I'm home!

Back in the United States! Well, I've really been back for about 9 days now. But it just occurred to me that I haven't updated my blog to reflect that. My apologies.

As you might guess, my last few days in China were pretty awesome. With the project over, we were free to sightsee and have fun as we pleased. We saw the Great Wall, Forbidden City, Tienanmen Square, some famous temples, and other famous Beijing sites. These were all impressive, but we also had some unexpected great moments. Our last night, we went to a huge outside area of a Beijing shopping mall. We saw some little kids playing with giant helium balloon Frisbee and decided to join them, which made them really happy.

These last few days, I've been in California visiting family. I'm looking forward to coming back to Baylor next week!

Last stop: Beijing!

In a few hours I'm leaving Ningbo, which means I'll be headed to my last Chinese city of the summer: Beijing! I'm excited, especially since I've already been there once (in 2006) and look forward to re-seeing my past favorites. Our final presentation is on August 1, and my flight leaves on the fifth. That means that I'll have three whole days of sightseeing and shopping.

Ningbo is a very nice city of about 7 million people, although I didn't realize it at first. You see, the university that we've been staying at is not actually located in central Ningbo, but rather in a suburb. This means that to get to the more interesting parts of town, you have to take a 30 minute taxi ride (but because taxis are so cheap here, you end up only spending about $5 per cab, each way... you could also take a bus, but it takes twice as long and doesn't save you that much money). Downtown Ningbo has a large public square (and mall) overlooking a river. Surprisingly, there is a large, very European-looking Catholic church/cathedral in the middle of town. The first time I went, they were having a fashion show in the public square, and the selection of Western music that they chose was... interesting. At one point they played "Woo Hoo" (by the 5.6.7.8's) right after "Waka Waka Africa."

Last weekend we made a side trip to Xi'an, a very historic Northern Chinese city which used to be China's capital a few hundred years ago. The trip was very insightful and also a pleasant and much-needed work break. Some of the things we did include seeing the famous Terra Cotta Warriors (there's a lot of them!), riding bicycles around (and not just beside, but actually on top of) the city walls of Xi'an, and seeing a giant pagoda built in honor of a Buddhist monk who made a five-year journey to India to retrieve Buddhist scriptures (a well-known Chinese book, "Journey to the West," is very loosely based on his life).

Funny conversation

Today at lunch I was talking with one of the Chinese students who I've been working with over the past week. I had earlier been discussing with other Baylor students how much I miss eating Mexican food, so I decided to ask the Chinese student whether she had ever had Mexican food. She thought about it for a few seconds and said, "Well, I think I remember eating Mexican food before. I have been to Kentucky!"

I thought about this for a few seconds and realized that while I've never been to Kentucky, I can reasonably assume that it contains hundreds, maybe thousands, of Mexican restaurants. What was surprising was to find out that she had been to America, something that I hadn't previously heard from her. I said, "Oh, Kentucky! That's a nice state. What were you doing there?" Surprised, she said, "Oh no, I meant the restaurant!... Wait, Kentucky is a real place?" I explained to her that Kentucky is, in fact, a real state. Furthermore, Kentucky fried chicken is not considered by most (if any) Americans to be "Mexican food."

What Mexican food might look like, as perceived by the Chinese

I learned something from this conversation: most Chinese people have no idea what Mexican food is. This is hardly unique to China; when I was in England last year, I stayed with a family who had only a vague idea of what Mexican food is and had never had a burrito before (I offered to cook them burritos, and they accepted and enjoyed them). Unfortunately, while many cuisines, such as American and Italian, have become wide-spread globally, Mexican food has not achieved such success, despite being equally delicious.

That said, I'm sure I've said many equally questionable things when discussing Asian cuisine. I've tried a lot of new things since being in Asia which have shattered any notions I had previously had as to what people eat here. I've had both weird stuff (chicken feet, "fish balls") and unexpectedly delicious food (pineapple bun, egg tarts, and Indonesian food come to mind among many others). I suppose that this just shows the value of cross-cultural interaction: I've gained a better understanding of what (and how) food is made in China, and my Chinese colleagues are now more likely to be able to discern the fine line between fried chicken and a chicken burrito.

