as did Jing and Guimei as we followed him into his shop, but
I didn't see them and stepped right on top of one of them. It's possible he said something to the
effect of "watch out for the parchments on the floor". If that was the case it was another example of
the disadvantage of not being able to speak Chinese. After tea he painted two more parchments for Jing.
At first he was reluctant to accept any payment, but accepted the cash when Jing insisted. (Later
Guimei was upset because she said Jing had given him too much money for them.) When we went back a few
days later to pick them up after drying he had painted two additional ones for Jing and also threw in
the one that clearly had my footprint on it since he probably couldn't sell that one anyway. So now we
had five parchments and he also had laminated them. We gave two of them to Guimei's son to display in
their house and took the remaining 3 home with us.
Click on the picture to see the video.
Then we went home and Guimei made us a wonderful lunch - a big bowl of rice, some pork on the bone,
some boiled cabbage and some duck leftover from last night's dinner. (After the dinner they gave us
the leftovers to take home.) I commented that I liked this meal more than the one at the fancy restaurant,
and Jing agreed with that sentiment.
After lunch Jing and I mostly just relaxed around the apartment. This was the first downtime for
either of us since arriving in China. It wasn't downtime for Guimei however who was scurrying around
organizing and cleaning the apartment - the first time in a month that she had time to do this. Our
only activity for the afternoon was to play some ping-pong on the dilapidated table a few blocks away.
Surprisingly, the ping pong ball fell thru one of the holes in the table only once and that was the first
time it happened after using the table several times.
We had another delicious home made meal including some more of the restaurant leftovers. In the evening
we drove a few miles to a festival. There was a carnival area for children, with games and prizes. Many
other areas of the expansive paved area were carved out for different dance, movement, and performance forms.
One area Jing called square dancing, although this was not the type of dancing that we call square dancing
in the US. Eventually we found the ballroom dance section, and there we met up with Jing's artist friend
that we had tea with the day before. (I thought this was a coincidence, but in fact they planned to meet
here. One of the many examples of things that happen when you don't understand the language everyone is speaking.)
Sometimes I had trouble picking up the beat but Jing who has some dance experience was able to help me out
there. Curiously Jing could lead well but resisted following despite my best efforts.
Here I'm dancing with Guimei who had little dance experience, but at least she could follow when I was
able to present a strong lead.
The last dance before the dancing ended for the night was a disco beat, a break from the typical ballroom
music. Everybody was dancing line dancing style, sidestepping:
Left,2,3, step touch, step touch, Right,2,3, step touch, step touch ... and repeat - a trivial pattern
for my folk dance brain so I picked it up before the end of the first repeat.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
26-Mar-26 (Thursday)
For breakfast this morning we finally finished off the duck, pork, and fried noodle leftovers from
previous meals. Today Jing, Guimei, and I decided to visit the Baoquan scenic tourist center, so we
headed out right after finishing breakfast.
After parking and getting our tickets we took the bus which was the only way to get to the main tourist
destination partway up the mountain. We walked around the large area for about 3 hours admiring the sites.
The views along the bus ride were also beautiful and was the only way to see the large reservoir the area
is famous for. My understanding is that tourist centers like this are quite popular and a relatively new
concept for the Chinese. I think this center opened about 5 years ago. It was billed as "The Grand Canyon
of China".
While the natural beauty of the area was remarkable, this scenic area attempted to present
a sterile view of nature as much as possible. While our Grand Canyon in Arizona has some man made structures and railings, every attempt is made to preserve the natural beauty. Here, the opposite is true.
Everything is built up. Decorations and lights on the trees, many colorful artistic structures along the path ranging from tiny to immense carefully crafted rock formations. Although there are several natural waterfalls there are also many sculpted man made waterfalls as if the nature that is there isn't enough for them. And
they aren't satisfied with just the natural flowers and diverse plant life of the area as they included a huge
field of arranged flowers that could rival those seen at any flower garden scenic area. A scenic area
like this couldn't exist in the US, but the Chinese seem to like nature packaged up for them in a way
that keeps nature more distant and in control. I found it interesting that all the announcements on the
bus and elsewhere were first in Chinese and then in English ... but why? (I didn't see any foreigners here.)
