0:02 My father has never ridden a train.
0:05 Baby's first train ride. My parents
0:06 spent most of their China trip in
0:08 Singinjang to celebrate my and Isidong's
0:10 wedding. And they also paid a visit to
0:12 our lovely home in rural Haljo. And now
0:14 it's time to show them Nanjing, the city
0:16 that I lived in for 3 years. Spoiler
0:18 alert, we're actually mostly here to
0:20 visit Bwa Island. Oh, the spoiler flower
0:22 part is blooming. Tell them. But before
0:24 we get on the train, I have to show you
0:26 guys our last day in Hongjo with my
0:28 beloved cousin Shawn, who's about to
0:30 leave and return to the rat race, unlike
0:31 my parents who are retired and can hang
0:34 out for a bit longer. We have a convert
0:36 to the corn ice cream brigade. Whoever
0:39 owns this company, you have a market in
0:40 Vermont. Even though Shawn is going to
0:42 miss out on the bullet train, we still
0:44 gave him a consolation prize, a trip on
0:46 the metro. We're taking this country boy
0:48 on the metro. Sean, have you ever rode a
0:51 metro before? Uh, yeah. and New York
0:55 City. All right, so rank the metros.
0:58 Honjo versus New York. This is crazy.
1:00 Look how clean it is. First of all, are
1:03 we in a metro station or are we in like
1:06 some kind of Star Trek plane? It does
1:07 kind of have that vibe, doesn't it?
1:10 High-tech 2055.
1:11 You know what I mean? So, you like the
1:13 metro station? Where are the rats?
1:16 That's what I Ain't no rats here. Ain't
1:18 no rats. That's right. 55, baby. That's
1:20 China right now. The next station is my
1:22 old neighborhood. I lived right outside
1:25 the opening of this ratless spaceship.
1:29 Smells bad.
1:37 So Sean, I want to ask you a question.
1:39 So do you like village or city? If
1:43 you're from the city, it's the city.
1:44 Otherwise, it's the village. Okay, it's
1:46 definitely the village. I'm a village.
1:48 We showed Shawn around my old
1:49 neighborhood and the apartment I used to
1:51 live in. And then he had one final
1:54 request before departing. Show my plant
1:56 nerd cousin around the botanical garden.
1:58 Sean, are you enjoying your stay? Yes.
2:02 Oh my god, it's so beautiful here.
2:04 I miss a lot of these different plants
2:07 that I used to work with when I lived in
2:09 a warmer place. Check this out. The
2:12 grandmas are dancing.
2:13 Classic. The grandmas are playing their
2:16 gourd instrument. Oh my gosh. When I'm a
2:19 grandma, I'm coming here.
2:22 Imagine this beautiful bird flies
2:26 through beautiful overstory with lush
2:30 vegetation, bird sounds. This is what
2:32 the world used to look like. Bird
2:34 populations used to be massive. We used
2:36 to have so many birds. I'm glad that my
2:38 nature loving cousin enjoyed Hanjo as
2:41 much as I do. But alas, all good things
2:43 must come to an end. We sent off Shawn
2:45 with one last meal of handpulled
2:46 shinjang noodles and then it was just
2:49 me, Asa John, and my parents. Happy
2:53 family boat ride. They're coming.
2:56 The world is a beautiful.
2:59 Stop complaining. And now it is finally
3:00 time for us to say goodbye to beautiful
3:03 Hjo and get on the train to Nanjing. He
3:05 is fascinated by the swarms of people
3:07 down there. This is just like a normal
3:09 day at the train station. You should see
3:11 it on a weekend. You should see it on a
3:12 holiday. So, a lot of y'all are probably
3:14 confused how someone from a developed
3:16 country has never ridden a train before.
3:18 The US does have trains, but there
3:19 aren't a ton of them, and they aren't
3:21 very fast, so they tend to be outco
3:23 competed by cars and planes. My first
3:25 train ride was also in China in 2016.
3:29 Exciting moment. First train ride.
3:32 Father's first train ride.