Hong Kong, visit #2

So... I realize it's been a long time since I've written, and I apologize for that. It certainly hasn't been for lack of topics to write about. Rather, it's been lack of time to do it!

Right now I'm working with Baylor's i5 program. Before the program, I wasn't really sure whether it's more like an internship or a study abroad. Turns out that it's both. We have class from 8 to 12 and then do internship-related activities from 1 until pretty late at night (9 to 11 depending on circumstances), taking a break for dinner. Obviously, this is quite intensive and leaves little room for free time (although we do get weekends off). So hopefully you can understand my long silence.

The project I'm working on is pretty interesting. I can't say too much but it involves very advanced video surveillance software. Got to visit an office yesterday and it was a very interesting experience.

That said, despite the busyness, I still love being here. For one thing, I'm surrounded by really great peers and mentors. I really enjoy the company of all the other students (both graduate and undergraduate) on this trip, and I also really like the professors who have come along. Also, Hong Kong is a really amazing city. I believe in an earlier post I talked about some of the things I had seen in my last visit to the city, and I've seen many of those things again, plus a few entirely new things. For example, I saw the Dragon Boat races last weekend, and they were quite fun to watch. Hopefully I will soon get around to putting up photos... but at this point I don't know when I can make time to do it!

We'll be in Hong Kong until Sunday, at which point we will transfer to Ningbo. Should be an interesting experience!

Four days in Suzhou

It's 5:00 AM here in Shanghai, and surprisingly, the sun is up. Ordinarily, being woken up by this would be a bad thing, but since I have to get up in 45 minutes anyways to catch my next flight, I now have plenty of time to update my blog. These last four days have been spent staying with family friends Mark and Karen, who live in a very comfortable American-style house with other ex-pats in Suzhou. While it may not be the most authentic cultural experience, it was certainly a nice break from small apartments and smaller hotel rooms with hard beds (and in case you didn't know, all Chinese beds are extremely firm).

I arrived in Suzhou (via Shenzhen and Shanghai) on Sunday night, which gave me some time to get settled in. On Monday, Mark had a day off, so the three of us went to the Nanshan Bamboo Forest, about 2 hours west of Suzhou. I'm still not quite sure what to think of the park. On one hand, it came across as somewhat inauthentic and contrived, like it was fabricated to appeal to Chinese tourists (but clearly not to Western tourists, as no employees spoke English). It seemed like half the buildings in the park were gift shops. Still, despite the cheesiness, it was still in a scenic bamboo-forested mountainous area, and it did have some interesting things, such as the huge museum of bamboo products, colorful ski lift, and walk-in aviary. The best part of the day was the pandas. The two pandas were fully awake (a rare sight) and were wrestling with and chasing each other, and making panda noises, and generally being very cute. Though I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed the park alone, it was nice to go to with friends.



On Tuesday and Wednesday, I spent most of the day relaxing at home, but I did do a few fun things. On Tuesday, it was extremely rainy, so I focused on indoor activities: I visited the silk museum (interesting, but you probably wouldn't need more than 30 minutes to see everything there) and the Suzhou Museum, which has a large collection of Chinese artwork and artifacts (as it turns out, there are a lot of Chinese things in China). On Wednesday, Karen and I went to Tiger Hill, the most famous attraction in Suzhou. At Tiger Hill, there is a large garden, with many old Chinese-style buildings, surrounding a hill. Atop the hill is a huge pagoda, about seven stories tall. Most notably, it has a slight tilt to it, leading some to call it the “Leaning Tower of China.”