I know several million Americans visit China yearly but they don't seem to come here.
(Perhaps they go to Beijing, Shanghai, and other big cities).
Click on the picture to the full size image.
Near one of the waterfalls a man and a woman were demonstrating log balancing, a traditional art form.
You can't tell from the video, but it is actually quite windy which you could tell made the task more
difficult especially when they fist launched from the shore.
Click on the picture to see the video.
On the drive home we stopped at a place for lunch. Everything was outside including the cook and the
customer seating. I ordered the dumplings and soon a plate of dumplings was put in front of me with
at least 3 times as many as I could eat. (I have found that dumplings are quite filling.) Included was
a small bowl of soup, although it was not to my taste. The sisters ordered a soup which is one of the
most common foods here, filled mostly with noodles and vegetables. They arrived in bowls so large we
wouldn't even think of them as serving bowls, but more like mixing bowls. This didn't faze them however
and they at all the noodles and vegetables and most of the liquid as well. Then they finished off my
dumplings since I only ate 1/3 of them. It's interesting that at home, Jing eats less than I do, but
here she eats like they do here ... much larger portions. You would think they would all be fat
eating that much, but no. Actually I don't see any fat people. They don't eat processed foods however.
And sweets are pretty rare too. Perhaps that's the difference. Also they work harder here. After we
got up from our table, the proprietor asked if he could shake hands with me while his coworker snapped
a photograph. As usual, I'm quite the celebrity. I'm pretty sure that I was the first American to eat
at his restaurant.
We had a little down time in the afternoon so I downloaded the latest edition of the San Jose
Mercury news and read a good part of it. When traveling, I usually at least look at every edition,
but this was the first edition I have had time to look at since finishing the paper that I brought
with me on my flight out of SFO. Guimei and Jing made a wonderful dinner as usual and after that
the plan was to go out dancing again. However we were all feeling a bit tired for that and decided
to stay home. So I was surprised when shortly after that Jing and Guimei decided to visit their
local temple. I felt like I had already seen enough temples and decided to stay home and finish
the paper and write a few pages in the journal you are currently reading.
27-Mar-26 (Friday)
This morning we went into Huixian, first to the large festival area where we had been dancing
the night before last. It looked quite different in the daylight but as before the massive
paved area was divided haphazardly into many sections with different group and solo activities.
This video shows a handful of those activities.
Click on the picture to see the video.
The we went to the main market to buy ingredients for pork & chive dumplings for lunch (which
were delicious). Here is the station where we bought the chives and other vegetables. The woman
selling them said she knew who I was. Evidently Jing's artist friend was taking some video at the
ballroom dance area and posted them on his social media. An American around these parts is already
rare enough, but a dancing American evidently quite a novelty. So now I'm famous around the whole town!
Click on the picture to the full size image.
I entertained myself in the afternoon while the sisters ran some errands and then took the long hour
drive to pick up Guimei's granddaughters after school and brought them back to our apartment. By
the time they got here and we finished up some dumplings and other leftovers for dinner, it was time
for the grandkids to get a start on their weekend homework so
Jing and I left to play some ping pong with maybe an hour of daylight left in the day. At first
there were just a few young children around, again oblivious to our game and occasionally getting
in the way. Then later a dozen or so older kids came around obviously interested in our game.
Jing encouraged them to practice their English with me which I did while continuing to play.
They learn English in school, but mostly reading and writing. They don't get the opportunity
to speak very often, and almost never with a native English speaker. I was quite the celebrity as usual.
We noticed that a couple of
them had ping pong paddles with them and eventually they asked if they could play. We played singles
with Jing and I taking turns on one side (although mostly me) and the kids taking turns on the other.
