Nothing says ‘Congrats!’ like a cannon blast of confetti to the face

Saturday Oct. 23rd –

We woke up on Saturday to another beautiful day in Qingdao with blue skies and great temperatures. With a rare morning with nothing planned we were all able to relax a bit. While I slept in before hitting up the buffet (by far the biggest one of the trip) and then checking out the gym (can you tell me where the weight room is?) some others (not sure exactly who, Vicki and Robyn for sure) went to check out the shopping centers on the street around our hotel. Our hotel is in the new area of town so all the shops are higher end “authentic” stores so I don’t think anyone bought anything other than Mark who bought a pizza from Pizza Hut (he said it was the nicest Pizza Hut he’s ever been in). Speaking of fast-food, there are KFC’s (that’s Kentucky Fried Chicken) EVERYWHERE in China! There has to be 3 times as many KFC’s as any other standard fast food restaurants. It kind of makes a little bit of sense when I heard the story that when my Grandma Rachel used to leave Dave, Bob and my Grandpa Chris home alone to fend for themselves Chris used to take them to KFC and promise not to tell Rachel (I think I got that story right? Some things never change…).

While I was coming back from the gym I ran into Christine on the elevator who was running out front to take a look at a wedding procession. When we got outside there were a couple traditional dragon costumes, about 20 people in other costumes banging some drums and symbols and a bunch of plywood cannons set up facing each other on either side of a red carpet leading to the front of the hotel. The bride and groom were there also, standing in front a really nice car decorated with flowers and while they walked down the red carpet the cannons would go off spraying confetti everywhere. It actually took them forever to walk down the carpet as they were taking pictures every couple feet. We had seen a couple other wedding processions while driving around and as I understand it the procession of all really nice cars decorated with flowers (Audi’s, Mercedes, BMW’s and the lead car always stood out like a Bentley) goes around and picks up the bride and groom and then heads to the hotel or restaurant where the wedding/reception take place, they don’t really do the church thing. Even though it was an odd-numbered day (the 23rd) and I heard it was better to get married on an even day, it turned out there were actually 2 weddings going on at the same time in adjacent banquet rooms and they both used the same cannons/dragons/drummers, although not surprising with the number of brides/grooms we saw the previous night at the beach.

At about 11 we all regrouped, checked out of the hotel and bused it to lunch at a place right near the beach and next to one of the 2008 Olympic training centers. The highlight of this place was definitely the seal they had swimming around in a pool in the lobby. When we first got there there wasn’t more than 6 inches of water in the pool and we were feeling pretty sorry for the little guy but when we left we saw the pool had filled up quite a bit (although he’s still living in the equivalent of a kiddy pool). Mike thought he heard from someone if you held out a 100 yuan bill (worth about $15) the seal would do a trick and then jump up and grab it out of your hand but he just kept swimming around in circles upside-down.

Mike and Mark decided to go for a walk outside in the sun rather than eat lunch and after we all headed straight to Qingdao airport for our flight to Shanghai. We said goodbye to our local guide Dennis, and it wasn’t until we were at the gate in the “Chinese line” (read mass of humanity pushing to the front) that we learned our flight had been delayed by “military action”. While we all sat around passing the time we heard some shouting coming from the gate counter and saw an irate man just yelling and carrying on at the airline employees. Thinking we might be missing something Steven went up to listen in and it turns out the guy was just upset that they could not tell him how long we were going to be delayed. It turned out once we finally got on the plane Grandma was sitting right next to him and asked him “Why did you have to be so loud?” I guess this guy thought the only reason we were able to get on the plane as soon as we did was because he had yelled and complained! Man I would hate to travel with that guy…

We got to the airport in Shanghai without further incident although it was obvious we had left the nice weather in Qingdao. While we were waiting for our bus to pick us up we were right by the taxi pickup area, and I have never seen so many taxi’s at one place, it was incredible! They all had green lights on their roofs and the green lights went on forever into the darkness. When we were leaving the airport we saw another staging area for cabs with at least another thousand or so cabs waiting, just insane. Our trip guide Allen is from Shanghai so there was no need for a local guide and he filled us in on some of the facts of the city while we drove to our hotel. Shanghai is one of the most populous cities in the world at almost 20 million people (almost as many as in the entire country of Australia!) and even though it was dark the urban sprawl was incredible. When you’re in a standard city in the U.S. you usually have large high rises and structures concentrated in a “downtown” area, however in Shanghai it seemed like the buildings were endless. We drove for a good half hour through skyscraper after skyscraper.

Shanghai is also where Steven’s company is based out of and he was able to get us booked at a really nice hotel with kind of a ‘retro’ feel to it. After getting checked in, some of us headed out into the rain for dinner at a restaurant just down the street that was recommended by Steven before sloshing our way back to our rooms for the night.

The next day we have another somewhat free morning to check out the city before hitting the road again and flying to the smaller city of Huangshan and the best foot massage I’ve ever had (OK, only foot massage I’ve ever had)!

