We Survived Chinese New Year, Whew!!!!

The Great Wall was Spectacular

  The blog this week is dedicated to my good friend and brother Paul.  Unfortunately he returned back to the states this week for the rest of the year.  Paul was part of this great adventure from the beginning, but felt like he was being called back home by the Lord.  We will miss him because of his whit, enthusiasm and the way he embraced and loved the people of China.  I will miss our scooter adventures and learning Chinese together.  The girls will miss him because of the boundless love and affection that he shared with them.  Cecelia will miss him for their talks together and the appreciation that he showed toward the little things in life.  We love you my brother and wish you Gong Xi Fa Cai.
  I am also dedicating this blog to my daughter Claire for showing the kind of maturity that makes a father proud.  You will understand this later in the story for this week.

SCHOOL:  Got a phone call telling me that I need to teach my 10th graders at 2:00pm on Monday.  That's it for now.

ADVENTURES:  Well this week found us beginning Chinese New Year.  Last week, we discovered was mostly about the Spring Festival.  Thus all of the flowers and decorations.  This week was all about the New Year.  Let me say this up front, "We in the United States do not know how to party it up for the New Year."  Last week I left you with the festival of fireworks, that went on all night long.  Someone recently asked me if that was really true, and I replied that it was literally true.  Not only that, but I can report to you that we have seen or heard fireworks everyday since the Chinese New Year began.  Even as we walked through town today, we saw an eight foot long string of fireworks for dedicating a business.  We didn't stick around for the lighting ceremony, but heard it as we walked through town.
  After the barrage of fireworks we decided to be crazed tourists and travel a bit.  There were two things that Cecelia really wanted to see.  She wanted to see a Lion and Dragon dance.  So as we were heading out on our scooters to get on the fast train to Shenzhen she got her first wish and then some.

My Lucky Lion Dancers

  Apparently, businesses will either ward off the evil spirits from the previous year with the fireworks or they will hire a dance troupe to do the Lion Dance.  The Lion Dance consists of two lions, usually a dark and a light one and a trainer.  The lions proceed to act wild and crazy while dancing.  They are then appeased by the trainer and a token of something left hanging from the door frame, kind of like mistletoe without the kissing part.  The lions then enter the business and a decree is read by the trainer blessing the building for the year.  While the decree is being read the owner of the business writes on the tongue and ears of each lion.  The heads are then displayed during the year.
  The cool thing about stumbling upon this show was that it was a small crowd.  The lion costumes were sitting on the ground and kids were getting their pictures taken with them.  We asked if the girls could get a picture with them as well.  On top of getting the picture taken with the head, the troupe had Cecelia, Claire and Taylor get into the costume and they danced around a bit.

Who is that Lion Tamer?

  Paul also got into the act and became the lion tamer for one of the songs.  The people around loved all of it.  They shook hands with Paul, Cecelia and the kids as well as giving many pats on the back for doing a great job.
  After our little side trek we boarded the fast train to Shenzhen and headed for the Chinese Cultural park.  This was the first time for us on the fast train and it really is fast.  When you are on the train, they tell you how fast you are going.  At top speed, Paul and I saw 312 Kilometers per hour.  That is about 170 miles per hour.  We made it from the Guangzhou South railway station to Shenzhen in 40 minutes, and that was with two stops.  The amazing thing about the train is that even though you are going that fast, you don't even notice the speed.
  When we arrived in Shenzhen we took the metro to the park.  We are getting quite good at riding the metro and navigating the public transportation here in China.  To tell you the truth I really have not missed driving a car for the year.  How come we can't figure this out in the United States?  I guess that is a discussion for another time.
  While we were at the Chinese Cultural Park we saw a Dragon Dance.  It is not nearly as entertaining as the Lion Dance.

Chinese Cultural Park

  The Chinese Cultural Park is a park that has demonstrations and displays of all the provinces in China.  It is very entertaining and educational.  We started our visit by watching a horse show that demonstrated the Huns conquering China.  It was entertaining, but we had a hard time following the story because of our limited language abilities.  Basically, the Huns come, storm the castle, kill the king's champion and then move on to the next castle.  Genghis Kahn must have been really good at this, because he ruled a very large area.  Anyway, after watching the castle fall we moved to Tibet.  I really would love to visit Tibet.  Everything about it seems so peaceful and contemplative.   One of my favorite movies is "Seven Years in Tibet" with Brad Pitt.  After seeing the Tibetan temple and how they live, I can understand how it changed him.
  We really enjoyed the park and decided that we had enough time before we went back to school to tour more of China.  So, in the manner that is the Oetinger Adventure Family we decided to tour China.  I have included some pictures to show you where we went.
  The Great Wall was outstanding and seeing the Forbidden City was awe inspiring.  