Since there were a lot of kids wanting to play, we played short games (first to win 3 points) and
then they swapped players. Most of the kids were pretty good players, although Jing and I are accomplished
players and were generally able to beat them at these short games. (I think I lost only one out of many
and the same for Jing.) They were all disappointed when we finally declared it was too dark to see
the ball and left to go home (our home away from home). We retired to our usual room and the kids
retired with their grandma in her room.
28-Mar-26 (Saturday)
We got a 7am start on our drive (about an hour) to Yun Tai Shan (mountain). We stopped for breakfast
along the way. I had the same soup that I usually had for breakfasts out ... a moderately spicy soup with vegetables and noodles toped with a thick tofu sour cream consistency slurry that you break up with your
spoon to mix into the soup. It seems to be the most popular breakfast here. I'm growing to like it yet
still I don't think it is going to take over as my usual breakfast any time soon :)
I wrote that the previous scenic area we saw (Baoquan) was billed as the Grand Canyon of China,
yet that moniker is probably even more appropriate for this place. It has a deep canyon, much like our Grand Canyon, although still not nearly as deep. The area was larger and the natural beauty even more
spectacular than Baoquan where we visited a few days ago. And here it also had even more of a Disney
land flavor mixed in, a combination that I think could only happen here in China. The path down into
the canyon was a wooden path or sections paved with stone and steps carved into the rock on all the steep sections. And again, fake nature was mixed in with the real stuff, such as floral arrangements and plastic
butterflies along side the path and even fake hot springs with mechanical water sprayers used to create
the mist you might see at a natural hot spring. This picture was taken perhaps around half way down
on the main loop around the scenic area and shows just one of the many waterfalls we saw.
Click on the picture to the full size image.
One of the many
things that gave me this Disney land feel was the crowds. This place is extremely popular and even more
so in the spring time. It's unfortunate we came here on a weekend since I believe around 2 or 3 times
as many people come here on the weekends. I don't think you can imagine how many people are here today
although this picture gives you a hint. (This is just one section of a path that goes on for a few miles.)
The picture doesn't tell the whole story. The paths were wide but so full of people we could
usually manage no more than a slow shuffle. The five of us tried to stay together but despite our best
efforts we did get split into two groups a few times. Even with cell phones it was quite a challenge
to get reunited. Without them it's hard for me to imagine ever finding your loved ones again. As far
as I know we had no fool proof plan in place. (Even finding the car at the end of the day seemed improbably
enough, although eventually Guimei did manage to do just that.) The main loop around the scenic area was
fairly long, slow moving and tiring and after completing it I think it would have been enough for
everyone. However there was a secondary loop that they were considering. It was suggested by the signs
that it would take about two hours to complete. Jing asked for my opinion. The signs didn't give
any indication of elevation gain but I could see that it was quite substantial. It did look quite
attractive and as a bonus, the difficulty of the hike meant that it was a lot less crowded. By US
standard the trail was still over crowded but not by Chinese standards. Heck, for most of the way,
one could usually walk at a natural pace for that kind of terrain. I was not concerned for me and Jing.
(Several weeks ago we had just hiked to the top of Black Mountain which was far more difficult than
this one, and it seemed that Guimei was just as strong.) However the older grandchild (9) had already
been complaining on the first loop about how tired her legs were getting. I told Jing that I doubted
the kids could make it, but Jing insisted that they would be fine with it. I decided not to press my
point, so off we went.
Sure enough, buy the time we got maybe 1/10 of the way to the top (an after the fact estimate) the
younger one (age 7) was on her last legs. Guimei decided to turn around with her there and make their
way back to the car. The three of us pressed on ahead, and I would say the views and scenery were
worth the effort. I was impressed with the 9 year old. I think she wanted to impress me about how
strong she was which kept us moving well, although she did need a few short rests along the way.
Also she wanted to hold my hand for most of the way!
On our drive back home an elderly man cut across our path on his bicycle. Guimei honked but the
man did not react. Then Guimei braked hard but still hit the cyclist. I had noticed that Guimei
used her horn frequently usually several times on every drive. The man was clearly not riding
safely, but I think Guimei could have avoided him if using the horn was not her first reaction.
