Every kid in this home, over 150 in all, has some sort of physical or mental disability.  They are all so cute, some of them can sing really well, some have cute laughs and smiles and some are just funny.

I should make the point that this is not your average Chinese foster home.  I hear some very scary and sad stories about the ones that are government owned–old buildings, fewer caretakers, harsh treatment.  Sherpherd’s Field on the other hand has enough funding from American supporters that keep it running in good condition.  The goal is for every child to eventually be adopted and many of them do become adopted.  Unfortunately, Chinese culture has an aversion to adoption (why raise someone else’s kid?) so very few of the potential parents are Chinese and mostly American or European.  It was truly amazing to see the work being done there.

Kid with autism, pretty calm except he head-butts me sometimes.

This is little Eric, he can sing "Silent Night" really well.

We brought over some DVDs and got some Pixar action going.

During our stay, we spent most of our time playing with the kids.  Since it was Christmas time, we also offered presents like Legos and toy cars and trucks.  It was pretty entertaining playing “kitchen” with them and watching them cook meals for me.  Eric and some of the other kids sang a song together for us (they got in a fight about the correct lyrics when they were out of sync).  And we built an awesome castle out of Legos.

Second: They only play half-court basketball and this is mainly because of space limits, since there are so many games going on.

Third: They only play on outdoor asphalt courts, since there are very few indoor courts and those are usually limited to official school activities.

Fourth (and by far the most annoying): They don’t check the ball. They don’t care where the defense is standing on the court, they just step out anywhere on the 3 point line and then the ball is in play. I find this terribly annoying because defense has no chance to set-up on a half-court game and cheap and easy lay-ins abound. Now you could argue that this is still fair since the rule applies to both teams regardless who has the ball, but I think the game should stay more competitive based on a fresh restart rather than the ability to find one guy wide open because the defense had shifted around on the last play.

Fifth: They prefer driving rather than shooting. This is for two reason: One is that few people are good jump-shooters. Second reason is that driving the ball leads to intense circus shots under the basket (which are rarely made either) and make for an entertaining game to watch.

Another note:

Nothing else but Rockets jerseys.

Harbin
Harbin is located in northeast China, with temperatures averaging below zero during the winter.  During the day, I was able to handle the cold, but at night the biting chill was pretty intense.  While in Harbin, by far the most interesting and spectacular site was the Harbin Ice Festival.  They harvest ice from the nearby rivers and break them into individual blocks to create giant structures.  They then string neon lights within the ice structures to create a beautiful display.  There is no chance of the ice melting in zero degree temperatures.  Ice feels so weird at that temperature–feels like cold plastic almost.

Here are a few pictures from my trip:

The forbidden city made out of ice. Oddly, there were pacman ice sculptures placed all over the city. Were they pointing in the direction of the ice festival?

Ice Dragon

View of the ice world

Sphinx ice sculpture

Pagodas

Church
Our church got kicked out by the government from the building we originally were in.  Long story short, we moved around and met temporarily in various locations until we finally decided on a property to buy.  I don’t know how we expect to stay there (because I think the government can kick us out of there too).

Classes
Chinese classes are much harder this semester at Tsinghua than back at BLCU.  Still have all the same type of classes, except much more homework.  I estimate we learn close to 200 new vocab words each week, but it doesn’t necessarily mean I remember all of it.  My writing in particular is starting to improve a lot more this semester.  Funny thing is, I don’t feel like I’m retaining as much of what I learn as I did last semester.  I hypothesize it’s due to the fact that back in spring, I just had so much to learn, and couldn’t help but pick up the basic words and phrases I would need for daily life.

Work
Outside of class I work for a tech start-up in Beijing and  I do sales of 3D CAD designs in the international market.  I met the CEO at our church and I decided to join his company back over the summer.  Been an awesome experience working in a Chinese company – all my coworkers are Chinese and I learn a lot of tech vocab in Chinese…like “computer server” (服务器），”3D model” (三维模型） or “zip compression” (压缩)…  Also, working in a start-up environment is really exciting with the growth and change everyday.

