Gung Hay Fat Choy Part 3: Shrimp Farm [Chinese New Year, Zhongshan]

After Guangzhou, we moved on to Zhongshan to visit my Great Uncle's wife's relatives!

There was five of us now, plus baby, plus luggage...when my Great Uncle's wife's nephew came to pick us up in his car, we were a seat short. So Bonnie just sat on the middle divider, in a way that would make the cops pull you over in a heartbeat back home, haha!

The first thing we did when we got there was eat pigeon! Baby pigeon is one of my ten thousand favorite foods! The meat was sweet and the skin was crispy!
My mom sent me an email to say "I hope you get to eat a lot of baby pigeon!" Haha it just sounds funny! This place is really famous for it.

Zhongshan! There's a lot of construction out there.

We soon left the city to the outskirts. Apparently my relative's relatives are all shrimp farmers!

There are a lot of big lake-fields covered in a tarp to keep the water warm to grow the shrimp.

What is this little house? An outhouse! Thankfully, I didn't have to use this. I'll stick to the squat toilets.

Look at this cute guard dog! D'awww his ears are all floppy!
This is a local temple in the neighborhood for people to pray at.

As the sun went down, a huge party commenced! It was like a family reunion! For a family that wasn't mine XD

Of course, when a lot of Chinese people get together, there is going to be Mahjong!
Haha, later in the night, when the adults walked away from the table, the kids took over! I played a couple times but it's been a long time since I've played, so I couldn't strategize XD
So many baby boys! I guess everyone had a baby this year. They are trying to get the little boys to take a picture, so all the mommies are cooing and saying "Look here! Look here!" and clapping to get their attention. As an outsider, it was really comical.

With all the adults busy playing mahjong, playing with babies, or just chatting, they cut us kids loose!


I found it strange that they just let us wander around at night. It was really dark (no streetlights) and the different little kids were just wandering around to get to this one shop. But i guess if this is their country neighborhood, there's not much in danger. Plus, it kinda felt like everyone who lived here was somewhat related.
Anyways, our destination was also the shop, which was kinda like a general store. I went with Bonnie and her cousin Mimi. (Mimi is thirteen years old and so beautiful and cute!) Although I was clearly the eldest, this was Mimi's town, so we were being led by the littlest. She also could haggle well and unlike me, had a handle on the language, haha!
Why were we going to this shop at night?
No, not just to eat barbeque chicken wings and fish balls, althought we got that too!

It's new years, so it's time for fireworks! Out here in the outskirts of the city, we can just buy whatever fireworks to play with on our own! This is something I haven't gotten to experience in the States since my city doesn't allow it.

Ooh a sparkler! So much fun!

Bonnie with a sparkler!
Calvin is amazed by the fireworks. Again, little Mimi was our leader! She had the lighter and was helping us light all our fireworks. I felt like she was the strongest and bravest out of all of us, haha.
Hehe, I'm having a lot of fun!
We also had these big sticks that periodically shot a firework into the sky. It looks like a huge wand shooting out little explosions!

Holding it, I felt like a witch!
Naturally, the only thing to do in this situation is yell out spells every time a firework shot out. Yes, I am that crazy American white girl yelling out nonsense spells while holding up fireworks. But hey, I was having fun!

After that, me and the kids sat together and played games while the grownups did their thing.

We played slapjack! It was called "hit the table" in Chinese; it was the only game I could understand how to play with them!

When we got bored of that, we started playing truth or dare o.O Haha it was hard because the other kids' parents were nearby...but I had nothing to fear ;)
There was a guy there that was 19, so eventually the conversation was between me and him. He was mostly asking questions about America. He said that while he had seen international students, he'd never really talked to one before.
Him and the other kids tried to use their broken English that they had learned in school. That 19 yr old said in the most Chinglish way possible "You are very beautiful." Not that I think so highly of myself, but he probably won't forget the chance he had to talk to an American girl, haha!
They actually asked if the fights in America are very fierce (he couldn't say it in English so he said 激烈 in mandarin and I totally understood it! SCORE!) because everyone has guns. Actually, in my "living abroad orientation" before I left we went over these topics as things that the locals would ask us about. At the time, i thought it was pretty funny...but it is so true! I cannot believe that I was asked about that.
And that sweet little girl from before? Yeah, she's thirteen and her English isn't too bad. When we started talking about English curse words...she actually knew a few. But she was SO CUTE! I couldn't handle it when she said "fucking." YOU'RE TOO CUTE AND INNOCENT TO SAY THE EFF-WORD! T_T Oh my heart!

