My Second Chinese New Year in China

Chinese New Year 2008 - The Year of the Rat

Finally, a holiday. The weather in China for the 2 weeks prior to the Chinese New Year record breaking. Huge snow storms brought the country to a stop. The timing was really bad as the the Chinese New Year is the traditional time for everybody in China to go home to be with their family. The worlds largest annual human migration. Trains were impossible to get tickets on. Buses weren't running because roads were all closed. Many airports were being closed. It was chaos.

The weather and customs made our lives hell at work. We were waiting for some parts to be shipped from Canada to Ningbo and they got stuck in customs in Shanghai for a week. We were waiting for other parts which couldn't be shipped because of the weather. We had to ship our pumps prior to Feb.3rd by 6pm or they wouldn't clear customs. We finally got the parts at 9pm on the 2nd and some of our people worked 30 hours straight to finish the pumps. We were all pitching in to build pumps, carry parts to be gaged, package and prepare for shipping... Those guys are our Heros!!!

So finally I started my holiday. Flew from Ningbo to Shanghai, spent the night then flew to Liuzhou. I stayed with my little sister Qiufeng.

The first night I went to my friend Ken's bar and met up with a couple of friends.

And my little brother invited me to his family's New Year's eve dinner. We went to the Temple again this year to pray for good luck and health in the new year.

I had a headache and Ray's family had me trying all kinds of Chinese cures including this one which is to eat the pig's brain 猪脑 with a dried root called tian ma 天麻. Actually, I felt better afterward.

Fireworks by the river. There were 4 big shows in Liuzhou this year and where we were standing we could see 3 of them at the same time. Cool!!!

Next we travelled about 5 hours south west of Liuzhou to our friend Rose's home town Baise. This is her parent's house. They live in a housing complex built by a factory for the factory workers. This small village has 10,000 people - more than my home town of Murphysboro Illionois.

Rose's boyfriend is Mike who owns the Wooden Shoe bar in Liuzhou. During the spring festival Mike moved back to Holland to go make some money for a while to try to pay off the loan he has for the bar. Anyway, Ray, A Zhu and I wanted to say goodbye to him, so that was our main reason for going to Baise.

We had some great meals cooked by Dong who is from Sichuan province. We had a bonfire every night and of course Mike bought lots of beer and fireworks.

The next day we did some site seeing in Baise. It is a historic city in southern China because Deng XiaoPing and his army set up their base there. We visited a house where they lived and some monuments and museums on the top of the mountain.

We had barbeque everything for lunch. Chicken feet and stomach, beef, pig penis, toufu,...

Baise also has a huge copper drum which is a replica of a Zhuang drum. Very big drum.

My next stop was Nanjing. I flew from Nanning to Nanchang to Nanjing. I stayed in a 5 star hotel right near the Confucious Temple. The area was really crowded and it was really cold in Nanjing.

The river is lit up beautifully at night.

My boss and (good friend) Joan was my host in Nanjing. She invited me to her house. I met her 14 year old daughter Louise and her 8 year old neice Shirley and her sister in law and parents. It was a nice time.

We did a lot of shopping for small things we really didn't need. But it was fun.

For the first time I saw the unborn chickens being sold on the street to eat. This is about the only food I have come across so far in China that I do not want to try. They are eggs just before hatching. Baby chicks that are just about to be born.

My next stop was Yangzhou about 1 and a half hour drive from Nanjing. I was invited by one of the young engineers on my team, Wang Yong Nian. He was a great tour guide. We walked around a lot on the first day touring a big lake called Shouxi lake which means narrow west lake.

This is Wang Yong Nian and I at the park.

For breakfast on the last day of my vacation we went to a famous local restaurant where they sell local foods. One was tang bao (soup dumplings). It was the first time I ever drank the soup of the soup dumplings using a cute little straw. Later that day we took a bus for 6 hours back to Ningbo.

So, now the holiday is over and it is back to work. Hopefully things will go a little more smoothly in the new year.

新年快乐！

Xin Nian Kuai Le！