China - You May Travel

Details: Written by Steve May; Category: China; Published: March 25, 2019; Hits: 3986

A wonderful family lunch at a fantastic hot-pot restaurant call "From the Bottom of the Sea". Backrow: Duan Duan (Nanqi's niece), Little Cloud (Nanqi's sister, Duan Duan's mom), HaiNing (Cloud's husband), Duan Duan's son, Dui (Duan Duan's husband), Dui's sister with her son. Front row: Nanqi's mom, Nanqi, Steve, and Dui's father.

We spent 5 days in Xian visting with family, eating way too much wonderful food, and spent a moving and emotional hour visiting Nanqi's father grave.

Mom and daughters: Little Cloud and Little Mao (Nanqi)

Nanqi at about age 22 with her parents and sister, Little Three

A visit to Nanqi's father's grave.

Cleaning Dad's tombstone

Cleaning the tombstone was a sober group effort

The ritual burning of paper money at the gravesite is a spiritual way of sending money to the deceased, so they will not suffer in the afterworld

Top right block of text: From YuShu county JiLin province. Born May 29th in Chinese Lunar calendar year 1928. Died October 28th 2004. Middle block: Father You RongWu Bottom left block text (from right to left vertical): Daughters: You NanQi ,You XiangQi, You ChangQi; Spouses: Steven, Li HaiNing, Zhang XiHua; Grandchildren: Yuan YAYA, Li Duan, You Long, Zhang BoHeng. Placed on site with respect on 21st of October 2005.

Details: Written by Steve May; Category: China; Published: March 14, 2019; Hits: 3984

Birthday Boy Steve

We arrived in ShenZhen about 9AM, after an overnight flight from Goa to Delhi to Hong Kong. But that lack of sleep didn't get in the way of a dinner celebrating Xinhua's birthday with a group of his friends. He was born in 1970, meaning he is legally 49 years old this year; however, many Chinese start the count 1 year earlier, during the time in the womb - meaning he is now 50 - that is a big deal!! Loads of delicious food and way too much to drink made for a great time; the only casualty was Xinhua's memory - he remembers nothing of the later part of the evening, hahaha. And since he drove us to the restaurant we had to hire a driver to get us all back home.

Xiahua, Nanqi, and Little Three Steve

Birthday Cake Steve

Friends having a great time Steve

Lobster and Salmon. The lobster meat, served raw, is almost clear and served on the pedestal of crushed ice. Absolutely the best lobster I've ever had. And the salmon was also outstanding. Steve

Wonderful whole fish Steve

Excellent wine - we drank 5 bottle of this wine, plus another bottle brought by a friend. We then had one of these left after the party and drank it as a nightcap when we got home. Xinhua missed the nightcap...LOL Steve

Maotai, a famous Chinese white liquor, is loved by many here - don't really work for me. But in addition to the 6 total bottles of wine consumed, 2 bottles of this were consumed. Steve

Xinhau and friends singing us a song. Steve

Xinhau a bit messy with the cake - and some help from a friend. Steve

Xinhua and I as the evening was winding down. Steve

Xinhua was about done by this time - I think I am mostly holding him up...hahaha Steve

Details: Written by Nanqi You; Category: China; Published: March 14, 2019; Hits: 3914

At Little Three and Xinhua's House in ShenZhen, eating snakes... Nanqi You

We flew into Hong Kong very early on March 10th. My brother-in-law Xinhua picked us up and started our 10 day whirlwind visit in China.

Mar 10-12: Shenzhen visiting my little sister (Little Three - yes that is her name) and her husband Xinhua who celebrated his 49th birthday (details in the post "XinHua's Birthday Celebration). They just became empty nested a few months ago when their daughter went to college in the US. We ate ourselves silly.
Mar 12 - 13: we were in YiWu, 2 hours flight from ShenZhen. This is where I imported my jewelry kits into a jewelry club a few years ago. Jacky, my contact and liaison, has since gotten married and has 2 children. We were there to visit Jacky and his family while we checked out some potential products for imports. We were overwhelmed just like last time, but opportunities are endless. Pictures below.
Mar 13 - 15: HangZhou, visiting my dear friend ZhouJing, whose Walla Walla house we have been living in for the last few years. She impresses me every single time I visit her work place. She is currently a consultant for this top ranked company Nong Fu Spring which is ranked top 10 food and beverage companies in China and is expected to go public in 2 years, wathc this one. Her specialty is setting up HR systems for companies so they can operate at the tightest and crack proof level. She is currently full-time there and occupies a very important slot. IMPRESSIVE.
Mar 15 - 20: Xian, visiting my mom and my middle sister (Little Cloud and yes, that is her name). More to come.