After all the party was over, we went to a neighbor's house to sleep. I got to ride on the back of a moped through a shrimp village! That was a lot of fun for me. It is very common for them to ride those mopeds around, but for me it was a very simple fun! It'd be really cool to drive one, haha!

The house that we went to was ... interesting. The whole thing smelled very, very strongly of dried shrimp 虾米.
The shower in that house was very...intersted, as well. It was a single room on the fourth floor (the only thing on the fourth floor) and...it was just a room. It was a room with a sink in it and a hole in the side of the wall to let the water out (not even a drain). The showering device was just a hose. I had to double check that this was indeed a shower, because I didn't want to just start hosing down in a random room, haha! But it gets more 'interesting' than that! The room was TOO SHORT! I had to slouch in there! I barely fit, haha! It made me feel like a giant because I couldn't even stand up straight.



We walked around the street and bought some really cheap stuff!
There were a lot of scary street beggars in China. They are not like the hobos back home; they are severely disfigured/disabled. I was almost too scared to feel bad for them. My cousin told me that they usually have a boss - they beg all day and then report back to their boss. It reminded me of a scene in "Slumdog Millionaire."We hired a rickshaw to take us basically across the street! The streets are treacherous here!
Hong Kong has a lot of expats and foreigners. A big city like Guangzhou has a lot of tourists and foreigners too. But a place like Zhongshan is a little off the beaten track. Everyone there was STARING at me! I guess they've never seen a ghost girl before! They weren't even ashamed - if I noticed them staring and looked back at them, they continued to stare unwaveringly. They don't care if you know that they're staring at you!
Wow look at all the red envelopes I got! I saw very many distant relatives I have never seen before or knew existed and they all gave me 红包. This isn't even all of it, since I found more in my purse after I took this picture. I thought I was very rich...but each of them only had 5RMB in it! (That is like getting three quarters in your 红包）In the end I only made about $30, which is how much I would usually get from one 红包 from my closer relatives in America. Oh well, any spending money helps!

Gung Hay Fat Choy Part 2: Fa Deng [Chinese New Year, Guangzhou]

Hello there! =D After a one hour train ride, I am now in mainland China! =D What kind of adventures await me here?

I spent the next few days in Guangzhou, one of the big cities in China. This southern Chinese city is the birthplace of my dear mommy! =D The first time I came out east, we came here and went by the street where my mom grew up (the building had since been torn down and replaced), but I haven't been back since then. It's been ten years, Guangzhou!

And oh my, has it changed!

Wow! Guangzhou even has a subway now! So convenient and easy! They also have the equivalent of the Octopus card, which you can just scan to pay your fare.
A lot of tall skyscrapers and nice buildings have been built, too! The skyline is so modern now!

Isn't this building interesting? It's the library!I think they said this was an opera house or something. it was a really interesting shape!
That super huge tall thing is a TV tower! Look at how much taller it is than those multiple story apartment buildings! The clouds are too thick so you can't see the top...it's kinda cool though, because it feels like it goes on forever.

I tried to be as tall as the TV tower...but I am not =(Look at all the beautiful flowers for New Years!




This is pretty canal street that's very popular to go to!





Everywhere there's street food! A lot of hot sweet potatoes and chestnuts!

My Great Aunt bought me some candy from the street! I had never seen it before, so I didn't know it was candy. He had a big block of this hard candy with sesame seeds all over it, and needed a pick and hammer to break it into pieces. These are all the pieces! It cost 4RMB. It was really interesting! It was hard at first, but after being in your mouth for a while, it becomes soft like a chewy starburst and it has a delicious sesame flavor. I think my brother would really like it!

Unfortunately, once I took it home, it all melded together and now is a big flat rock in that bag. It's way too hard to bite...so I don't know how I'm going to break it apart again. Where can I buy a hammer and chisel?