Some Pictures

Building at Tsinghua where my classes are held

Snowboarded at NanShan, not great place, but good enough

It snowed Nov 1st, unusually early for Beijing winter. On Jan 3rd Beijing experienced one of its worst snow storms in 40 years.

I saw a big UFC match at one of the stadiums in the Olympic park. It was intense to say the least, especially when the Chinese and Japanese fighters were fighting - heard many words not meant for sensitive ears.

Taiwan Notes:

• I snorkeled on Taiwan’s northeast coast – saw colorful fishies.
• Two earthquakes, both about 6.5, hit while I was there.  I slept through one of them, which apparently was quite a feat since things were really shifting around, and the other one woke me up at 8 am.  No major damage I think.
• To my surprise, I did not gain weight in Taiwan or Beijing.  In fact, I weighed myself at a gym and found that I’ve actually lost weight since coming from the US.  I attribute this to lots of walking and riding my bike in Beijing.
• Participated in an outdoor sport I have never heard of before: River trekking (I think that’s the best translation from Chinese).  It essentially means hiking upstream a shallow river and climbing up waterfalls (see pictures below).
• I visited Hua Lian on Taiwan’s east coast.  Drive down coastal highway was beautiful.  Family member serves in the Taiwan air force so our living accomodations ended up being at the Hua Lian air force base.  Saw some cool F-16′s.  At night, had tea on a mountaintop resort overlooking a night view of Hua Lian.
• Typhoon Morakot – very very sad.  Many parts of southern Taiwan devastated.  The eye of the storm crossed over Taipei so I didn’t feel much while I was there – just some more rain and a little wind.
• I visited 8 or 9 different night markets and enjoyed every snack I had.
• I had a special shaved ice – almond shaved ice.  Instead of using a regular ice block, they shave an almond milk block – oh baby, baby.
• Went to Taiwan mainly to see my Dad, who was there for a high school reunion.  My two cousins and uncle from Seattle also were there and we lived in Aunt’s house in Xinzhuang.
• Enjoyed the fresh warm spring waters in NE Taiwan.  Felt so much freedom felt while standing naked on a mountainside.
• Disappointed by the rate of expansion of Taipei’s subway system.  Barely changed since I was there in 2002.  Apparently they’re going to finish a new line every year for the next 5 years, but there’s always delays, delays…
• For the second half of my stay in Taiwan, I was on my own in my family’s apartment – the owners live back in Seattle and my cousins, uncle, and dad had already returned home.  It was ok because a friend named Ashley took me out a lot to different places around Taipei.  Got to ride her scooter too!
• I might have gotten minor heatstroke.  I visited the hospital twice in two weeks.
• During my last night in Taipei, Ashley got tickets to see Blue Man Group.  Pretty fun, especially when Chinese people get involved with blue men.

Superstars
My dad’s friend is the father of Korean film actress Ha Hee Ra (하희라) and we stayed at their family’s house during our trip to Seoul.   Ha Hee Ra’s dad acted as our tour guide around Seoul.   I didn’t realize at first just how well-known Ha Hee Ra is in Korea until on more than one occasion we walked past  TVs in the mall and he saw one playing a Korea drama and pointed out, “There’s my daughter.”  Apparently, almost everyone in Korea knows of her and her husband.  She is married to Choi Soo Jong (최수종),  another one of Korea’s most famous actors, whom I met one afternoon.  He’s a very kind and welcoming person and I got to chat a little with him before he left (he learned some English in the States).    To my surprise, the same afternoon, I saw an advertisement of him for a golf brand in the mall.  They live in a huge five bedroom house down the street from the house of former president of Korea, Roh Tae Woo, which is the reason for 24 hour security guard surveillance patrolling our area, making it somewhat of a hassle passing through the neighborhood.

