January 25 and 26 - Shenzhen, China

Rising way before sunrise in Lijiang, it was the usual below freezing chill. We flew from Lijiang back to Kunming, and then from Kunming to Shenzhen, Wangyang's hometown in the SE corner of the Chinese mainland, about a 30 minute drive from the border of Hong Kong. Though it is no further south latitudinally, it was warmer, as we were much closer to the ocean and sea level altitude. There, her parents picked us up at the airport and whisked us away to her apartment for routine decontamination (ie shower and change of clothes). Her parents were unbelievably hospitable, making sure I always had a piece of fruit in my hand at all times. We went out to dinner at a fancy restaurant, where we, in Chinese style, ordered numerous dishes and shared everything, including two firsts for me - fried rabbit with peppers and steam frog. I was thrilled to try both, and neither, aside from the little bones, let me down.

From here, I was taken on a car tour of Shenzhen, "the city with no history" (quoting Wangyang). It's true. The city was an open market experiment that began in 1978 when Chairman Deng Xiaoping ended communist China's closed door policy to allow foreign interests in, both investors and tourists. The city developed at hyperspeed as income flowed in, as did Chinese businessmen and other professionals from all over the country. Thus, despite the southern regions of China speaking Cantonese dialect (like Hong Kong), most Shenzhenians, including Wangyang's parents, only speak Mandarin, the majority and official dialect. The city wasn't very photo-worthy, as it was only tall business buildings and brand new recreation centers.

However, we had quite a blast back at the house, playing Mahjong until after midnight. I had only heard about it through Yahoo advertisements, but never actually learned to play because of its complexity and confusing tiles. Here was another good opportunity to learn basic Chinese words, which in the case of Mahjong tiles, were again similar to Korean. The numbers, ee, ar, san, ser, o and directions, dong (east), nam (south), and so on. The funny thing was, I bumbled my way through the practice round, learning with everyone looking at my pieces as I went along, but then won the first serious round against a family of veteran Mahjong players! Though we could only understand each other through Wangyang's bilingual expertise, I felt very welcomed and had amazing nonverbal conversations with Wangyang's father, a professor of Chinese literature, as he taught me random Chinese words, customs, and efficient ways to eat sunflower seeds and peanuts.

It was very sad to leave the next morning, as I had to trek onward alone to Hong Kong. Though Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997, it is still called the SAR (Special Administrative Region), and Chinese mainlanders have to apply for a special passport at least a month in advance in order to travel there. Our trip was on a whim's notice, so no passport could be acquired for Wangyang and family. Though there was little to see in Shenzhen, I could happily stay there for weeks, if only everyone were as warm and happy as her family.

Shenzhen photos