New Friends

     

              Against the backdrop of the coronavirus epidemic, I would like to share some positive news.  Since 2014 I have participated in a few on-line language exchange programs to practice my nascent Mandarin.  Through a site called “The Language Exchange”, I met a friendly woman named Yun Xia Ma.  She and I exchanged messages in both Mandarin and English about our daily lives.  Don’t think I could understand everything she wrote in Mandarin.  Luckily, there is a handy translation function in WeChat which made our communication easier. 

She, her husband and son live in Hong Kong.  She could see from my WeChat posts that I was planning to come to Hong Kong.  She invited us for lunch.  It was great fun to meet up after all these years.  Her son is an adorable 13-year-old boy who loves basketball.  I have put them in touch with a San Diego friend who helps arrange for Chinese students to live in the U.S. for a summer, learn English and experience American life. 

              I have a good friend and colleague in San Diego, Christiana Tim whose brother, Shuguang lives in Guangzhou.  He was a wonderful host who picked us up at the airport and brought us around to our hotels.  He was very helpful the last day by helping us find a better located airport hotel.  As it turned out, our flight back to Xi’an from Guangzhou was cancelled.  Luckily, thanks to him, we were just 100 meters from the airport counter!  We were able to get on an earlier flight back to Xi’an. 

              My favorite thing about travel has always been the people I meet along the way.  Sure, great monuments, giant Buddhas

, amazing paintings, temples etc. are all wonderful, but the thing that always sticks with me are those moments were I connect with the local people, share some food and make new friends.