Yesterday, I spent the day in Shanghai. It's a very beautiful city and the largest in China. I arrived about noon at the Shanghai Museum, which is similar to the Suzhou museum but much larger. I was able to view most of the exhibits, and my favorites were the jade, the seals, and the paintings, though all of the exhibits were interesting. For lunch, I walked around for awhile before finding a food court to an underground shopping mall. I bought six Xiaolongbao dumplings (classic eastern Chinese food) for 8 yuan and a can of Coke for 2.5, adding up to about $1.70, a pretty cheap lunch in my opinion (a nice thing about China is that the restaurants are much cheaper than those in the US). Next, I visited the Shanghai Urban Planning Museum, which I found fascinating. The biggest thing there is a massive, 1:500 scale model of Shanghai. The model fills a whole floor and is quite impressively done. There is also a round room in which a 360º video is projected onto the wall which simulates flying through Shanghai. At 5, when both museums were closed, I walked a few blocks north to Nanjing Road, a major pedestrian mall flanked with many high-end shops. Not wanting to shop, or to walk the entire distance (and carrying a heavy backpack didn't help), I took the trolley from one end to the other. I then walked to The Bund, perhaps the most well-known feature of Shanghai, a huge promenade overlooking the river. I had a delicious dinner of “Beef with Rice Noodles,” which also has green onions and a sauce similar to soy sauce. I think that may be my new favorite Chinese dish. After taking an hour to watch the river on one side and the European-style buildings on the other, I took the subway to the airport to catch up with the rest of the i5 group.



Today I'm flying to Wuhan to catch the Yangtze River cruise with the rest of the i5 group. I doubt I will have internet access during that time, so I'll be out of the loop for a while. Please pray for safe travels and that the rest of the group will get over their jet lag.

On Macau and Hong Kong

Right now I'm writing from the Shenzhen airport, where I am very hungry. Unfortunately, despite being surrounded by food, I have only Hong Kong dollars and no way to change to Chinese money. None of the merchants I asked accept credit cards, and I see no ATMs. C'est la vie.

Before I say too much more, let me say that some friends and I have set up a Photobucket so that you can see trip pictures. A picture is truly worth a thousand words, so I suggest you check it out. http://photobucket.com/fbcmacau (I've password-protected it for safety, please email or FB-message me for the password)

I just left Hong Kong, and before that, Macau. Both cities were quite nice, in different ways. Hong Kong's downtown is slightly more dense than Macau, but both are very vertical, with hundreds of high-rise buildings. The most notable thing about Macau is how small it is; you could feasibly walk from one side to another. Not that you would need to, because the bus network is quite extensive and frequent. We still ended up doing quite a bit of walking though. Because of its Portuguese heritage, Macau has an interesting blend of Chinese and European architecture, so there's lots to look at while walking or riding the bus.

Another great thing about Macau is the abundance of high-quality bakeries. There is one on just about every corner, and they sell (quite cheaply) some of the best pastries, muffins, and other baked goods I've ever had. Most famous is the egg tart, which is, as the name might imply, a tart filled with egg custard. Delicious and filling, they make a great breakfast.

Where Macau has historical colonial buildings (and casinos), Hong Kong has dazzling, massive, and cutting-edge skyscrapers. A popular way to take in these architectural marvels, which we did on Thursday night, is to take the tram to the top of Victoria Peak, where on a pleasant day you can see Hong Kong in its entirety. Even more impressive, in my opinion, is to see the Symphony of Lights, a nightly 15-minute light show which is view from the north side of Hong Kong's harbor. The building lights, as well as lasers and spotlights on top of each building, produce a light show which is choreographed to dramatic music. If you can't see it in person, I'd recommend watching a video to get an idea of what it is like.

In both Macau and Hong Kong, we went to Cantonese restaurants and were served dim sum, which consists of a wide variety of Cantonese dishes served family-style. Some of these dishes include dumplings, spring rolls, noodles, and fried rice. On one occasion, I actually ate chicken feet (the only “weird” food I've had during my stay here), and though they weren't disgusting, I didn't think they were that great, although others liked them. There's also a wide variety of other Asian cuisines-- we've had Vietnamese, Thai (several times), Indian, Korean, and others I'm probably forgetting. Overall, I really liked both cities. I'm looking forward to returning to Hong Kong on July 3-15.

Update: Got some much-needed grub on the plane, made it to Shanghai (only 90 minutes late), and now I'm sitting contently at a family friend's house in Suzhou.

