Traveling about 10,000 miles away seems like a crazy trip to make, especially landing on one of the world’s most populated nation: China. Coming from the airport in a van with my family, I never really expected what I was in for. One thing that I knew for certain was that I was back in my birth place, somewhere I haven’t been for over about 10 years. The place was all new to me; I’ve only had short memories of motorcycle rides with my dad and a walk in the park with my grandmother. Looking out the window in the van made me feel like this was my first time here, even though I spend about 4 years growing up in this country. My exploring senses started kicking in from just the little glimpses of the grand place, there seemed to be so much to do.
Of course the first thing was to visit my whole family. Being able to see them again face-to-face was one of the most emotional moments in my life. Meeting the family wasn’t a sit and greet thing; it was a huge reunion. We had booked a room in a restaurant. It wasn’t any regular restaurant, one look at it and I was smiling. It was called “金 æµ· æ¹¾ 大 é…’ 店”. The entrance had a extremely huge, red door and as I tugged on the handle bar, I found it buckled easily to my pull! I thought the entrance was extravagant, but inside was even more beautifully decorated with a light shade of red and it immediately set a mood of coziness. Two large tables were set in the room and the noise of the TV was muffled out by the exciting chatters from my family. But it wasn’t only the restaurant but the people filled inside that made the evening so delightful.
â–º QUARTER FINALIST 2012 TEEN TRAVEL WRITING SCHOLARSHIP
After meeting the family, sites seeing were next on the list. When people say “China”, usually the first thing that comes to mind would be the Great Wall or temples, but spending a month in China, I’ve come to realize that some of the best experiences happen just around the corner! Grocery shopping was so different because alley ways were filled with people selling vegetables to chickens (still alive!). It was like a farmer’s market, everything fresh and prices you can haggle with. The streets were filled with traffic and motorcycles zipped around. The sun blazed on another morning and the air started smelling like fried rice and noodles with a hint of incent, which reminded me of home. For me, traveling doesn’t only contain site seeing but mainly trying all the new kind of food. A walk in the one of the oldest park, “ä¸ å±± å…¬ å›” (Zhong Shan Park) resulted after stuffing my face with noodles and sweetened fruit. My grandmother was there and it reminded me of the walks in the park we used to have except now I have most of my family with me. I was able to take my adorable five year old niece to see a tiger show since there was a zoo inside. We had a great laugh when a tiger pee on its trainer. Traveling was expensive, but being with my family was fun and priceless.
Soon, a month passed and we had to depart. It was hard to leave behind my family not knowing when we’ll save enough money to go back and see them again. It’s been about four years since that trip, but the memories still stays vividly in my heart.
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