Six modern inconveniences to note about china

I am writing this also to remind myself of what isabel need to expect when she visits china as I really hope to bring her to visit next time.

Here are 6 inconveniences in china that are not easy to get use to

1. Biggest one is public bathroom - yes I took a picture of one. This one is clean at least. Majority of public bathrooms are like this unless you are at high end places. If you ever wonder why all Chinese people can squat all the way down, this is why - daily practice. You basically have to pee or poop while squatting this way.

On top of that, most of them don't have toilet paper. You have to bring your own. And if you really go local, some bathroom won't even have doors to separate people. You basically have to pee and poop in front of people in worse case scenario. I grew up this way in china this way so i can deal but it can be a shock for others

2. Hot water temperature need to be turned on and can be unpredictable. This shouldn't be a problem in hotels but I stayed with family and Chinese families all have a water heater that they turn on when they want to use hot water for showers and stuff. You have to adjust the gadge on the water heater to get the right temperature otherwise the shower could be too cold or too hot.

3. Don't drink ice water. The water from the faucet is not drinkable so all water are filtered or boiled to drink. Most Chinese people don't make ice especially if its not summer. You also can never get free ice water in restaurants. Free water is usually hot water or warm water.

4. Cars have the right of way. In the US, people have the right of way. it's not the case in china. I had to remember that the first few days as I almost got ran over a few times. Even when the light is green, the turning cars will cut you off or honk at you loudly if you are in the way.

5. Bed mattress are mostly uncomfortable. The nice hotel are fine. I stayed at two sheratons and they probably import their mattresses. There is probably a huge market opportunity for selling comfy mattresses in china. Most of them are hard or too soft or lack the right level of support. I experienced it myself at my aunts house and in hotels in small towns plus my friend In shanghai also complained about the same thing and she has been back four years. You can get luxury mattresses but it's not affordable for most people. I got used to it after awhile but I SO MISS MY COMFY bed.

6. Wu Mai - which is the pollution in the area that looks like fog. It's not everyday but after a few days of no wind, the fog builds up that is full of fine dust. It stung my eyes after walking around a bit. There is too any cars that doesn't meet the emission standards US has and industrial companies inside the city. When Wu Mai is bad my cousin doesn't even let his kids outside.

I worry most about #1,4,6 for isabel but I know kids adapt as I did. Also we wouldn't be visiting for long maybe 2-3 weeks max. We will see.

Great family reunions in Tianjin

One of the biggest reason to visit china this year is for a family reunion. My parents and I haven't gone back together to china for 7 years before grandma passed away.

I was debating whether to go back to china vs spend time with my parents in houston. When I heard my parents was going back to china, it made the decision easy.

Besides many small reunions, we had 3 big ones in Tianjin my home town where most of my relatives still live.

First, was my uncle's birthday dinner party. He is my moms brother. He and his wife are the closest relative on my moms side. I grow up with their sons in china like they are my brothers. One of the sons, zhao Peng, were able to make it to the dinner from Beijing. The other who live in shanghai was unfortunately too far to make it. We had a banquet of food and great conversation about politics and past memories

Second dinner was a reunion of all my dad side of the family. I have 4 first cousins I am very close to, especially weiwei who you always see me in photos with. She is basically my big sister. We of course had another banquet and again talked about life philosophies, parenting techniques as most of us now have kids, and of course childhood memories

Third reunion was the night before I was leaving to home. It was only for my cousins and their spouses - no elders no kids. We had hotpot. I didn't know what to expect regarding conversation but it was simply AWESOME. I found out how smart they all are as well as what they currently are learning or struggling with. We spent 4 hours together and it flew by. Our conversation went very deep and my heart is warmed with the memories of their passion, wisdom, openness, and love for life and for our little gathering. Thanks to we chat who most of them have, we can keep in touch more easily. ;-). They usually won't see each other except twice a year. Now they will try to gather once a month and probably send me pictures of good food to make me jealous ;-). I feel so enriched by this overall homecoming experience. We are all grown yet we still can be so close. I am very thankful for that.

Two hour boat cruise to Taiwan border

The thing about a Chinese boat cruise is everything has an upsell. We paid $20 each for a ticket and you would think we can roam around all 3 levels of the boat. Well you would be wrong.

2nd floor cost $10 more each for so call tea service and 3rd floor cost $17 more each since it's the top floor for more tea service.

First floor is dark and inside an air conditioned room with just rows of seats. It looked Pretty depressing. One good thing is though with price hikes like this, things are also negotiable since if we don't go upstairs they would not make any money.

My cousin and I put our bargaining skills to good use and got 9 of us up there for $50 more total. We were happy and they were as well. We got the perfect corner spot for many nice photos as well as a quick nap on the way back. ;-)

"Four dishes and a soup"

This post is not about food as you may have thought. Instead it describes the "dirt buildings" - old villages we visited in the mountains that can be over 700 years old build completely with dirt.

This first photo here shows a group of these structure from above and they look like four food dishes with a soup in the middle therefore the name of the post ;-)

These old structure were discovered in the 1970s by the Americans actually. The story goes that US satellites saw these organized structures from space and thought they may be hidden nuclear weapons and therefore send spies to china protesting to be reporters to climb over mountain to find them.

What they found were these villages full of people basically farmers who has lived here for centuries. Now these types of building have become tourist hot spots with well made roads built to allow buses to bring tourists to visit.

Have you seen the Chinese movie kungfu hustle? I am pretty sure it was filmed in one of these structures ;-)

Gu Lang Yu - Xiamen famous island

We took a 6 min ferry from xiamen to go to this famous island where only rich foreigners used to live. It's got mountains, beach, tons of cute alley ways.

I would have like to spend all day there but alas I was part of the Chinese tour (which tried to fit many places into one day)

We walked around some cute alley ways, visited a piano museum that had over 100 priceless pianos collected from all over the world, took pictures by the oceans and had Popsicles and fresh coconut water to cool off.

The seafood there looked amazing but we didn't have time to eat there ;-(. As usual however we took plenty of fun pictures.