On Casinos

After spending 10 days in Macau, it would be hard not to talk about the casinos. From what I am told, Macau, which is only 11 square miles, has 36 casinos within its borders, and those casinos employ 14% of the local workforce. So it's no surprise that Macau has earned the nickname “The Las Vegas of Asia” (in fact, Macau casinos take in over five times as much money as those in Vegas). The casinos, by offering very high salaries, attract many young Macanese people who would otherwise go to university or pursue other careers, but many of these employees become dissatisfied with the menial nature of the work after a few months. One of our hosts told us about how she has been ministering to the casino employees, and also to the sex workers who hang around casinos looking for “work.”

Surprisingly, and despite popular reputation, casinos are not the main draw for tourists to Macau. According to a survey, the most popular reason to come to Macau is for the historical attractions, followed by shopping. Macau has many interesting historical sites which show how its people have blended eastern and western cultures. There is a lot of interesting and colorful Portuguese architecture in Macau, and for many tourists, it is a way to see European culture without leaving Asia. Macau also draws many wealthy Chinese people who desire high-quality, authentic, name-brand products. Although counterfeits abound in China, they are virtually non-existent in Macau, driving Chinese people desiring non-counterfeit products to Macau's many outlet stores.

But even if Macau did not have historical sites and shopping, and even if you did not wish to gamble, it would still be worth visiting Macau just to marvel at the opulence and grandeur of the casinos. We walked through six casinos: Grand Lisboa, MGM, Wynn, the Venetian, City of Dreams, and Grand Emperor. All of these are furnished with gold, ivory, crystal chandeliers, and fine wood, and each contains an extensive collection of fine art and sculpture. In addition, they generally contain a wide selection of name-brand stores (as I said, upscale shopping is big in Macau), many restaurants (of all price levels), and a five-star hotel. In addition to dozens of breath-taking statues and artwork, they often have other interesting attractions: one casino had a walk-in butterfly enclosure, where you might have two or three large butterflies land on you, and another had a well-choreographed musical fountain. The Venetian, an Italian-themed casino, designed its corridors to resemble European streets, with colorful facades of buildings lining the walls and a canal running through the center of the corridor. You could travel through the casino either by foot or on a gondola, with a red-and-white-striped gondolier serenading you with Italian opera.

It's hard to describe the casinos without using pictures, so I will soon be uploading them and posting a link here to see all of my photos from the trip.

Onward and forward

Funny story from our trip: last Tuesday night, our second night in Macau, we decided to have dinner at the NOW Cafe, about a 10 minute walk from our apartment (for the record, the service was good, but the food was mediocre). Kim had olives in her Portuguese chicken, and since she doesn't care for olives, she offered them to Billy. Billy very calmly reached for the olive, and right before grabbing it, he quickly jerked his hand back, knocking several drinks onto the floor and creating a huge commotion. You know how being tired makes you giggly? It was late at night, and we were all still very jet-lagged, so right after this happened, we all burst out laughing for quite a while. Billy tried to explain that his arm had jerked back because he touched a hot glass of tea, but he had a hard time explaining it through the laughter. So since then, we've been joking about how we need to keep Billy away from olives and hot cups of tea.

I just got off the phone with my parents, and my dad pointed out that I have not updated for a week. This is true, and I do apologize. I'd like to write more, but I'm quite busy actually doing things, and when I'm not doing anything, I'm usually too tired to actually write. Most of our mornings have been filled with distributions, the last of which was yesterday morning. June is usually a pretty slow month for Macau tourism, because students are still in school and non-students prefer to go when it's not so hot and humid. But surprisingly, God brought a lot of tourists to us, and these tourists were quite thirsty for the Word. Over the past 9 days, we've distributed 7490 Chinese-language copies of the good book, which is about twice what the organization is usually able to distribute this time of year. So PTL for this great opportunity.

The mission portion of our trip wrapped up yesterday. Last night, we had our debriefing dinner in a very nice restaurant in the Wynn casino. Everyone said that they were quite contented after the trip and that they really felt like God was doing great things through us. Billy said that he was “so excited” to carry these 40-pound boxes (not a typical response!) because he knew what was in them and how much good would come out of it. We thanked our hosts (who I won't mention by name for privacy reasons) for going out of their way to make this a very comfortable and rewarding trip for us.