Absolutely magnificent in its grandeur.

The Forbidden City - Look Closely

  The Three Gorges area was impressive as well.  I think after seeing all of these sights we have pretty much covered all the significant sites in China.  We are going to fill in the rest of the year with some smaller, less known sites.
  Oh did I forget to mention that at the Chinese Cultural Park they have miniatures of all the significant historical sites in China.  I didn't say we jumped on a train or anything, now did I.  I only wrote that we decided to tour more of China, I didn't say how.
  Anyway after spending the day at the park we headed out to find a hotel.  We ended up in a part of Shenzhen that is really awesome.  It is called Sea World.  Not to be confused with the animal water park, this part of Shenzhen is being developed as a waterfront shopping and dining area.  They already have a plaza that has every kind of food that you can imagine to purchase.
  That evening, Taylor convinced us to eat Mexican food.  I wasn't really up for it, but she persisted and we gave it a go.  You need to understand that part of our reluctance for eating Mexican food in China is because of the lack of cheese and refried beans.  As you know, these are two staple ingredients in Mexican Food.  Much to our surprise, we had an outstanding meal that included cheese and refried beans.  Of course the refried beans looked like they came out of a can, but at least they tasted great.
  The next day dawned with an absolutely gorgeous sky that was the color of a robin's egg.  It was about 72 degrees and very peaceful near the water.  It was one of those days that is perfect for just hanging out, so we did.  We ate breakfast in the plaza from the night before, went for a walk along the water front and then capped off the afternoon by having my favorite food, of course you guessed it Thai food.  After lunch we headed for the train to go home.

Where Michael and Bonnie go to Temple

  The following day our friend Michael and his family asked us to go walking with them to a mountain park near our home.  He, his wife and daughter picked us up and to our surprise took us to a temple.  It was an awesome mountain temple that, to Paul's chagrin had a ton of stairs.  Apparently Michael and his wife Bonnie come here every year to pay homage to their favorite Buddha.  So we walked with them to the top of the temple.  Even though it was crowded and we don't really know that much about Buddism, it was very peaceful.  There were people saying prayers, monks blessing people and incense burning everywhere.  When we got to the top, we were given a ball with a ribbon on it to throw into the wish tree.  You write your wish on the ribbon and then throw it up into the tree.  The tree is dressed with thousands of crimson ribbons.  They flutter and sigh in the breeze, much like the butterflies do in Pismo during the Monarch migration.  Anyway, we all successfully threw our wishes up into the tree.  I say successfully, because apparently your wish doesn't come true unless it stays up in the tree.  I can't tell you what my wish is completely, but part of it must of worked immediately because a Chinese guy came up to me, welcomed me to China and handed me an envelope with money in it.  Man, with that kind of service I might just become a Buddhist.(I'm just kidding!!!!!!)

The Wish Tree - It really works!!!

  After the temple we headed out to the mountain park for our walk.  The park was adjacent to the temple.  It had everything that you can imagine in a park in China.  It had a hill with a tower on top of it, with a zig zag walking bridge and a really steep arched bridge.  Michael, Cecelia the girls and I went up the hill, while Paul, Bonnie and Michael's daughter Stephy stayed down by the lake.  It was a nice hike and was very educational.  The tower on top of the mountain was made years ago to be a watch tower during the Japanese invasion.
  When we returned to the lake, we lost Paul somehow so we spent some time looking for him.  While looking around for him I checked out the rest of the park.  It had some really cool small gardens and restaurants that looked out over the lake.  It really felt like spring, because there were families picnicking, bicycle riding and paddling on the lake.  The day had started out cloudy and a little cool, but the clouds burned off and the sun warmed everything up nicely.
  We eventually found Paul and headed home.  When we got home, Paul mentioned that he had been doing a lot of thinking and wanted us to pray for him.  He was really feeling convicted that he should go home.  We talked it over with him and felt that if he was going to go home, we needed to do one last adventure together.
  He felt like he needed to sleep on it and would let us know after we went to Chime Long the next day.
  The next day while Paul was wrestling with his decision, we went to The Chime Long Safari Park.