The beautiful one

Friday Oct. 22nd -

We woke up Friday to promises of great weather, beaches and as much beer as we wanted. After the buffet breakfast (and of course chow mein, fried rice for Robyn) we hopped on the bus for the couple hour drive (I can’t really remember exactly how long) from Weifang to the coastal city of Qingdao.

From the very first day our local guide Dennis had made it endlessly clear that Qingdao, which is his hometown, is the “most charming, best weather with the cleanest air (not really saying much) city in China”, and I have to hand it to him he just might be right. For the one day and night we were there at least the weather was great with temps close to 70, noticeably cleaner air as a result of the sea breeze and a very “charming” beach town kind of feel when you get near the beach. It’s no wonder many wealthy people and government officials have summer houses or apartments here. It’s definitely on the list when I make it back here in the future.

The town has a pretty interesting history as well. Many people might recognize it by its old spelling ‘Tsingtao’, which if you asked someone in the States to name a Chinese beer would be the only one they could name. The city started as a small fishing village on the Yellow Sea until it was occupied by the Germans in 1898. In the old part of the city you can still see the German influenced architecture and Dennis says there are some examples you can’t even find in Germany because of the bombing of WWII. Finding a plentiful supply of fresh mineral water from the nearby mountains the Germans naturally decided to start a brewery and named it after the city. In 1914 during WWI the city was occupied by Japan until it was given back to China in 1922 (and was again occupied by Japan during WWII). The Japanese took over running the brewery as well and Dennis says the only thing to come from the Japanese being there other than killing people was their marketing which turned Tsingtao into an international brand. Today the city is middle-sized at 2.8 million and was chosen as one of the 3 host cities of the 2008 Olympics.

When we got to the city it was naturally time to eat again and after lunch we headed to the Tsingtao brewery for a tour. The brewery opened in 1903 during the German occupation and only 10 years ago stopped using imported hops and started using Chinese grown hops.

The tour was pretty straightforward and halfway through we got to taste some of “the freshest, most delicious beer” as Dennis had said many times and it was pretty good. The tour emptied into a large room with tables and a counter to get pitchers of beer which Dennis must get a local discount because he said he could get us as much as we wanted (dangerous words with 4 Cougs in the group).

It’s here I’d like to take a minute to point out a well known fact that when Asian girls get drunk their taste and judgement of attractive men is in no way adversely affected and is usually enhanced. As an example while Mark, Mike Robyn and I were drinking beer at the table a group of 5 or 6 girls came up and asked if they could take a picture with me. Assuming it was because of my strange shirt I started to stand up but Robyn asked why (really Robyn did you need to ask) and one of them said in broken english “because he’s beautiful”.

Pause for laughter.

After Mark and I took pictures with everyone (yes they liked Mark a well, I think Robyn was hiding Mike) we decided to leave as no one else in our group wanted to drink anymore beer for fear of what they put in it to make those girls go crazy.

After lunch we went down to the beach and walked along a really pretty boardwalk. The sun was starting to set and was very picturesque but was made a little strange by at least 8 or 9 Brides in wedding dresses and their grooms taking pictures on the rocks and jockeying for position. Like I said earlier the weather was awesome although maybe a little chilly for he Texas Yangs and we saw a great sunset on the beach.

Afterwards we went to another great hot-pot dinner before retiring to our hotel. The next day we actually have a free morning before flying to Shanghai and we begin our trek to the Yellow Mountains!

When scorpions are the 2nd weirdest option at lunch

Thursday Oct. 21st –

After another of the never-ending huge breakfast buffets we reluctantly checked out of our amazing hotel and headed out on the 2.5 hour drive to the countryside and our ancestral village of Songwang. The sights just seem to get more and more amazing as we move farther from the cities and into the hills and fields of rural China.

It’s here where I’ll try to give a brief history again just to put the visit to this town in context. As with my last family-history lesson this is as best I can remember from my Auntie Roberta’s book and my memory of hearing the story so if anyone see’s any discrepancies please let me know. My great-great-great-grandfather (yeah it goes back that far) Song Guangxu was born in 1852 in Songwang village to a very poor family. When he was still very young both his parents died from illness and he and his sister were taken in by their uncle who immediately put them to work in order to support the family. Not too long after his sister also passed away and he was basically on his own until he married, and in 1872 had a son, my great-great grandfather Song Chuandian.

Still in the grips of poverty father and son would get up before dawn every day to collect firewood and cart it by foot all the way into Qingzhou to sell for their living (when we drove it the bus driver said it was about 12 kilometers, however back in that day it was a MUCH more rough road). It was in Qingzhou where he began listening to a Baptist minister Samuel Colling and his wife who were headmasters of the middle school and used to give sermons on the streets of the city. The words struck a special chord with my Song Guangxu given the hardships he had experienced in his life and their current situation. After a while the minister took notice and gave my great-great-great grandfather a job as a servant at the church’s college. Song Guangxu jumped at the chance to devote his life to the religion that he so believed in and moved his family away from Songwang.