Although the man was knocked over, he did not seem injured and he accepted 200 yuan for his troubles.
Later Guimei attributed that accident and also the fact that Jing and I both got cold's from the
long flight home to a decision we made that day not to visit a particular place. I found it interesting
that a week later Guimei went hours out of her way to visit the place we had decided to skip and
afterwards was much happier and she felt that everything was now right with the world and we would
come to no harm. I'm not sure if this place had a spiritual significance, but either way it's a type
of thinking that I'm not used to. Jing is very spiritual, especially compared to me. However when I
compare Jing to the rest of her family, she seems almost coolly logical.
We got back to the apartment in time for a quick dinner consisting mostly of leftovers. Jing was hoping
we would have time to play some more ping pong after dinner, but it was time to drive the grandkids back
home (an hour in each direction). Again I let the two sisters take care of that, and got some time to
relax and write in my journal.
29-Mar-26 (Sunday)
We had a somewhat lazy morning with a late breakfast (at least by local standards) consisting of
sweet potato, pork, and fried noodles. Then Jing and I went to play some ping pong. We walked past
the table we had been playing at since Jing knew of another place that would probably have a table
a few blocks further thinking it might be in better shape. Although the pollution here is mild
compared to the big cities, even here it is enough to give the sky a typical gray tinge. However
it had rained hard last night and we heard some very loud thunderclaps as we were falling asleep.
The rain had cleared the skies giving us a wonderful bright blue sunny morning. When we got to the
second table I could see that it was in better shape, with a surface that was smooth with no holes.
However the net was completely missing. We decided that even a dilapidated net is better than no net
so we walked back and played on the other table. The table was wet but Jing had some paper with her
which we used to dry off the table the best we could. BTW, this paper I'm talking about is multipurpose.
A roll of it is in the kitchen like we use paper towels, and a roll on the table for napkins, and
of course a roll in the bathroom. It has perforations, although I'm not sure why as it rarely rips
along the perforations. Oh, and you usually should carry some with you since public toilets rarely have any.
After that we started packing up our things. That only took a few minutes for me since I had only
brought a small backpack and surprisingly almost all my cloths were still clean. Showers are not
a big thing here so we mostly just wore the same cloths every day. We have taken only two showers
up to this point, one at the hotel and one here a couple of days after I got here. The shower here
isn't very convenient and you had to sit down in the tub to get it to work at all. (Reminds me of
England. Even though England seems to be an advanced society, that don't seem to know as much about
plumbing as we do. At least it was that way when I stayed in some private homes there decades ago.)
And also they don't seem to know about bath towels. The largest towel Guimei had was the size of our hand towels
and there were only two in the apartment, and one was in the wash. (It was a great shower in the luxury
hotel however.) Also they had done one load of laundry which included a couple of my things. No dryer
of course. Everything was dried on a line in the terrace room. Jing scurried around the apartment
finding things she wanted to bring home. It was likely that the apartment will empty for a while.
After the 5 week ceremony (another traditional gathering that happens 5 weeks after a burial), Guimei
plans to move to Beijing for a while now that her responsibility as her father's caregiver is over.
She recently took a course in caregiving and has an agency in Beijing that will set her up with a job there.
Even with the higher living expenses in Beijing she will be able to make a lot more money when compared
to the construction job she has been doing here. Jing feels much closer to Guimei than to anyone else
in her family and would love to be able to get her to the US somehow. But it's difficult, and even more
so in the climate of the current administration. So if you know any single men who would like to marry
an exceptionally friendly, compassionate, and hard working 56 year old who currently speaks no English,
please let us know!
In the afternoon, we loaded our stuff into Guimei's car and headed off to Zhengzhou. First we met up
with Yvonne and her husband. (Sorry, I still don't remember his name as it wasn't an easy one to remember.)
They had a baby stroller they had bought for Guoguo (Yvonne's sister and Jing's daughter-in-law) back in CA.