Lemurs

  Chime Long Safari Park is kind of like a zoo and wild animal park wrapped up in one.  Now, if you have been following along the other blogs, you will understand when I say that personal responsibility is very important at this park.  It is unlike any zoo that I have ever seen.  There are animals to be petted and interacted with all over the park.  The trainers tell people that they can either pet an animal or not to pet it.  At this park, if you pet an animal that the trainer told you not to touch and you get bit, it is your own damn fault.  There is no such thing in China about suing the zoo because you were too stupid to pay attention to the professional.  With that being said, I love this place.  It is the kind of place that really educates and gives an up front idea about what the animals are really like.  The first thing that we saw was a set of baby lemurs.  The trainer let us pet the tail of one of the lemurs.  The girls then fed giraffes and had a chance to pet them.  We then had lunch with the pandas in the Panda Restaurant.  After eating with the Pandas we made our way to the Panda enclosure.  The Panda enclosure was very informative and entertaining.  You can definitely tell that the Pandas are indigence to China.  I remember when it was such a big deal to get to the Pandas at the San Diego Zoo.  There were Pandas everywhere, some eating, sleeping and wresting with each other.  On top of that, they are really close.  You get an up close and personal look at these amazingly low key critters.  They definitely make us look like the stupid animals.  They hang out, laying on their back chewing nonchalantly on a shoot or two of bamboo while they people watch.  They reminded me of a guy sitting in his recliner drinking a six pack and watching football on Sundays.

I like Red Pandas, but are they really Pandas?

  They basically didn't seem to have a care in the world.  After hanging with the Pandas we made our way over to the Koala enclosure.  Unfortunately I have lost some of my warm fuzzy feelings about Koalas after meeting some Australian friends.  They are very cute, but my friends say that they are smelling, nasty critters with a bad attitude.  Most of the Koalas were sleeping when we walked through the enclosure.  The girls, Paul and Cecelia actually got to pet a sleeping Koala.  They said it was very fluffy and didn't have a bad attitude.
  We then made our way over to the safari ride.  The safari ride was really exciting, not only because the animals are so close and the only thing separating you from the lions and tigers is a small electrical wire, but the guy driving the tram thought he was a race car driver.  The trains are apparently made by Mercedes Benz, so the guy drove it like it was a Mercedes sports car.
  After our exhilarating ride with Mario, we headed for the dinosaur walk.  The dino walk was really exciting because it had all these animated dinosaurs from the movie Jurassic Park.  It was so animated and realistic Paul was sprayed, not once but twice by poison from a dinosaur.  Did I mention that we left him there to be eaten.  I would have saved him, but there was nothing I could do for him, I had to save my children and wife first.  The dinosaurs had been tracking our pack for sometime and could tell which of the humans was injured. It didn't really happen that way, but it could have!
  After the excitement of the dino walk and Paul's near demise we were treated to an up close look at a baby Orangutan   It was soooooo, cute.  The girls wanted to take him home, but I had to put my foot down.  I wasn't bringing an animal into our home that is stronger than me as a baby.

Look at that cute face.  No I'm not talking about Paul.

  We were about done with the zoo, but on our way out we stopped at the Tiger sanctuary.  In this Tiger area, they had Snow Tigers, White Tigers and Golden Tigers.  I didn't even know there were that many varieties.  Apparently they are basically from the same family line with slight modifications.  It is your job now to research the difference on your own.  My blog is already long enough as it is and I still have more to tell.  The last thing in the Tiger area was a place that they call Tiger Camp.  It is an enclosure with about five adolescent tigers in it.  They were romping and attacking each other when we arrived.  This was one of the most enjoyable parts of the park.  We could have stayed there for a very long time watching them play, but it was time for us to go home.  
  When we returned to the house, Paul let us know that he needed to go home.  Later that night we checked into going to Beijing and going to the Great Wall for real.  We would have done it but the only problem was that we could get there and have him fly out of Beijing, but the trains coming back home for us were sold out. In the end we decided to go to Hong Kong and ride the Gondola.
  The next morning we loaded up on the scooters one last time.  Michael and Bonnie insisted on taking Paul and the girls to the train station so that they could say goodbye.  Bonnie in particular was saddened by Paul's leaving.  The two of them had really developed a friendship in which they helped each other with learning each others language.
  We took the train once again to Shenzhen and found a hotel near the Hong Kong border crossing.  Let me tell you, the train ride, plus the metro, plus standing in line to cross the border into Hong Kong is a pain in the butt.  Once through to Hong Kong, the train ride to the Gondola was very long as well.  At one point we were almost ready to give up the adventure.  Once we were on the Gondola though, all of the stress of traveling was gone and we were to be surprised with a jewel in Hong Kong.

How big is Big?