Me with Korean superstar Choi Soo Jong (최수종)

The Boss
Another one of my dad’s friends owns one of the largest Chinese restaurants in Seoul – four floors and luxurious in design.  As he treated us to a meal at his place, we found that he happens to have connections all throughout Korea in government, business, and other aspects.  He helped hook us up with a connection at the Chinese embassy up the street:  I needed a visa that allowed me to return to Beijing in late August but my school only provided me a student visa application that allows me to return in September.  My school’s administration made it clear that no visa would be allowed for August, and the same thing was told to me at every travel agency I went to.  I was about to give up the idea of returning to Beijing in August until the restaurant boss said his connection at the embassy could hook me up.  I went to the embassy and within 20 minutes his friend cleared me for a visa that allowed me to return in the month of August.  Amazed, I picked up the visa the very next day.  I will be back in Beijing August 21st.  Please compare this experience to my first blog entry, Difficulties at the Chinese Embassy.

The Billionaire
My dad has another friend that is a property developer in LA, Hawaii, and Korea.  Besides his Beverly Hills home, he also has a place in a brand new condo development near the heart of Seoul.  He invited us to his pad and we had a nice time of tea and while he showed us some of his latest calligraphy works.  With my interest in real estate, I picked his brain on a number of issues surrounding property development in Asia and the United States.  Another great part is that he’s an avid golfer, which was a great topic of converstaion – that, and the fact that he owned a couple golf courses…

Taiwan and Korea
During the summer break I will stay in Taiwan where both my parents will join me.  My dad has a school reunion in Taipei and some family members offered to let us stay in their apartment during the summer.  I arrive on July 8th and return to Beijing on August 20th.   During our Taiwan trip, however, my dad will take me to Korea to visit friends and see where he grew up on the island of Cheju, which is now more of a resort location.

I wished to see all of you back in the US a lot sooner, but you know how life is – things change!  Please keep me in your prayers as I continue my service in reaching out to Chinese people who haven’t heard the gospel.  A friend of mine is going to get baptized this month!

I had already seen Shanghai before which is actually not that special to be honest.  The places I was most looking forward to were Hangzhou and Suzhou, which are supposed to be “heaven on earth.”  Both were beautiful places, but I wouldn’t quite call them heavenly.  After traveling to five other Chinese cities, I’ve realized that Beijing is one of the best places to be – I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in China – Shanghai is too urban, too congested, even more so than Beijing.  Hangzhou and Suzhou on the other end don’t have the flair of a big city, but are packed with tourists.  And Nanjing is small and ugly.  I am fortunate to be able to travel and see these different places all in one trip.  Some pictures of our adventures:

Check out the bottle opener building, currently the tallest I think?

We stayed in the most ghetto hotels. The sign says "2 hours for 48 yuan (about $7)"

You can tell that it was a big boy Buddha.

Roger and I cruising the Suzhou water

A very weird place, some convention center/temple for Buddhists.

Singapore Trip
I went to Singapore this past weekend to see my cousin’s high school graduation.   Singapore is a small, clean, hot, humid, unpolluted, quirky, and boring place.  Lots of rich people here – in the parking garage of my family’s building there are a few Lamborghini’s, Ferrari’s, Maserati’s, Bentley’s, and Rolls Royce’s, interspersed between BMW’s and Mercede’s.  Other than seeing shopping malls where all the rich people go, I ate good Malaysian and Indian food, checked out the night life at Clark Quay.  It’s so sad that everywhere I go, I keep gaining weight; just too much to eat in Asia.

Misc Notes
Chinese people text like mad.  The surprising thing is that most people of older generations can communicate through text, whereas back in the US my mom doesn’t even know that her phone has a text function.  To keep up with the texting madness, I bought a Blackberry Curve with a keyboard with which I can type much more easily.

I ride my bicycle everyday.  I buy used bikes from a nearby shop, which probably gets their bikes from stealing them off university campuses or parking lots.  I must buy used bikes because new bikes will get stolen – even my first junky bike already got stolen and I’m already on my second one now.  Both bikes cost less than $12 USD.  The problem is that I put up with a lot of repairs which end up costing up to half the price of the orginal price I paid for the bike.