While our morning activities have been very consistent, our afternoons have been all over the place. Some of the places we have been include a children's ministry, a factory worker's ministry, and prayer walks through various temples and casinos. We've also visited the local ex-pat (English-speaking) church and met some nice people there. On Father's Day, we watched the movie Courageous and listened to a Canadian man speak about how to be a godly father. It reminded me of what a great father I have, which I am very thankful for.

More updates are coming soon, including details on how it feels to live in the city of Macau, and a description of the opulence and grandeur of the casinos here.

Macau!

The long wait is over. I've finally arrived in Macau! Truthfully, I arrived in Macau about a day and a half ago. However, between the tiredness and business, I haven't been able to update you on what I've been doing. I'm still tired, but now that the day is over I'm no longer busy, so I finally have time to post an update.

First, let me tell you about the trip. On Saturday morning, I woke up at the lovely hour of 4:30 to pack the last few items and head to the airport with my parents (thanks Mom and Dad!) for a 7:10 flight to DFW, followed by another flight to Toronto. I arrived at YYZ at about two in the afternoon and my flight to Hong Kong didn't leave until 1:40 AM, so I had plenty of time to leave the airport and do some sightseeing: walking around, looking at buildings, and checking out the botanical gardens. My last flight was from Toronto to Hong Kong, on Cathay Pacific Airlines. I was expecting the worst, since at 15 hours, it is a very long flight. Instead, it was one of the best flights I've been on. Very good service, comfortable seats, good food, and a personal entertainment system with all the movies, TV shows, and music you could possibly want. Furthermore, I slept very well, partly due to the comfortable seats but mostly because I had been awake for about 24 straight hours before the flight. I finally arrived at Hong Kong International Airport at about 5:00 AM local time, feeling quite well rested. After about an hour, the rest of the team showed up in Hong Kong (they had taken a different flight, connecting in San Francisco), and we caught the 10:00 ferry to Taipa, Macau, finally arriving at our destination at 11:00 Monday morning. After traveling for about 40 consecutive hours, I had finally reached Macau.

Our first day, Monday, was spent getting acclimated, walking around Macau, meeting our local contacts, holding an orientation meeting (no pun intended), and most importantly, trying to stay awake for as long as possible. We actually managed to stay up until 8PM, which I consider a success. Some impressions of Macau from the walk: it is hilly, hot, humid, and you have to do a lot of walking. However, it is also very pretty, with lots of greenery, fountains, gardens, and European architecture (which comes from being a former Portuguese colony). One of the locals explained that Macau is very safe, with violent crime almost non-existent, which I find reassuring (however, there is still a fair amount of pickpocketing). Also, the drivers here are not nearly as crazy as those in mainland China.

This morning, we did our first distribution from 9 to 12, near the ruins of St. Paul's Cathedral. As the oldest surviving example of European architecture in the far east, it is the most popular tourist destination in Macau, attracting thousands of visitors from the mainland every day. We distributed 900 Chinese-language packets today, each one holding a Blibe and several tracts, and many of the recipients expressed to us how happy they were to receive it. I could go on and on, but let me be brief and say that it was quite a blessing to me and the rest of the team to be a part of this. Please pray that the Chinese people we met would be receptive to the information in the packets.

For lunch, we went to a very fancy dim sum restaurant, where we gorged ourselves on delicious Chinese food. Afterwards, we went on a prayer walk through the Grand Lisboa, a Macau casino. Gambling is a huge industry for Macau, with 34 casinos employing 14.5% of Macau's working population. While walking through the casino, it was clear that many of the people there, both employees and gamblers, had a lot of bad things going on, so it was great to be able to pray for them.

Which brings me to now. It's about 7pm here and we're about to head out to dinner. So that's all I have to say for now (well, I could probably say more if I wasn't so tired and hungry). I'll post some pictures soon. Please pray for me and the rest of the team that we'll get good rest tonight and be ready to "sow more seeds" among the Chinese people we meet. Also, if you'd like more info or a different perspective, check out my teammate Kim's blog:  http://worldfacemissions.blogspot.com/

Ni Hao!