  One word about the Gondola first.  Both Paul and I have a problem with heights, so to go in the Gondola is a stretch for us.  Add to that the girls insistence on getting the Gondola with the glass bottom and you have two guys that have to draw on their testosterone reserves to not be shown up by a nine and 12 year old girls.
  Actually the Gondola ride was very pleasant and we had a great view of the Hong Kong airport and the mountain trail on the way to the village that housed the jewel I mentioned before.  The jewel at the end was the NGong Ping village and the giant Guan Yin statue that overlooks Hong Kong.  The village is very quaint and the temple is beautiful, just as many of them have been that I have shared with you, but the most awe inspiring thing is the statue itself.
  The statue of Guan Yin is indescribably large.  There isn't anything in the area that compares to it.  It dwarfs even the temple that it overlooks.  The most amazing and breathtaking thing to me is that it is solid bronze.  It is mind boggling to think of how they got the thing where it is located on the island.  I can tell you that in my short life there are five things that have totally taken my breath away, three of them have even brought me to tears.  The three that have brought me to tears, were the Lincoln Memorial, The Sistine Chapel and Yosemite Valley.  The other two were the Washington Monument and now the Guan Yin in NGong Ping village in Hong Kong.  I am sure that when we go to the Great Wall in the spring it will be added to that list as well.
  Before heading back to our hotel we went to Hong Kong City and ate deli sandwiches and pizza overlooking the Hong Kong harbor.  The beer with my brother was especially good that evening.
  The next day we got up and headed into Hong Kong to drop Paul off at the airport.  I went with him and we said an emotional good bye.  It was hard to walk away from him at the airport knowing that my good buddy was heading home.  I have felt that type of conviction before and needed to support his decision.
  I headed back into Hong Kong to meet Cecelia and the girls.  We were going to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring a bit before we headed home.  We walked around Hong Kong and went to the park in Kowloon Harbor.  It was a very nice time as a family to process Paul leaving.  We ate dinner downtown, got some Starbucks and headed for home.

Dinner in Hong Kong.  So many choices.

  Now I would have ended this week's blog with us going home, but I had to share with you a story about how mature my oldest daughter has become.  Most of you know Claire as a cool, calm and collected young lady already, but what I am going to share with you is going to solidify that impression with you even more.  In China the first thing that you need to understand is that the subways get very crowded and sometimes there is a press of bodies to get on the subway, but not everyone makes the cut if you know what I mean.  So the one thing we have instructed the girls to do, is that if either of them gets left behind to stay put and I will come back for them.  So with that piece of information here is what happened.  We were coming back from Hong Kong and thought we had paid for first class tickets.  When we transferred to the subway that was to take us back to Shenzhen we found the first class car, just before it was going to be leaving.  I asked the attendant if we needed an upgrade and he told us that we had time to check it out.  Well apparently we didn't have time so we made a dash for the subway.  Now, understand the subway is not crowded at this point so it should have been easy for us.  Well, Taylor and Cecelia jumped onto the subway car and the doors were closing.  I was stuck in the middle while the doors were closing so I forced them open for Claire and I to get on.  When I jumped on Claire hesitated and the doors closed behind me.  So, as we stood there peering through the doors at our oldest child standing on the platform all by herself my heart sunk a bit.  Cecelia was trying to get Taylor to be quiet because she was panicking a bit, and Cecelia yelled at Claire to get on the next train.  Meanwhile I was staring out the windows checking off any special skills that I might have like the father in "Taken".  I don't have any special skills other than praying, so I put my skills to use immediately.  I was trying to be as calm as possible for my wife and youngest daughter, but inside I was a bit nervous.  I really got nervous when the next train came before I could go back and Claire wasn't on it.  A nice lady that had been on the train when Claire got left behind came up to us and said that it had happened to her before and not to worry.  She must have been an angel because when we got off at the next stop, she helped me get to the train going the other direction and even got on the train going back with me.  The interesting thing about her is that even at the next stop she stayed on the subway and kept going back the direction we had come in the first place.  When I arrived at the stop in which Claire was left, it wasn't one in which the train had come back exactly the way it had left.  I had to get off and go up and over another passage to an escalator and then down to the original platform.  You cannot imagine my relief when I ran down the escalator and saw my daughter sitting calmly on a bench by herself reading a book.  She didn't seem the least bit nervous about the entire ordeal.  When I finally got to her, I gave her a huge hug and asked her if she was alright.  She said she was fine.  I asked her if she had been nervous at all and she said, "Just a Little".  Then she said something that made me swell with pride.  She said, "I wasn't really scared, because you told me to just stay put if one of us got left behind and you would come back for us.  I just knew you would be coming back for me."
  The two of us jumped onto the next subway to meet up with Taylor and Cecelia.  Cecelia had been timing the time that I was gone.  She said I had been gone 20 minutes.  It was the most difficult 20 minutes of her life.  I can understand how tough it was for her.  I think I would have gone crazy waiting, at least I was on the move.
  After that we headed for home.  On the scooter ride back from the train station, Cecelia and I were worn and out and a bit melancholy.  Obviously it had been a very emotional day with Paul's departure and leaving a child on the subway platform.  I think I slept the best I have since coming to China.
  The next day, all we did was rest.  Thank you Lord!!!
  Enjoy the show, I know this has been a long one.  It is hard to get it all in sometimes.