China 2/12/2018 - 2/21/2018

Thursday, February 15, 2018 - New Year's Eve with Wang Jun's Family

Craig woke up at 1:15 a.m. to use the bathroom. Our hotel room has a motion-activated hallway light, and it didn't turn on when he got up. It seemed that we had lost electricity. We went back to sleep, waking up to our battery-powered alarm at 6 a.m.

I went down to the lobby to inquire about the electricity. The woman at the desk assumed I was asking about the wi-fi. Actually, the wi-fi was working. I would take no wi-fi over no electricity! I used my cell phone to translate and ask about the power. She drew some characters on my phone which said that the electrical cable to the hotel had broken. Only the emergency lighting was on. She gestured to me by holding up two fingers and saying something in Chinese. I thought that maybe she was saying it would be fixed in two hours. I thanked her and returned to the room.

We used the light of Craig's flashlight and my cell phone to get dressed. We looked out the window and many of the surrounding buildings seemed to be without light.

We didn't really need breakfast, but we sure could use some coffee. Yesterday we had made coffee in the room, but without electricity, that was impossible today. Wang Jun was supposed to pick us up at 8 a.m. We went downstairs at around 7:45, hoping that even if breakfast wasn't available, coffee would be.

The woman at the desk was very apologetic and said (via cell phone translation) that the hotel was quite embarrassed and might be without power for 1-2 days. So that's what she meant by genturing "2" earlier. Wow, this would be interesting! Of course it wasn't their fault. The whole community of Poly Hot Springs had lost power overnight, but it had pretty much been restored everywhere but the hotel. And good luck getting a crew to fix the problem during the national holiday!

She told us that regular breakfast wasn't available, but that they could provide some dumplings in a few minutes. We went into the dining room which was lit by a single candle. The staff had gone to the store to by frozen dumplings and were heating them on a hot plate. We sat in the dark dining room and enjoyed steaming hot dumplings with chili powder and soy sauce. What an adventure!

We were about 15 minutes late meeting Wang Jun due to the dumpling timing, but of course he understood. As we exited the hotel, there was a New Year's altar set up right in front of the door. A man was burning offerings of fake money.

We crossed the street to the parking garage and got into his Citroen sedan. We drove out of the garage and picked up his sister Xiaohong and brother-in-law Yuan Huizong. They greeted us warmly, and we drove together to downtown Guiyang to the market to buy supplies for tonight's New Year's Eve dinner.

Traditionally, Chinese people would cook many dishes for New Year's Eve, and then wouldn't need to cook for the remainder of the 15 day celebration because they had so many leftovers. Though that isn't the case today, people still cook a tremendous number of dishes to honor this tradition. Chinese take pride in making so many dishes that there is barely room to eat at the table.

The market was packed with people, as this is their last chance to buy things before everything shuts down for the holiday this afternoon. Craig and I were the only non-Chinese to be seen.

Craig and I tagged along as the three of them worked as a well-oiled machine. Wang Jun's wallet was stuffed with cash; everything costs around twice as much as usual during the Spring Festival. For the most part, they bought seafood. Guizhou is a landlocked province, so seafood is expensive even without holiday price gouging. But for the New Year, no expense is spared. Lots of fresh seafood is brought in from the coast and people snatch it up like an auction. It was such chaos!

They selected live crabs and shrimp, abalone, a special cut of salmon for sashimi, and a live turbot fish. The merchant killed and gutted the turbot on the spot. After obtaining all of the necessary seafood, they bought some vegetables. Then we stopped at a supermarket for a few additional ingredients.

After the shopping excursion, we took a siesta at our hotel (which still had no electricity). Wang Jun was monitoring the situation carefully, and said that if there was still no power by the time he picked us up at around 1 o'clock, we would abandon the hotel and move to his apartment for the night. We didn't want to be an imposition, but he insisted; we would be leaving early the next morning for our road trip, and he didn't want it to start out on the wrong foot.

However, about 10 minutes before he arrived to pick us up, power was restored. We walked through the community to his sister Xiaohong's condo. On the way, he needed to pick up strawberries for a special dessert she wanted to make. It was difficult to find strawberries this late on New Year's Eve day, and he paid a premium for them. The shopkeepers were intrigued by Craig and myself, and tried out their limited English by wishing us a Happy New Year.

We arrived at her condo high-rise and took the elevator to the 23rd floor. Their door was decorated with Chinese couplets in red and gold wishing for a prosperous and healthy new year. Wang Jun followed the protocol for knocking in order have an auspicious new year: he knocked 3 times, another 3 times, and then two more, for a total of 8 (a very lucky number in Chinese culture).

The door was answered by Wang Jun and Xiaohong's mother, Chen Rulan, who greeted us warmly. She is a spry elderly woman who laughs easily, and we get along very well with her.

