It’s easy to become nostalgic and even homesick during certain seasons when you’re traveling. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday. I love everything about it: the music, the tree, the gifts, the lights, the traditions. We were grateful last year that my mom flew us home for our Christmas gift to celebrate with family. But this year, we knew we would be on our own.
But to us, Christmas was too important to just spend in a random hostel somewhere in southeast Asia. So, months ago we began planning to meet with dear friends who live in China. It would be perfect… they are away from family much like we are, and we hadn’t seen them since we left a year and a half ago (we left at about the same time they moved to China). We would be around people we know and love, and with whom we could share Christmas traditions.
Our friends live in western China, and since we had to fly into Hong Kong to get visas, we knew we would have to take another means of transport to make it to Chengdu before Christmas. So we opted for the very economic Chinese train. It was a long trip from Guangzhou (near HK) to Chengdu–30 hours actually–but it was worth it to us! As promised by many, the train was a truly authentic experience in Chinese culture. Our biggest concern was getting our bikes on the train, but we’d heard they have luggage cars and we’d be able to put them on there. But alas, when we actually arrived, no one pointed us to the luggage car at all–they just let us load them right up in the dorm-style passenger car with us!
We put one bike in the general bathroom area between cars, and the other one squeezed here in between our beds! They insisted on covering the bikes up, and brought out these awesome blue sheets to do the job.
We were so excited to arrive in Chengdu and be greeted by familiar faces at the train station. Over the next couple of days we Christmas shopped and stuffed stockings for each other–this is a popular tradition in Dave’s family.
Christmas morning fun… Dave was excited about all the goodies I had put in his stocking.
We also had a big breakfast on Christmas morning, which is something my family does every year. We spent a lot of time on Christmas day skyping with family, but in the afternoon, we went over to a friend’s house and played games with other “families away from family.” What a blast! It was actually a lot of fun to share the traditions of Christmas with a different group of people.
There was no shortage of traditional American holiday treats. So thankful for other foreigners who live abroad and are willing to share life with nomads like us!
While we were in Chengdu, we also took some time for the prime tourist attraction there–the giant pandas. The natural habitat of these creatures is here in the Sichuan province of China, and the Chengdu Panda Base has more giant pandas than anywhere else in the world.
These guys are amazing to watch! They don’t do much besides eat bamboo and sleep, and fortunately we went during eating time so we could catch some of the action.
They’re actually kind of slobs when they eat, just pulling down branches from every direction and chowing down. Check out the guy to the left–totally sprawled out as he feasts on bamboo.
Group photo at the Panda Base… what a blessing to be with friends.
We also strolled through the part of Chengdu that is built in classic Chinese architecture. It’s actually a relatively modern part of town, but they have built it in the old style for fun. It was great to roam around and see all the vendors with their booths of novel Chinese cuisine.
Colorful and obscure foods. Not sure what that stuff is!
Chinese architecture with fun paper lanterns all about.
We are thankful for this time we were able to spend with friends for the holidays. As I reflect on this time, I am reminded (appropriately) of a verse from the Christmas Story. Luke 2:19 says, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” I want to learn from that–to be intentional about enjoying and remembering the experiences from this journey–not just letting them happen too quickly. That’s part of what this blog is about–sharing our stories and recording them, so not only now, but also in the future, we can ponder these experiences.