Back when I was in middle school, upon returning to the classroom in August, the teacher would often ask me to write an essay about what I did that summer. I always preferred these, mostly because writer's block was not a concern; I can almost always remember things for at least three months, at least well enough to write them down. This post here is one of those essays. Well, close. Summer isn't exactly over yet. For me, it just started last Monday evening. So rather than "what I did this summer," this is more about "what I will do this summer." In order to make this easier to read, I've broken up my summer into five blocks of time: now through June 9, June 9-24, June 24-28, June 28-August 5, and August 5 until August 20. I'm not sure if that's less or more confusing, so just bear with me.

The first part of the summer (and probably the least interesting), until June 9, will occur mostly in Spring. My primary goals are (1) to prepare for the rest of the summer and (2) to go through my old items and discard/sell those which I don't need. I'll also be taking a short getaway with my family to Rhode Island and Massachusetts to get some beach time, enjoy the cooler weather, and see interesting New England cities and historical sites.

I will spend June 9-24 in Macau (transiting through Hong Kong) with friends from my church in Waco. We'll be working working with our contacts in Macau to help the Macanese and Chinese people we encounter in any way we can, which will include distributing several thousand packets containing various pieces of literature. You might have gotten a letter with full details regarding this trip from me in the mail earlier this month, but if you didn't (or even if you did), feel free to give me a ring any time between now and June 9. I'd love to talk about the trip.

One fun detail of my trans-Pacific journey: my flight to Hong Kong includes a 12-hour daytime layover in Toronto, from 2pm to 2am. I chose this itinerary on purpose, since I've never been to Canada before and I've heard that it's beautiful during the summer. Some would balk at such a long layover, but I like to think of it as a nearly free chance to tour a Canadian city. In fact, this layover marks Part 1 of my  Summer 2012 Whirlwind Tour of Canada, with the second and final part consisting of a similar 12-hour (11am-11pm) daytime layover in Vancouver on the return flight from Asia. If you know any must-sees in either of these fine Canadian cities, please let me know.

The third part, June 24-28, will be spent in unspecified places doing unspecified activities. I'm not being coy; I really have no idea what I am going to do during this time, other than make my way from Hong Kong to Shanghai (where the next activity, i5, is starting). If you have any suggestions, let me know. Update: I now have a plan for these days! I'll be staying with some very hospitable family friends in Suzhou.

The biggest chunk of my summer will be June 28 through August 5 with Baylor's i5 program. It's a traveling program, which means I'll get to see many, if not most, of the biggest cities in China:  Shanghai, Chengdu, Hong Kong, Macau, Ningbo, Beijing, and Xian, among others. In addition to appealing to my wanderlust, it will also help me academically and professionally. The meat of the program involves working with multinational corporations to develop technology-related business and marketing plans. It's a wonderful and challenging opportunity, and though I sometimes feel that I might be in over my head, I'm being accompanied by lots of smart people (professors, lawyers, and MBA students) who will be there to guide and mentor me.

Finally, I'll be flying home from China on August 5-6, and then starting classes at Baylor on August 20. I probably won't have time to do much more than unpack (from China) and repack (for Waco), although I hope to spend a few days at the beach or lake with my family. Update: I'll be traveling with the rest of my family to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles on August 9-16 to catch up with relatives and to move Ryan to San Diego, where he'll start his second year as a Point Loma student.

So that's it. My exciting, scary, and somewhat crazy plans for Summer 2012. I think I've covered all of the details, but if I left out something you'd like to know, just leave a comment or contact me in another way. Also, if you'd like, please pray for me and the people I will be traveling with, especially that we would be safe and healthy and that many opportunities would be open to us.

Leaving on June 9th!

Travel Info Coming Soon

Hi all! As you can see, this blog is pretty bare-bones. All I've posted so far is a satirical essay I wrote in 2010 (probably my favorite essay out of all the ones I've written). But fear not! It will soon be updated with full details of my summer travel.