䷷ 旅: Traveling. Little prosperity and smoothness. Traveler, Being steadfast and upright: good fortune… The time and significance of Traveling are truly great!

During the summer, I had the opportunity to travel with my parents around the country. They’re fond of trips and have been planning a big vacation, and since I was studying here this seemed to be the logical choice.

This was their first time being in a place that did not have English as the native language, so it was also a test of my Mandarin ability. My dad’s the type of person that likes being in charge and control of things, and my mom hasn’t been outside the country besides a Mexican resort, so it was also a test of me being able to take control of the environment for my parents for a couple of weeks. Family trips in the past were usually arranged and coordinated mostly by my parents with input from us, but this time it was all me.

Nanjing

When my parents arrived it was an entirely different dynamic than I was used to in China up to that moment. I was so glad to see them, and after sleeping and waking up the next morning it was just a fascinating sight to see them take in the street life and adapt to the environment.

My mom still had coffee available to her nearby thanks to the fantastic Asir Cafe and Fanji Coffee, and I had them try my favorite baozi place and check out the campus. I showed them our classrooms, some different school buildings, and even had dinner at our favorite curry place with Nik and Dani and tangbao with Robin. My dad and I took a run around the track on campus, and we went to a fantastic Korean BBQ place nearby campus.

We went to Fuzimiao, the south end of the city wall, Xuanwu Lake, Jiming Temple, Nanjing Impressions, and the Republican temple.

Suzhou

From Nanjing I took my parents on the slow train to Suzhou to have them experience the magic of the K-trains. Most foreigners opt for the fast train even over short distances, so having one foreigner in the car let alone a family drew a lot of looks. A friendly man next to my dad tried to strike up a conversation (in Chinese) and since he spoke with such an accent (pretty sure a Wu dialect) the younger man across from him had to translate what he was saying into Mandarin. So the chain went from this old man’s Wu to this young man’s Mandarin, to my English and then my dad. Mostly conversations about Trump since the old man admired his business acumen.

In Suzhou we stayed at a hotel in the north part of 观前街, the main shopping/tourism district. We went to the canal area to the east, took a boat ride where the boat driver sang, went to the Humble Administrator’s Garden, went to the silk museum which had live silkworms and a live demonstration of the old-school method of weaving silk, and ended the day with some delicious hotpot.

Shanghai

Because we were so close, I figured one day in Shanghai was in order. We saw the bund, had some 小笼包, witnessed a weird communist procession, and stopped at a sports bar for some drinks and to take in the world cup vibes.

Beijing

After Shanghai was a long-distance high speed train to Beijing. I made a mistake in getting the tickets as I switched the passport numbers of my parents which made us unable to buy the tickets in time since there was such a long line at the window. We got refunded, but the only way to get another train that day was to get first-class tickets which were almost twice as expensive. But given this was our only option besides spending the night in Shanghai, we had to buy them.

We arrived in Beijing at night, took a subway to the hotel I booked while on the train, and found out they don’t take foreigners. So we stayed at another chain hotel, and woke up the next day to see the Forbidden City, Palace Museum, Tiananmen Square, Great Hall of the People, and ended with a tasty dinner at a local restaurant.

The next day, we went to the Great Wall (Badaling, the most popular/touristy portion of the wall), which my dad was keen to run on. What we all didn’t realize is that the wall hugs the mountain closely and parts of it are very steep steps. So just running one mile was difficult.

Xi’an

Xi’an is the most populated city in Western China besides Chongqing and Chengdu. It’s most famous among foreigners for the Terracotta Army, and it is influenced by Muslim and northwestern Chinese culture. We stayed in the walled portion which makes up the center of the city and is separated equally into four rectangular districts. We visited the terracotta soldiers which was fascinating considering the scale of the sculptures and the number of sites that contained them. There’s an entire tomb that that has not been excavated due to concerns about the preservation of the artifacts within it! The terracotta army is just a barracks and protection for the main tomb which has been not yet been excavated.

We then went to the northwestern portion of the city known as the “Muslim Quarters” and had some tasty food like Yangrou Paomo, which is a lamb stew which you first break up bread into the bowl, and then pass the bowl to the cooks who add broth and cook it for you.

Back to Nanjing

At this point we took a fast train back to Nanjing. This time we got a hotel in Xinjiekou which had a great view overlooking the square.

We went to a Korean restaurant (Gugu Chicken) since my dad was tired of eating noodles, rice, and steamed food (I don’t blame him!) and bought some Nanjing University hoodies for my sister and family. The next day we all took a cab to the train station and I bid farewell to my parents!

Retrospective

In hindsight there was so much more I would have liked to do that wasn’t necessarily touristy. This includes things like street food, checking out a Xiaomi store, going to Pukou, KTV, and other things I’ll come upon and think “it would have been great to have my parents experience this.” But I’m sure we’ll end up back in China at some point.