This content chronicles a family's journey through China, focusing on shared experiences and cultural immersion, particularly highlighting the narrator's desire to share their adopted rural life with their visiting parents.
Mind Map
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My father has never ridden a train.
Baby's first train ride. My parents
spent most of their China trip in
Singinjang to celebrate my and Isidong's
wedding. And they also paid a visit to
our lovely home in rural Haljo. And now
it's time to show them Nanjing, the city
that I lived in for 3 years. Spoiler
alert, we're actually mostly here to
visit Bwa Island. Oh, the spoiler flower
part is blooming. Tell them. But before
we get on the train, I have to show you
guys our last day in Hongjo with my
beloved cousin Shawn, who's about to
leave and return to the rat race, unlike
my parents who are retired and can hang
out for a bit longer. We have a convert
to the corn ice cream brigade. Whoever
owns this company, you have a market in
Vermont. Even though Shawn is going to
miss out on the bullet train, we still
gave him a consolation prize, a trip on
the metro. We're taking this country boy
on the metro. Sean, have you ever rode a
metro before? Uh, yeah. and New York
City. All right, so rank the metros.
Honjo versus New York. This is crazy.
Look how clean it is. First of all, are
we in a metro station or are we in like
some kind of Star Trek plane? It does
kind of have that vibe, doesn't it?
High-tech 2055.
You know what I mean? So, you like the
metro station? Where are the rats?
That's what I Ain't no rats here. Ain't
no rats. That's right. 55, baby. That's
China right now. The next station is my
old neighborhood. I lived right outside
the opening of this ratless spaceship.
Smells bad.
So Sean, I want to ask you a question.
So do you like village or city? If
you're from the city, it's the city.
Otherwise, it's the village. Okay, it's
definitely the village. I'm a village.
We showed Shawn around my old
neighborhood and the apartment I used to
live in. And then he had one final
request before departing. Show my plant
nerd cousin around the botanical garden.
Sean, are you enjoying your stay? Yes.
Oh my god, it's so beautiful here.
I miss a lot of these different plants
that I used to work with when I lived in
a warmer place. Check this out. The
grandmas are dancing.
Classic. The grandmas are playing their
gourd instrument. Oh my gosh. When I'm a
grandma, I'm coming here.
Imagine this beautiful bird flies
through beautiful overstory with lush
vegetation, bird sounds. This is what
the world used to look like. Bird
populations used to be massive. We used
to have so many birds. I'm glad that my
nature loving cousin enjoyed Hanjo as
much as I do. But alas, all good things
must come to an end. We sent off Shawn
with one last meal of handpulled
shinjang noodles and then it was just
me, Asa John, and my parents. Happy
family boat ride. They're coming.
The world is a beautiful.
Stop complaining. And now it is finally
time for us to say goodbye to beautiful
Hjo and get on the train to Nanjing. He
is fascinated by the swarms of people
down there. This is just like a normal
day at the train station. You should see
it on a weekend. You should see it on a
holiday. So, a lot of y'all are probably
confused how someone from a developed
country has never ridden a train before.
The US does have trains, but there
aren't a ton of them, and they aren't
very fast, so they tend to be outco
competed by cars and planes. My first
train ride was also in China in 2016.
Exciting moment. First train ride.
Father's first train ride.
How do you feel about the train? I'm
excited. All right, she's taking off.
She's zooming. [Music]
[Music]
cluster after cluster of high decided he
loves to look out the window.
That's the best part of riding the train
is looking out the window. It's going to
take us 1 hour to get to Nanjing. 306 km
hour. It just doesn't feel like it. Ask
me if it feels like 190 mph. Are you
enjoying your train experience? I love
both trains. By the way, give me a
review of your train experience. Are you
satisfied? Very satisfied. Excellent.
When are we getting one in Virginia?
It's not coming. It's not going to
happen. Not just Virginia. The entire
United States. Sad. Sad moment. Maybe in
California. All right, we have gotten
off the train and we are here in
Nanjing, my old home. 3 years I was here
for my master's degree. So, I'm going to
show the parents around and of course
take them to Ba Island. Can't go to
Nanjing without going to BWA Island. Of
course, we also checked out some classic
Nanjing sites like the nightlife streets
and the city wall. But Bwa Island was
the real star of the show. It's an
obscure island in the Yanzi River where
my friends Aunt and Uncle Jaw live.
Their hobbies of growing a patio full of
flowers and collecting cool little duads
are very similar to my own parents.
I like that. She says they're definitely
not as beautiful as your flowers. Is it
the flower hobbyists have finally met in person.
You remember why we met, right? Cuz her
deck reminded me of yours. And then we
stopped here to take a video. Well,
whoever lives here really likes plants.