Guangzhou has advanced a lot...but it is still China -_-"
This, my friends, is the beloved squat toilet. Let me tell you it's lovely properties.
1) You must squat. For men, no problem, they don't even have to squat. For girls...big problem. It is very awkward and you kinda get tangled in all your clothes and your purse.
2) There are often not hooks for you to put your purse.
3) There are no handle bars to hold on. This is a huge problem because of 4.
4) It is ALWAYS WET. Who knows if it's pee or water or what, but the floor is usually really wet. Which means it is also very slippery. I am mortally afraid of slipping and falling into the toilet, knowing how dirty it is. I think if I fell in...I would probably just die from the shock, because I would be fatally mortified by the experience.
5) You have to bring your own toilet paper. Pocket tissues are your best friend!
6) Many of the bathroom's Chinese piping cannot handle toilet paper. So after you wipe, you throw it away in the trash bin in the stall. You can imagine what that smells like after a while.
7) In this particular restroom, the stall wasn't really a stall...it was like half a stall. So when you stood up, you could easily see tens of other people doing their business. Is this what a urinal feels like?

I missed clean Western style toilets so much.
But actually squat toilets are much cleaner...because you don't want to use a Western style toilet that 1000000 other Chinese people have used...trust me, you'll be wishing for a squat toilet then.


Anyways, with the little bit of time in Guangzhou I had, my Great Aunt took me sightseeing! These are famous Guangzhou landmarks.Sun Yat Sen theatre memorial thingy?

Five story old building!

So pretty and decorated with flowers for new year!Oh man, MORE stairs?!
Guangzhou's symbol is the goat/sheep/ram! This is also my zodiac symbol!
Please excuse that I look very tired. I am mostly tired of being cold.

This building is known for its intricate roof carvings!
Many old buildings have this little raised step before you walk inside. This is to keep out bad luck and ghosts.This is the inside courtyard!
I like going to these Chinese landmarks because they feel so...old. There's so much history in it! You can just feel the grandeur of a thousand years empire and the luxuriousness of noble living. To think of the people who once came here...

This restaurant had fish tanks outside so you could pick your own fresh, swimming seafood!
Throughout the days, many distant relatives visited and we ate out a lot with them. We ate at the same restaurant nearby everyday for lunch and dinner, eating banquet Chinese food.

All day long, they were talking about going to see "fa deng" which I assumed was 花灯 or "flower lights." I thought about fa che (parade floats) and yin fa (fireworks) and wondered if they were at all related. Needless to say, I didn't know what to expect.


Wow! It turns out that "fa deng" is a night park with lots of light displays special for the new year! So cool! This is the front door!

It was so beautiful! It felt like Disneyland!
This is a picture of my "cousin" (actually aunt-status) Bonnie, my Great Aunt, and my "cousin" Calvin.
In the dark night, the lights glittered so beautifully.
It was really romantic! I wish I had my boyfriend here to hold onto and walk these streets with me!





These lotus flower lights were floating on the water!

These pandas were especially cute because they were just hiding in the grass off to the side.

This little obscene bugger is PEEING!
The fish display he was standing over was really pretty though.
My Great Aunt made sure to remind that these are not chickens, but they are phoenixes.



When I saw this non-bright thing from the distance, I thought it was pretty ugly. Bonnie described it using a funny sound effect word to mean that it just seemed like a blob-thing. I thought it was really funny, but this is a common construction in Cantonese. It turns out this thing is really cool!
When we got close to it, I realized it was entirely made of Chinese dishes, bowls, cups, and spoons! That's really cool!

While Guangzhou isn't very far north and isn't very far from Hong Kong, it is MUCH, MUCH colder! I was constantly layered up and wore a huge puff jacket at all times! I was freezing! And the cold never let up.

I couldn't sleep at night sometimes because i was so cold that it hurt my fingers and toes and nose. =(

My Great Aunt's house seemed a lot better since last time I was there. They had a Western style toilet instead of a squat toilet, and they actually built a shower. (Ten years ago, I had to fill a bucket with water and use a wash cloth and pail to wash myself.) Even through this, it's still pretty small and there's no heater. So cold!