February 4, 2018

Chinese New Year, also called Spring Festival, is the biggest and most important holiday in China, complete with special foods, decorations, and people going home from the cities to be with their families. Most employees in China have at least 7 days off work.  Our students have a month, but since our final was one of the earliest, we have six weeks off until schools starts again.  We spent a few days experiencing some new adventures in the Shanghai area and doing some house cleaning. On January 28th we left for southern China, visiting Sanya, Haikou, Shenzhen, and Hong Kong.

Our trip consisted of flying to the southern tip of the south-most point of China, the city of Sanya on Hainan Island.  This is a great resort city, but seems not to be well known or visited by foreigners.  For us, it meant traveling from 30 degree Shanghai to 80 degree Sanya.  One day we were wearing long johns and coats, and the next we were wading in ocean water with no coats in sight. Nice!

Drying fish in the sun under a layer of salt

We visited a smaller, nearby "monkey island," roamed
among the monkeys for awhile, then took a tram back.

Some monkeys performed with goats.

Some were up close and personal

The tram provided great views of Sanya and fishing houseboats!

 At Sanya, there are spontaneous street dancers, bands, singers, etc. all along the beach promenade. We enjoyed the music, unless we got between two overlapping groups and had "dueling music." One evening, a dance group music played "The Skater's Waltz," so we had to join in and dance, too.

The Sanya beach as viewed from our hotel room

Lots of street performers along the beachfront sidewalk. 

From Sanya, we took a train to the north of the Island to the Hainan capital city of Haikou.  This was just an overnight stop before catching a flight to Shenzhen.  But a nice ride where we saw rice fields, mango bushes, - lots of crops along the way.

Rice paddies

Massive Chinese furniture in the hotel lobby at Haikou

Shenzhen was colder than normal. We had plans to spend the day at the China Splendid Park, which is a resort that celebrates all the ethnic groups in China.  There are 56 ethnic groups in China.  It was cold and rainy, so most of the shows and demonstrations were cancelled. We saw a couple of displays, took a boat ride (Because it had a roof, we thought it would shelter us from the rain, but then the rain came in sideways and got our seats!), then gave up and went to the hotel to dry out and warm up. All part of the adventure!

Kathy in a Tibet village house

We did visit a museum in Shenzhen that showed the rise of this amazingly new and prosperous city from a market town of 30,000 people in the 1970s to one of the world's fastest growing cities in the 1990s. 10.4 million people in 2010! As China was "opening up to the world" in 1980, Shenzhen was designated the first of China's "special economic zones" where ownership of property and foreign investment were encouraged. It worked.

From Shenzhen, we took a bus to Hong Kong, where we had BYU China teacher in-service meetings.  Crossing the border is rather interesting, as it is really two borders - the exit from China and the entrance to Hong Kong.  Luckily, at this crossing, the borders were at opposite ends of the same building.  For other crossing points you have to bus between them, unloading luggage at both points, even if they're only a few minutes apart.  Rather interesting, since Hong Kong is now part of China.

We were able to attend the Hong Kong Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The temple is the most sacred place on earth and a great experience to attend anywhere in the world.  What a blessing it is to us and our family to have the opportunity to enjoy the blessings of temple ordinances!

We spent three days in Hong Kong. Besides attending the temple, in-service training, and church services, we spent the rest of the time eating fun foods and visiting sites via bus, tram, trolley, subway, and the longest outdoor escalator in the world.

This beautiful picture of Christ with Asian children
 is in the LDS Asia Area HQ building in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong at night from Victoria Peak

Riding the tram to see Big Buddha. It was built by China in the
1990s as a good will gesture to welcome Hong Kong back.

View of the Buddhist Temple from Big Buddha

This sacred cow really wanted the apple cores they had in their
bag. A tug of war ensued - with the cow winning.

Dragons on the post at the Buddhist temple

We discovered Kowloon Park - and a tribute to comic characters.

Historic architecture among the modern skyscrapers. Notice
the ubiquitous double-decker buses of Hong Kong.

From Hong Kong, we left for America and will be visiting family and friends until we return to China on March 2nd.