Visiting China, Day 1

After having such a wonderful time flying to China, I was ready to embark on some adventures. Visiting China again was such a great experience. I was there in 2013 and I’m so happy I had the opportunity to go back. I’ve wanted to go back for such a long time, but hadn’t been able to until now. I’m so thankful my friend, Ginnie, said I could come visit her whenever I wanted and was open to me having a graduation trip to visit China. Overall, with the few little bumps and unexpected happenings, it was a really great trip.

Arriving in China

The first hour of my visit was a little stressful because I arrived an hour early (5am!) and had no way to contact Ginnie to let her know I was there. I tried connecting to the airport’s wifi so I could message her, but it required a local number to receive a confirmation number. Since I didn’t have a local number, I put in Ginnie’s number and hoped she’d get it and realize I was there.

Getting through customs and finding my suitcase was super easy. There was some confusion about which lane to stand in initially, but it didn’t seem to matter. Normally when you go through customs, there are lanes for local passports and lanes for foreign passports. Everyone here just went in the same lane. Probably because it was so early in the morning and the airport was empty. Who knows. It was nice how quickly we all got through customs and were able to get luggage.

And, thankfully, Ginnie was waiting for me outside the luggage area. Her husband had been watching my flight in case it arrived early. Once they knew my flight would be in before the scheduled arrival, they made plans for Ginnie to be there for me. Thank goodness. I would have been just fine hanging out for an hour, but it was nice I didn’t have to. Thanks, Brock!

Oh, funny story. Remember how I put Ginne’s phone number in for access to the wifi in hopes that she’d get a text and be alerted that I was there? Well, she arrived at the airport just as I did that. She figured the text was because her phone had been automatically connected to the wifi. lol.

First Things First

The first thing I did when we got to Ginnie’s house was take a shower. Over 24 hours of airports and flying had me feeling a bit gross. I was super impressed by Ginnie’s fantastic guest bathroom and probably spent a little longer in there than I should have.

My Room

The guest room at Ginnie’s apartment is pretty darn nice. I absolutely love floor to ceiling windows. And the huge bed was so, so comfy. I wish I could have brought it home with me.

Along with the super comfy bed, my room had a fantastic view. Ginnie’s apartment was really high up in the building, so I probably could have seen a lot, if it hadn’t been so foggy that morning. Watching the traffic was crazy. So many cars. Visiting China brought back so many memories of the crazy traffic in Malaysia.

New Hairdo

While chilling at Ginnie’s apartment, she asked if she could braid my hair. I haven’t had anyone braid my hair in such a long time. It was fun. I’ve never been a super girly girl, but sometimes wish I’d had some of those girly experiences, like a girl’s night where you learn how to do fun braids. It was great having that experience with Ginnie. She also did a super awesome job! I love how the blue pieces of my hair weave in and out.

Vegetable Shop

After chatting and braiding my hair, and just hanging out for a bit, we decided to head out. One of the things Ginnie does regularly is visit a cute little vegetable shop down the street from her apartment. We walked down there to get some things and it really made me homesick for Malaysia. I loved our corner fruit and veggie shops there. The produce was so fresh and the people were so nice.

I had a little laugh on the walk back to her apartment. Scooters are so popular in Asia because it’s easier to get through traffic on a scooter than in a car. I love that they put these cute little rain covers on them.

Tibetan Children’s Home

One of the other things Ginnie does regularly is visit a home for Tibetan children who are staying in China. Sometimes children from the high altitude towns cannot thrive at that altitude. The kids stay with a group in Chengdu until their bodies are strong enough to go back home. Sometimes it can take years, sometimes they’re too fragile to go back. When we were discussing me visiting China, Ginnie asked if I wanted to visit the kids. Um, yes! I love playing with kids.

The Tibetan Children’s Home is run by volunteers and is funded by donations. Ginnie goes there regularly to read to the kids, help out, and let the kids play with toys she brings from home. There are a few toys there, but not many. Donated toys don’t stay for long. The people who run the home don’t want to kids to get too spoiled because there won’t be toys like this back in their villages. So, Ginnie takes things for them to play with for a couple hours while she’s there and then takes it all home again.

I really enjoyed being there and seeing how much fun the kids had. Ginnie read a few books to the kids and I enjoyed seeing how enthralled they were. I spent a lot of time holding a super cute little baby. He even fell asleep on me! It was sad when one of the people who runs the place took the baby away. They don’t usually let the kids be held while they’re sleeping or while they’re falling asleep. It’s not to be mean or anything like that. There just aren’t enough staff for each child to be rocked to sleep, so they don’t want the kids to get used to it.

Lunch

After spending a little over three hours at the children’s home, it was lunchtime! We met up with Ginnie’s Chinese tutor, Kevin, and one of his friends at a local college. For the life of me, I cannot remember which college it was. Kevin told me, but I didn’t write it down. Not knowing what street we were on or where the children’s home was, even Google maps isn’t a help. Oh well. I can still tell people I ate at a college when I was visiting China. I’m sure not many people have that on their list.

