But I was not alone over the Christmas holiday. Kelly's mom (who is Chinese) and sister came out to Beijing for a couple weeks, and on December 23, we all took an overnight sleeper train down to Shanghai. We stayed with their friends who have an apartment near downtown Shanghai and were incredibly generous to let me join them for the holiday.
On Christmas Eve, despite the gross weather, we explored the city, visiting the Yu Gardens, the Bund, and the famous shopping street Nanjing Lu. For dinner, we had a huge seafood meal at a Thai restaurant that came with Philippine entertainers dressed in Santa costumes who would perform any song upon request - even Britney Spears, which of course Kelly did not hesitate to request and then join in their dance.
On Christmas Day, we went to Pudong and went to the top of the observatory tower that overlooks the entire city - an amazing sight to see all of the towering skyscrapers and cranes ready to construct even more.
The next day, we took a short train ride to nearby Nanjing (the old, southern capital of China) where we met Kelly's cousin who goes to school there. Our hosts were two Chinese professors who had traveled to Los Angeles the year before and stayed at Loyola Marymount University where Kelly's mom works. This time, they were returning the favor to us (China is all about networking and guanxi - personal relations). We stayed at Nanda (Nanjing University) and took a couple sightseeing trips around the city to visit a Buddhist Temple and the Temple of Confucius.
The Nanjing portion of the trip was actually a repeat for me because I went there last semester on a weekend trip with my friend Jacob. During the first weekend in December, we took an overnight train down to Nanjing where we spent two days going to the Purple Mountain (home of Sun Yat-Sen's Mausoleum,
Linggu Temple and Pagoda, and Ming Tombs), walking around Xuanwu Lake in the center of town, visiting the Rape of Nanking (Nanjing Massacre)
Memorial and Taiping Rebellion Museum, and enjoying Nanjing's delicious street food - reputed by our Dean who studied there to have the best jian bings in all of China. We also took a side trip to the canal city of Suzhou for one day to see the city's beautiful gardens and take a boat ride through the canals that reminded me of Italy's Venice.
But anyway, after the trip with Kelly's family, we returned to Beijing. Kelly, her mom, and her sister all returned to the States for the rest of our winter vacation, and I had a couple days to myself to prepare for my mom's arrival in Beijing. During this time, I moved all of my stuff from my dorm room in the international student building to my new room in my Chinese homestay. Considering that I had already brought too much stuff when I first came to China and the additional souvenirs I had accumulated over the semester, the move took several trips, but I had pretty much moved everything by the time my mom arrived on December 31.
I picked her up at Beijing's new international terminal that was built for the Olympics (it was SO good to see her after all this time, but a little weird when I actually thought about the situation that my mom was the tourist visiting ME in China), and we went straight to our hotel in the center of Beijing. It was called the Bamboo Garden Hotel and was located in a hutong - the old alleyways for which the old city of Beijing is famous (they also are being quickly demolished in the process of China's development). We went out for a nice New Years Eve dinner at The Courtyard, one of Beijing's best restaurants, before she crashed early due to jet lag.
We spent the next three days exploring Beijing with me playing the role of personal tour guide. We hit all of the major destinations including The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs, Bell and Drum Towers, and the National Center for the Performing Arts, which is nicknamed "The Egg." We got up early one day to watch the flag raising ceremony at Tiananmen (complete with a live military band and the release of hundreds of doves) followed by a trip to one of my favorite parks in Beijing - Jing Shan Park. From Jing Shan (the only hill in the entire city that was constructed when digging the moat around the Forbidden City), you can see all of Beijing and can actually stand directly on the N-S axis that runs straight through the city. We also managed to see a traditional Peking Opera performance called Forbidden Love. I took her to my university to see my old dorm, my new room in my homestay, and meet my homestay parents in their apartment. They were action packed days (slowed down a little by my mom's jet lag), but we managed to do a lot and fit in lots of good meals in between sightseeing including dim sum, Beijing roast duck, hot pot, and my favorite: street food.
On January 4, we headed for our next adventure together: Vietnam.
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