We're gonna stop and look at this
This lady's garden reminded me of my
home back in the United States. My
mother loves to have all kinds of plants
So, back when they had emperors, they
have this embroidered onto their [Laughter]
[Laughter]
Then it was time to head to Uncle Joel's
house for lunch. Since Bagwa Island is
located in the Yanzi River, it's
crisscrossed with dozens of little
canals that are a great place to take a
stroll. Look at all the murals.
There are dragon boat murals all over
the walls. See the murals?
And then here are the boats. It has
Welcome to my house. Thank you. Nice to
see you.
He lived in Africa for 10 years, so he
knows some English. Please come look at
his knick-knack collection. [Music]
[Music]
Showing the knick-knack lover, Mr. J's
knickknack collection. The plant lovers
and knickknack lovers are uniting today. [Music]
[Music]
All kinds of unique alcohol in here.
That's cool. [Music]
[Music]
What's this thing back here? He's got a
collection of all kinds of old
furniture. He restored this bed. It was
falling apart. He restored it. It's like
an old rich people bed. Rich people like
What? Shell collection. Yeah, he has a
collection of all kinds of little
things. And look, this railing is made
out of recycled alcohol bottles. He
loves to make things out of other
things. It's like a little gazebo for
sitting and drinking tea. We're enjoying
He's still working on it, but it's close
So, it's recycled wood, recycled glass,
and speaking of recycled things. Oh, the
toilet flower pot is blooming. The
toilet flower pot. The top's looking
good. Down. Down. Oh, you like that toilet.
toilet. [Music]
Okay. That's a two sisters and one
brother living a 5minute walk from each
other. It's just like unimaginable in my
family because my mother's two brothers,
one of them lives a 10-hour drive away
and the other one lives a 6-hour plane
flight away. And my father also lives
like a 7-hour drive away from his
sister. And that's just like normal in
the US. But here, their whole family is
located in this village together. And
These are really rare in this part of
the country now. People usually use the
uh gas powered ones, but they like to
lunch is underway in the cute little
kitchen that is a standalone building.
She's cooking some little some little
chicken things for you cuz she knows
y'all can't handle bones or anything. Oh
Lunch time.
They were kind of like nervous to have
my parents come over because they were
like they don't know how to cook Western
food. And I was like they like Chinese
food. Okay, I know they don't like small
bones. They don't like spicy. They don't
like oily. They don't like intestines.
They don't like a bunch of things, but
they also do like a lot of other things.
So, we do not require Western food at
every meal. Also, in my personal
opinion, Chinese western food is one of
the worst genres of food on this earth.
So, I already know what a lot of y'all
are going to be asking in the comments.
Why would I take my parents to this
random island instead of to some more
famous destinations like the Avatar
Mountains or the Great Wall? The thing
is, my parents don't really love
traveling. They did not come to China to
see any particular tourist spot. They
just were very curious about my life.
They want to know what my life is like
here in China and what it is that is
keeping me here year after year. So, we
spent a lot of time in Shinjang with my
husband and his family. We spent a lot
of time in Hanjo, which is the place I
currently live. So why did BWA Island
make the cut? It's because when I was
living in Nanjing for those three years
getting my master's degree, my life
really revolved around like powerpoints
and lab buildings and I was just in this
university every single day. But I still
felt so drawn to rural China. So I would
go on runs or go on bike rides in
villages on the outskirts of the city. I
was always always always trying to just
get like little scraps of spare time to
go explore random villages. And at the
beginning it was pretty surface level
just running around looking at stuff.
But eventually I did meet on Uncle Jiao
and then they would invite me and my
friend back every couple of months. So I
was consistently getting this chance to
be immersed in rural China. And that
really meant a lot to me because at the
time living in a village was something
that was just so like impossible to
achieve. And yet I kept getting this
chance to get away from the rat race in
the university and return to this quiet
serene little island. And it's not just
about the aesthetic of a village. It's
also about being warmly welcomed into
the life of a local person. For example,
spending Dragon Boat Festival together
or spending Chinese New Year together or
cooking food together, drinking tea
together. I've just had like so many
lovely memories in Aunt Uncle Jiao's
house and I really wanted to share that
with my parents and that is why I chose
to bring them there. But I am also going
to take my parents to some aesthetic
tourist destinations for their final two
days. We are going to Sujo to see the
canals and see the gardens and some
beautiful classic architecture and that
is going to be coming up in my next
vlog. So stay tuned for that. And I'm
also going to be chatting with them
about their final thoughts on their
China experience and how they feel about
their son-in-law and all those topics
that everyone has been very curious
about. So, if you are interested, make
sure to subscribe and I'll see you guys
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