What Chinese means - Obviously created by a Chinese person

____________________________________________________________________

Cell  - 415 225-3413 |  www.linkedin.com/in/leihan | @leihan @bemycareercoach
Websites - www.bemycareercoach.com | www.rwomarketing.com | 

Facebook page - www.facebook.com/bemycareercoach - Support me by clicking LIKE on page

"Vision without action is a daydream; action without vision is a nightmare!"

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween.  This year, Isabel is the fire princess and Alexis is the little bunny.  ;-)

Sent from my iPhone

What I learned from my china trip

I learned that I have a really fun loving, creative, caring extended family.  I think I always knew that to some extent but this time I was able to experience it more since we all travelled together

I learned I will always miss my Chinese extended family. I like it that my Chinese heritage and language skills are still strong inside me. I tend to store it in a box when I am back in the US since I am always so busy with kids work life.  But I realized I don't feel complete unless I can also maintain my closeness with my family in china.  I am glad I spent time with them.

I am learning from my big sister - cousin weiwei that there is always a way to speak with wittiness and humor yet address serious subjects.  She is a master at this and can make me laugh, care for me and point out ways i can improve all in a few sentences in a way that I can listen to and appreciate.  She can do this with everyone in our family and its brilliant.  Fundamentally I know my big sister has a huge heart and gives generously.  I learned a lot from her on this trip and hope to learn more on we chat and when she visits me.

I learned that I am blessed with good fortune and good friends in my life.  My visit to shanghai with friends really warmed my heart.  We had a blast and can still have deep conversation even after years of not seeing or talking to each other

I learned that time and experiences are the most precious things in life more than money.  I have come to know that lately but I really felt the richness in my life during this trip.

I learned how lucky I truly am to have such a supportive loving husband who encouraged me to go on this trip. I am grateful for how he has helped me grow everyday. ;-).

I learned that when I look for the good in people and in situations no matter what, I enjoy life more. 

I learned that when I don't try to over-plan or worry, things tends to fall into the place the way they should be ;-)

I am learning that just because I feel any physical discomfort from jet lag, bad sleep etc doesn't mean I have the right to have a bad mood and distribute my discomfort to others.  I can still choose to be good humored even in discomfort.  I see my big sis do this with grace. I am still learning.  This is one only child trait I know I have that is hard to break but I am working on it.

I learned its important to appreciate others for all that they do for me and for my parents.  The more I appreciate the world and my loved one in it, the more beautiful life is.  ;-)

Last but not the least, I learned blogging is super therapeutic especially on a trip like this.  ;-). I can rabble for hours as you can see. 




Lei

Sent from my iPhone

Juicy super sweet mini pineapples

We had these in Xiamen on our way to the airport. They sell them peeled for $0.50.  It was delicious and super sweet.





Sent from my iPhone

Air china vs. United airlines

I am surprised to say this but I prefer Air china over united now flying to and from china.

- the food is way better on air china although one drawback is only serve two meals for a 12 hour flight.  United serves 3 but really bland meals.

- bathroom is cleaner on air china with air freshener and frequent cleaning.  United does not really keep up the cleaning for a long flight. 

- allows for two luggage check in free instead of only one on united. 

for both flights, I was impressed at how fast I could get out of the airport even with checkedin luggage.  It was under 45 minutes including going through borders, customs, and picking up luggage.  This used to take 2 hours.  Efficiency has definitely improved at the airport or maybe I was lucky.  Either way, that part was great :-)

a few tips on flights

1.  book an aisle seat closer to the back of the plane.  More likely to get a whole row to yourself as most people prefer aisle seats.  You can also move once everyone has boarded

2.  bring some food to eat as even if air china food is good, they only serve two meals.  you will be hungry in between if you didn't bring your own food.  You can ask for an extra and they will give it to you if they have any left over.

3. drink a ton of liquids as airplanes tends to suck up all moisture from your body.  This is why I love noodle soup after flying. :-)

Lei
Sent from my iPhone

My run in Xiamen

On the last day, I also had time to fit a quick 2.3 mile run in the morning. This makes a total of four runs in china. Not bad.

Our hotel was right by the port so the scenery was great

Our last day in Xiamen

I will keep this short. We visited two more places on Sunday - our last day in Xiamen

1. Yuan ber yuan - worlds park where there are structures representing every province plus structures representing some key countries around the world. Would have been awesome to run here as its huge and beautiful. Of course I took more goofy pictures. ;-)

2. The tomb of a famous person with the last name of chen. He returned from study's overseas and donated $100m back in the 1950 to build two schools in Xiamen and contribute to building the city. Even in his death he didn't want to displace anyone's land with his tomb so he requested to have part of the sea filled with dirt to built his tomb.

After that is us at the airport waiting for our flight. Overall a great 5 day trip. My dad hope to do this every six months. Realistically it probably happen once a year but still that would be great. My mom really enjoy it as did all my relatives plus my cousin and I. This would an awesome tradition. Hopefully jaime can join next time too.

Five awesome things about china

While there are inconveniences, there are also things we have in china that are simply the best

1. Of course is the food. From banquet to food stands, fruit stands to super market, there is much more varieties of food that are more yummy and cheap in china. These are all of my food pictures. I love the breakfast and snacks at food stands. The health standards are much higher now so luckily my stomach dealt fine with all the food I ate. We will see about how many pounds I gained. Haha but it will be worth it. Also it's actually not hard to be on a low carb diet in china. Most food are served first without any starch. Rice and noodles are served last so you can basically get full and not eat any, although I ate plenty ;-)

2. Bullet trains and subways. I am impressed with how well the bullet trains ran. My 5 hour trip to shanghai would have taken 2 hours of flight time. All major cities have great subway systems that are clean and on time and easy to navigate as they all have English signs.

3. Pampering service are very cheap. There are a ton of massage places that are nice and with good technique. An hour massage may only cost $15-20 with no tip needed. Yeah no tipping is needed anywhere in china in restaurants or services. There are also services we don't have in the us. I got an hour head scalp massage with dry conditioning, shampoo and hair styling for $10. The scalp massage was simply divine.

4. Prices are cheap except for clothes. Taxis are only $1-4 in Tianjin for up to 30 min drive. Food and fruits are cheap. Brand clothes on the other hand are at least 50% more han the US. Service is overall is also so much better than before. I used to not like the part of shopping because the sales person would criticize you if you didn't buy after looking. Now almost everywhere I go service is pretty good and courteous. Same things with taxi driver. Much nicer.

5. Last but not the least. Warmth of family. I didn't realize how much I missed my extended family until I came here and how welcoming everyone is. There is nothing that can compare to love of blood relations. I have been in the US so long with my parents that I forget that warmth. Don't get me wrong, I also love my own family and Jaimes. My life have been very enriched by them. What I mean is that a part of me though missed my Chinese relatives. Perhaps it's just my own extended family but perhaps overall the Chinese culture promotes closer relationship with blood relatives than that of American culture. This time I feel like I am more complete after spending some quality time with my extended family here ;-)