(Guoguo is due in June). I knew about the stroller, but they also had a fairly large bag of other stuff they
wanted us to bring back. I immediately thought about the exorbitant excess luggage fees. Yvonne was convinced
that we could just bring the stroller on board and they would find a place for it since that was her experience.
I was doubtful and indeed it turns out you can only do that if you also have the baby along with you. But
I was wrong about needing to pay for excess luggage. I thought our tickets included one 20kg checked bag
for each of us, but actually we were allowed two 20kg bags each so even with checking the stroller we were
well within the limits. They had booked the same luxurious hotel for us. It was very nice, but we would
have been happy in any of the small cheaper hotels that were nearby. They also invited us out to another
fancy dinner this time including Guimei as well. Also like the previous time, we also met up with
Yvonne's brother and his girlfriend at the restaurant. After dinner they drove us back to the hotel.
Guimei was planning on driving us to the airport (about 20 minutes away) in the morning, so Jing offered to
let her sleep on the couch in our room. I would have been fine with that, but I can't say I was disappointed
when Guimei decided to let us have our privacy. Guimei went to stay the night at the dormitory provided by
her employer. She decided it was a waste of gas to drive the car with just her in it, so she planned to rent
an electric scooter for the journey. However all the scooters were rented and so she rented a plain human
powered bicycle. She said it would only be about a 30 minute ride on the bike. We did enjoy our privacy, and
also our 3rd shower of the trip before bed and our 4th and last shower in the morning.
30-Mar-26 (Monday)
Guimei came back to our hotel at around 6:45am and we loaded up her car with our greatly expanded
luggage. The hotel breakfast opened at 7 and again the hotel let Guimei eat with us. By 7:20 we were ready
to leave. Guimei got us to the airport by 8am (2.75 hours before our flight). That's perhaps
a bit conservative, but that was my preference not being familiar with this airport and travel
in China. Checking in was complicated but still went smoother than I expected and we were at our
gate with more than an hour to spare. Our layover in Seoul was only about 75 minutes, but fortunately
the arriving and departing flights were in the same terminal, otherwise I'm not sure we would
have made it. The second leg (to SFO) was only 10.5 hours, much shorter than our original flights
departing SFO (mine to Taipei and Jing's to Hong Kong). We arrived in SFO at about 10:45am,
pretty close to the exact day and time we departed Zhengzhou. The line at immigration was huge
but moved surprisingly well. I was grateful that Laurens was able and willing to come to the
airport to drive us home. I was surprised that after we got our luggage out he reached in and
grabbed another box for us which contained some bread, milk, cheese, bananas and grapes ...
a few supplies he said to get us thru the rest of the day. It was in fact enough to get us
thru the day and half of the next!
I'm so glad as was able to go on this trip. It was wonderful to spend so much time with Jing and
to see how and where she spent her formative years. It's also nice to be home, back in familiar
surroundings. It feels that we have returned with a new appreciation for each other.
Something will be lost in translation, but this is what I got from Google Translate:
While the natural beauty of the area was remarkable, this scenic area attempted to present
a sterile view of nature as much as possible. While our Grand Canyon in Arizona has some man made structures and railings, every attempt is made to preserve the natural beauty. Here, the opposite is true.
Everything is built up. Decorations and lights on the trees, many colorful artistic structures along the path ranging from tiny to immense carefully crafted rock formations. Although there are several natural waterfalls there are also many sculpted man made waterfalls as if the nature that is there isn't enough for them. And
they aren't satisfied with just the natural flowers and diverse plant life of the area as they included a huge
field of arranged flowers that could rival those seen at any flower garden scenic area. A scenic area
like this couldn't exist in the US, but the Chinese seem to like nature packaged up for them in a way
that keeps nature more distant and in control. I found it interesting that all the announcements on the
bus and elsewhere were first in Chinese and then in English ... but why? (I didn't see any foreigners here.)
I know several million Americans visit China yearly but they don't seem to come here.
(Perhaps they go to Beijing, Shanghai, and other big cities).