3:34 How do you feel about the train? I'm
3:37 excited. All right, she's taking off.
3:40 She's zooming. [Music]
3:49 [Music]
3:52 cluster after cluster of high decided he
3:55 loves to look out the window.
3:56 That's the best part of riding the train
3:58 is looking out the window. It's going to
4:01 take us 1 hour to get to Nanjing. 306 km
4:03 hour. It just doesn't feel like it. Ask
4:07 me if it feels like 190 mph. Are you
4:10 enjoying your train experience? I love
4:11 both trains. By the way, give me a
4:13 review of your train experience. Are you
4:16 satisfied? Very satisfied. Excellent.
4:18 When are we getting one in Virginia?
4:19 It's not coming. It's not going to
4:21 happen. Not just Virginia. The entire
4:25 United States. Sad. Sad moment. Maybe in
4:26 California. All right, we have gotten
4:28 off the train and we are here in
4:32 Nanjing, my old home. 3 years I was here
4:34 for my master's degree. So, I'm going to
4:36 show the parents around and of course
4:38 take them to Ba Island. Can't go to
4:40 Nanjing without going to BWA Island. Of
4:42 course, we also checked out some classic
4:44 Nanjing sites like the nightlife streets
4:47 and the city wall. But Bwa Island was
4:49 the real star of the show. It's an
4:51 obscure island in the Yanzi River where
4:53 my friends Aunt and Uncle Jaw live.
4:55 Their hobbies of growing a patio full of
4:57 flowers and collecting cool little duads
5:01 are very similar to my own parents.
5:03 I like that. She says they're definitely
5:05 not as beautiful as your flowers. Is it
5:16 the flower hobbyists have finally met in person.
5:32 You remember why we met, right? Cuz her
5:34 deck reminded me of yours. And then we
5:36 stopped here to take a video. Well,
5:37 whoever lives here really likes plants.
5:39 We're gonna stop and look at this
5:46 This lady's garden reminded me of my
5:48 home back in the United States. My
5:49 mother loves to have all kinds of plants
6:03 So, back when they had emperors, they
6:06 have this embroidered onto their [Laughter]
6:11 [Laughter]
6:13 Then it was time to head to Uncle Joel's
6:15 house for lunch. Since Bagwa Island is
6:16 located in the Yanzi River, it's
6:18 crisscrossed with dozens of little
6:19 canals that are a great place to take a
6:22 stroll. Look at all the murals.
6:24 There are dragon boat murals all over
6:29 the walls. See the murals?
6:31 And then here are the boats. It has
6:39 Welcome to my house. Thank you. Nice to
6:41 see you.
6:43 He lived in Africa for 10 years, so he
6:45 knows some English. Please come look at
6:47 his knick-knack collection. [Music]
6:54 [Music]
6:57 Showing the knick-knack lover, Mr. J's
7:00 knickknack collection. The plant lovers
7:03 and knickknack lovers are uniting today. [Music]
7:05 [Music]
7:08 All kinds of unique alcohol in here.
7:15 That's cool. [Music]
7:17 [Music]
7:19 What's this thing back here? He's got a
7:20 collection of all kinds of old
7:22 furniture. He restored this bed. It was
7:24 falling apart. He restored it. It's like
7:26 an old rich people bed. Rich people like
7:35 What? Shell collection. Yeah, he has a
7:36 collection of all kinds of little
7:38 things. And look, this railing is made
7:40 out of recycled alcohol bottles. He
7:41 loves to make things out of other
7:44 things. It's like a little gazebo for
7:46 sitting and drinking tea. We're enjoying
7:53 He's still working on it, but it's close
8:03 So, it's recycled wood, recycled glass,
8:05 and speaking of recycled things. Oh, the
8:07 toilet flower pot is blooming. The
8:09 toilet flower pot. The top's looking
8:12 good. Down. Down. Oh, you like that toilet.