We had opted to skip lunch, and it was a good thing because we were immediately seated in the living room in front of a table of appetizers. We had tea to drink. Xiaohong was preparing spicy chicken in the kitchen, and her husband Yuan Huizong was preparing the crabs. In a crowd-pleasing morbid display, the crabs' legs continued to move even after they were cleaved in half.

Then they taught us how to make tang yuan, my favorite Chinese dish. You start with flour made from ground sticky rice, add water, and knead it into dough. You break off a little bit and roll it into a ball. You then pinch the center to make a small cup shape. Next you add the filling: ground black sesame seeds mixed with sugar and lard. You then roll it into a ball, which symbolizes togetherness. The shape is much less nuanced than yesterday's dumplings, so I was more successful.

When we were done, we returned to the sitting room while Xiaohong and her husband continued cooking. On TV was a marathon of "Beyond the Edge: Impossible Challenge," a Chinese competition show where people displayed very impressive (if sometimes obscure) talents. These included parallel parking military tanks at high speed and counting money blindfolded (in fact, someone was awarded the Guinness World record for this on the spot). It was highly entertaining.

We met Yuan Huizong's mother Chen Shanfang, who had just woken up from a nap. She was quite friendly and every time she walked by, she encouraged us to eat more appetizers.

At around 4 o'clock, we heard a little voice. Xiao Yi and 3-year-old Ziting had arrived! She looked adorable! So petite, and with little ponytails and a red dot on her forehead for good luck in the new year.

She was a bit cautious of us, but soon loosened up. We are her unofficial godparents, and she calls us Gan Ma (godmother) and Gan Die (godfather) in her sweet little voice. She is really funny; she has a way of looking at you skeptically out of the corner of her eyes. But it is all playful. She will also sometimes cross her arms and turn away, pretending to ignore you. But if you don't puruse her, she will let out an audible sigh, letting you know that she really does want you to interact and it is all a game.

We gave her some gifts, including a princess doll house and a small matryoshka ornament from Russia. She liked them both and carried the matryoshka around until dinner.

Chen Shanfang gave Ziting some "lucky money," a new year tradition in which people put money into a red envelope and gift it to others.

Soon it was time for dinner. There were so many dishes (at least 20!) that they didn't even all fit on the table! Everything was home-made and delicious! Dishes included (though I am sure I am forgetting some):

stuffed abalone
shrimp
crabs
turbot
pork
spicy chicken
salmon sashimi
sweet sausage
savory sausage
pork belly
greens
roots
sweet millet
organ meat
spring rolls
tang yuan
strawberry cream pudding with chocolate crumbles on top

The men drank beer and the women drank wine. Everyone participates in three toasts to the New Year, and then people toast one another individually. Wang Jun, Xiaohong, and Yuan Huizong monitored their phones during dinner.

One of the more modern twists on the "lucky money" tradition is that people put money into their WeChat accounts that then becomes available as lucky money to their contacts. People see that lucky money is available and scramble to claim some online. The money is split up until it is gone. You can get as little as a few cents to hundreds of yuan. At one point Wang Jun received 88.88 yuan, pretty much the luckiest number imaginable in Chinese culture. This bodes well for his new year!

Ziting has her own WeChat account, and we connected online after dinner. She stood next to the table sending me sticker after sticker, using Xiao Yi's phone like a pro.

At the end of dinner, they broke into the Moutai, a premium sorghum liquor produced in Guizhou province.

I really bonded with Xiaohong, who now sees me as a little sister. After 42 years, I finally have a sister! It is so amazing!

Ziting had fallen asleep on the couch. At around 10 p.m., Wang Jun said that we should leave. We were a bit surprised that it wasn't midnight yet, but we went with the flow. We said our goodnights and then walked back toward the hotel with Wang Jun, Xiao Yi, and Ziting.

People were starting to light off fireworks at the designated area on the corner across from the hotel. We stopped to watch for a few minutes, then said goodnight to the family. They continued back to their place and we went to our hotel room.

Our room turned out to be a great spot to spend the midnight hour, since, unbeknownst to us, Wang Jun had made sure that we had a room facing the perfect direction for fireworks. By midnight, everyone was lighting them off. We had a good view of the corner where we had watched them outside. And off in the distance we could see other neighborhood's displays. When things died down, we went right to sleep.

Tomorrow we will take a road trip with Wang Jun, Xiao Yi, Ziting, Wang Jun's mother, Xiaohong and her husband, and several of their friends to the neighboring province of Yunnan. Wang Jun has kept the majority of the itinerary a secret. We are looking forward to a grand adventure! It is rare for us to be on a trip and have no idea what to expect.