Shenzhen
-- I never even heard of the place prior to 2008 when my
daughter-in-law's brother taught English here. And here is where I fell in love with
traveling in China when I visited daughter Staci/her husband
when they were teaching English here in 2009/2010 (they blogged here). I'll spare you the details -- you can look up at the links -- but Shenzhen exploded
onto the world scene over the past quarter century, and now has
a metro population which is the approximate size of the USA's
largest city, New
York. I visited twice when Staci/Martin were here -- and
those visits led to my 3rd visit to China (Shanghai and Hangzhou) in
2013 (blogged about here).
That's
the backstory of why I booked myself to travel here again as part of
this adventure -- 6 years later from my first visit. When I planned
my few days here -- my intent was only to visit the two Chinese
teachers who had mentored Staci/Martin, and whom I had gotten to
know, and revisit the school campus -- and then begin another
exploration of China. I initially thought I might take the high
speed railway from here to Shanghai -- as it was only completed as
far as Wuhan on my prior adventure -- and I had greatly enjoyed that
trip. But as life and opportunities developed, Shenzhen just
became a stop over on the way to Qingdao (more on that in a future
posting).
My
unfortunate fake taxi adventure was easily behind me the next morning
-- and I set out for a brief walk around my hotel to figure out what
services/food might be around me and I found plenty, though my
attempts to find a laundry business failed. Remember I'm in an
area where no English is spoken, not even by the desk clerks of this
hotel, and a much nicer/new one next door (believe me I tried). You
can guess the hand motions I used to explain what I was looking for
-- but the best I got was a finger pointing another direction. I
tried asking about 4 or 5 people, before I decided to await the
expected noon time arrival of "Harry," one of the two
mentor teachers (the other had written that he wouldn't be here as he
was on a 2 month training assignment in New York).
Harry
arrived right on schedule – and after greetings I asked about
laundry. I was somewhat pleased to learn/watch that even a
native got several misdirections before we found the laundry a few
blocks away. With that taken care of – Harry drove me to the
school compound where Staci/Martin lived and worked – and where I
had lived with them during my visit.
Being on campus provided wonderful deja vu feelings as we returned to Staci/Martin's “Foreign Teachers” office
and the cafeteria.
Harry has since been promoted to an administrative position at
another office and this visit was his first in several years as well
– and it was clear from the excitement of other teachers that saw
him that he was very highly regarded. Much happiness was apparent –
though I understood only the smiles and excited voice tones, not the
words.
I
was delighted with Harry's offer that we, once again, eat in the
cafeteria with the staff as I had done several times when I visited
before. Much wonderful conversation – a little of it was in
English with a couple of the teachers – and lots of happiness as I
was able to show photos of Staci/Martin and their son – and speak
of her pregnancy – as well as a photo of older daughter Debi and
her family – as Debi had visited with me in 2010 (blogged here). All seemed to
respond as if they remembered – perhaps many did! Thankfully Harry
was explaining it all.
After
lunch Harry took me on a walking tour of the campus (it's a closed,
residential campus) that I knew so well and he bought me an ice cream
from the school store
The visit couldn't have been better – and as Harry headed back to a meeting, I asked that he drop me off close to a nearby village – so that I might try to find a favorite little hole-in-the-wall restaurant which I've blogged about before (here). I found it, and though I wasn't very hungry – I had to again sample the deliciousness of these hand-pulled noodles. It was more difficult to get myself understood because the large, detailed signs had been replaced by just a few food photos – but I pointed at one that looked delicious, watched the cook prepare noodles/meal and I enjoyed. Just like my memory of deliciousness!
The entrance to the restaurant:
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