8:14 toilet. [Music]
8:24 Okay. That's a two sisters and one
8:26 brother living a 5minute walk from each
8:29 other. It's just like unimaginable in my
8:32 family because my mother's two brothers,
8:33 one of them lives a 10-hour drive away
8:35 and the other one lives a 6-hour plane
8:37 flight away. And my father also lives
8:39 like a 7-hour drive away from his
8:41 sister. And that's just like normal in
8:44 the US. But here, their whole family is
8:45 located in this village together. And
8:52 These are really rare in this part of
8:55 the country now. People usually use the
8:57 uh gas powered ones, but they like to
9:05 lunch is underway in the cute little
9:08 kitchen that is a standalone building.
9:11 She's cooking some little some little
9:13 chicken things for you cuz she knows
9:14 y'all can't handle bones or anything. Oh
9:23 Lunch time.
9:25 They were kind of like nervous to have
9:26 my parents come over because they were
9:27 like they don't know how to cook Western
9:30 food. And I was like they like Chinese
9:31 food. Okay, I know they don't like small
9:33 bones. They don't like spicy. They don't
9:35 like oily. They don't like intestines.
9:36 They don't like a bunch of things, but
9:38 they also do like a lot of other things.
9:40 So, we do not require Western food at
9:41 every meal. Also, in my personal
9:43 opinion, Chinese western food is one of
9:46 the worst genres of food on this earth.
9:54 So, I already know what a lot of y'all
9:56 are going to be asking in the comments.
9:57 Why would I take my parents to this
9:59 random island instead of to some more
10:01 famous destinations like the Avatar
10:03 Mountains or the Great Wall? The thing
10:04 is, my parents don't really love
10:06 traveling. They did not come to China to
10:08 see any particular tourist spot. They
10:10 just were very curious about my life.
10:12 They want to know what my life is like
10:13 here in China and what it is that is
10:15 keeping me here year after year. So, we
10:17 spent a lot of time in Shinjang with my
10:19 husband and his family. We spent a lot
10:21 of time in Hanjo, which is the place I
10:23 currently live. So why did BWA Island
10:25 make the cut? It's because when I was
10:27 living in Nanjing for those three years
10:29 getting my master's degree, my life
10:31 really revolved around like powerpoints
10:33 and lab buildings and I was just in this
10:35 university every single day. But I still
10:37 felt so drawn to rural China. So I would
10:40 go on runs or go on bike rides in
10:42 villages on the outskirts of the city. I
10:44 was always always always trying to just
10:46 get like little scraps of spare time to
10:48 go explore random villages. And at the
10:49 beginning it was pretty surface level
10:51 just running around looking at stuff.
10:53 But eventually I did meet on Uncle Jiao
10:55 and then they would invite me and my
10:57 friend back every couple of months. So I
10:59 was consistently getting this chance to
11:02 be immersed in rural China. And that
11:04 really meant a lot to me because at the
11:05 time living in a village was something
11:07 that was just so like impossible to
11:09 achieve. And yet I kept getting this
11:11 chance to get away from the rat race in
11:14 the university and return to this quiet
11:15 serene little island. And it's not just
11:17 about the aesthetic of a village. It's
11:20 also about being warmly welcomed into
11:22 the life of a local person. For example,
11:24 spending Dragon Boat Festival together
11:26 or spending Chinese New Year together or
11:28 cooking food together, drinking tea
11:29 together. I've just had like so many
11:32 lovely memories in Aunt Uncle Jiao's
11:34 house and I really wanted to share that
11:36 with my parents and that is why I chose
11:38 to bring them there. But I am also going
11:40 to take my parents to some aesthetic
11:42 tourist destinations for their final two
11:45 days. We are going to Sujo to see the
11:47 canals and see the gardens and some
11:49 beautiful classic architecture and that
11:50 is going to be coming up in my next
11:53 vlog. So stay tuned for that. And I'm
11:54 also going to be chatting with them
11:56 about their final thoughts on their
11:58 China experience and how they feel about
12:00 their son-in-law and all those topics
12:01 that everyone has been very curious
12:03 about. So, if you are interested, make
12:05 sure to subscribe and I'll see you guys