As for what we ate, I’m really not sure. I knew what some of the ingredients were, but not what the actual dish was. I know one thing was a fried potato burger/bun thing. The drink was thinner version of a mango smoothie. There was chicken and what seemed like a deep friend egg, bean sprouts, ramen, seaweed soup, something akin to tortillas with spices and another with chocolate, and a very delicious yogurt dessert with all sorts of fruits and jellies in it.

These are the friends we had lunch with.

After lunch, we went back to Ginnie’s to hang out with her kids after they got home from school. Man, those kids grew so fast. Granted, it had been six years since I’d last seen Patrick and Trevor. Cute little Anthony hadn’t been born yet when I left Malaysia. It was so great seeing them again and getting to meet Anthony. They’re super sweet kids.

Our rest didn’t last too long. When Brock got back from work, Ginnie and I ran across the street to Carrefour to do a little grocery shopping.

Carrefour

There wasn’t anything extraordinary about our trip to Carrefour. It’s a regular grocery store. I enjoy seeing all the unique and different products, so it was fun for me. I love Asian supermarkets. Their produce sections are so open and colorful.

The other area I really enjoyed was the snacks. I love Cheetos and chips, so it was really fun looking at all the different flavors they had.

With Tim being a super Oreo addict, I investigated the Oreo flavors they had, too. Yes, I brought a few flavors back for him.

And, of course, I was fascinated by the candy. Which I bought a bunch of.

Better View

When we got back to Ginnie’s apartment, the sky had cleared up quite a bit, which allowed for a much better view from my window.

Swimming

You know, for a low-key day, we actually did a lot. lol. When we got back from Carrefour, the kids wanted to go swimming, so of course we hit up the pool. It was fun.

The pool area had this little water area across the entryway so people wouldn’t track dirt into the pool. I really like that idea. I think all pools should do this. There was also a little “hot tub” pool, that was more like a ‘slightly warmer than the pool” tub. We spent a very short amount of time in there. Most of it was playing around in the pool, where I got to wear a super cool swimming cap. It was the first time in my life I’d ever worn one. It’s a rule there, that everyone who gets in the pool has to wear one. So, I did.

We went to the actual hot tub inside the women’s dressing room, but didn’t stay long. There was an older lady who was in there totally nude and she seemed really uncomfortable with us in there, so we left.

Dinner

After we got all cleaned up from the pool, we sat down to a delicious dinner that Ginnie’s housekeeper made. Ginnie is vegetarian, so we had a selection of vegetarian dishes. Oh my goodness. It was so good! When visiting China, it’s a must to try their vegetarian dishes. We had brown rice, cucumbers with seaweed and red peppers, spiced cauliflower, scrambled eggs with tomatoes and green onions, sautéed bean sprouts with slivered carrots, and steamed lotus root. I could have eaten all of it myself, it was so good.

Massages

Nope, the day wasn’t done yet. There’s a massage parlor in the mall connected to Ginnie’s apartment complex, so we popped over there for a ‘quick’ massage after dinner. Massages are also a must when visiting China. Ginnie handled the scheduling, so I don’t know what the massage was. I just know that it felt great and I liked it. lol.

The massage really was enjoyable. I fell asleep for part of it because I was still so tired from the flight. I was awake for the foot soak part and I vaguely remember being told to roll over. Other than that, I don’t remember many specifics. I just know that when it was over, I felt so relaxed and all the kinks from the flight were gone. It was so great.

After the massage, Ginnie and I ended up talking for a really long time. It was so nice to be able to catch up with her and to have some real conversations with her. I have a hard time making friends and a hard time maintaining contact with people long-distance. I’m not a huge texter or video chatter or phone talker. Sitting around and chatting in person is my way of connecting with people. And it was so great to be able to do that with Ginnie. She’s such a wonderful person and I’m so glad we’ve stayed friends over the years.

Stuck In The Mall

The only down side to chatting for so long was that we kinda got stuck in the mall. The doors connecting the mall to the apartment complex and most of the doors to go outside were locked, so we wandered for a while until we were able to find an exit. A security guard had to unlock it to let us out. It was so funny. I had no idea they would lock the doors from opening in either direction. Or that they’d close the mall so early. It was barely after 8:00pm when we left the massage parlor. I’m used to malls being open until 10:00pm. But now, I can tell people I got locked in a mall when visiting China. 😂😂😂

After we were able to get out of the mall, we had to walk outside the building to get back to her apartment. This gave us a great view of Fraser Suites lit up at night. It’s a pretty building.

End of Day One

After the massage, I was ready to wind down. I went in my room to tell Tim about my day and do scriptures together and then I went to bed. The day was relatively low-key compared to my other trips, but I was still so worn out that I fell asleep within minutes.

My first day visiting China was a really good day. I had so much fun catching up with Ginnie and being able to go different place around Chengdu. I love China so much. Sure, my first visit there had a scary adventure, but that doesn’t mean things will always be bad. China has such a unique and special culture. I love learning about it and experiencing it. The first day visiting China was perfect and I went to bed really looking forward to the next day.