It was while working there that my great-great-grandfather Song Chuandian, while helping his father with work would go and listen to the lessons from outside the window of the classroom. When one day he answered a question from the window that no one else in the classroom could answer the teacher noticed him and brought him to the attention of the Minister Samuel Colling who decided to support him throughout his schooling. After completing college early he took on a teaching position at that same college and was able to pull his family out of poverty and great-great-great grandfather retired to Songwang. And to give a very brief summation, my great-great grandfather Song Chuandian went on to take over the lace exporting company started by the minister Samuel Collings wife and eventually turned it into a very successful import/export business called ‘Dechang’. It was that same company where my great grandfather Song Feiqing first got his experience in business management and what gave him the opportunity and inspiration to start his textiles company Dongya, which I went over in one of my previous posts.

One story I cannot leave out, Song Chuandian decided to get involved in politics and after becoming a successful businessman and moving the family to a new house in Jinan became Speaker for the region. During one of the Japanese occupations a rival politician began a smear campaign against Song Chuandian and he eventually had to escape with the help of his son Song Feiqing (that in itself is an amazing story) to Tianjin and then Shanghai after an arrest warrant had been issued. Song Chuandian, again with much help from my great-grandfather, spent the rest of his life trying to clear his name and although successful he never made it back to his home before passing away in 1929. He was returned to Shandong province and was buried in a crystal coffin, the only other person reported to have the same sort of coffin at the time was Sun Yat-set.

(Sorry, even though I left out tons, that was not brief at all, but it’s as much for my own memory as for everyone else, so I guess I’m not really that sorry)

So back to the trip, about 2 hours after leaving the hotel we hit Qinzhou and 3 cars with government officials were waiting for our bus. The bus didn’t even really stop as the 3 black sedans pulled out in front with their hazard lights blinking and escorted us the rest of the way to the village. We kept going up into the hills on a winding but well paved road through countless persimmons orchards, their trees heavy with their yellowish-orange fruit until we came to a nondescript turn out and started down the narrow village road. We pulled over and met the government officials and I believe picked up a village official before moving a little further down the road to the area where the Song family house used to be.

It’s hard to describe and put into words the kinds of things running through your head and the weight of everything as you walk through a village with so much personal family history. Looking around you see men climbing bamboo ladders up the persimmons trees to pick the fruit and women carrying huge bundles of sticks on their back probably much in the same way they did it 150 years ago. We walked down an alleyway past chickens and dogs running around to a plot of land behind some houses and to a small, one room hut. An elderly woman who is a relative (really, anyone in this village could be though of as a relative) was currently living there part-time. Next to the hut you could see an old foundation and wall of another building that was purported to be the actual location of the house (although my Auntie Roberta said the last time they visited the village no one had said that). We dropped off a large pile of gifts that we had brought from the States in order to be distributed to the villagers and after taking a few pictures were ushered on by our “hosts” the government officials (we never could really figure out why but the officials kept trying to hurry us along and no one ever really got a chance to talk to the villagers).

We next drove down the road a little farther and stopped next to a field that contained the gravesites of my great-great-great grandfather, great-great grandfather (apparently crystal coffin included) and several of his siblings. Some farmers were boxing up some persimmons and loading them into one of the many 3-wheeled trucks that are popular in China (we later learned that the lands right next to the village actually didn’t belong to the villagers and their land was miles off in the mountains and they had to walk there every day to tend their crops). We walked right out to the middle of a field, carefull not to trample on the crops, to a clump of bushes and mounds which on closer inspection contained the gravestones. The story goes that all the gravesites were moved here and hidden by the farmers of the village during the cultural revolution so they would not be destroyed. We all bowed 3 times to show our respects and took some pictures before we were urged back to the bus again by the officials.

We left the village behind and went back down the road to Qingzhou and to the church that changed the course of the family history. We were in a town that probably doesn’t get much tourism and people were watching our huge tour bus as we all piled out into the church’s courtyard. One of the elders of the church (I think I heard he was 100 years old?) who remembers the family met us and showed us inside. It was a classic looking Baptist church, old but beautiful, almost like a chapel with one large sanctuary room. There was a table laid out with apples and bananas that they insisted on giving to us before we left.

We drove on not too far down the road to one of the local government buildings where we were going to have lunch with a pretty important city official (not sure exactly what his title was). We went upstairs to a banquet room with a gigantic table that fit our whole group plus the 2 government officials. The table also had the biggest lazy-susan I had ever seen which was good, because we would be served over 30 different dishes including some of the craziest things we’ve been served yet. The first dish they brought out I felt like I should earn immunity for eating (shout out to Survivor fans), it was a bed of rice covered in huge cooked cicadas (a giant flying bug) topped by a bunch of scorpions (fried maybe?). Later on they brought out a dish which looked like cicada pupae skewered on toothpicks and stuffed into what looked like a giant ice cream cone. Mike, Mark and I all decided to eat a scorpion after my grandma (Rachel) crunched one down. They don’t really taste like much, but I didn’t really chew long enough to taste much. None of us however were able to drum up the courage to try one of the cicadas, even though they’re supposed to be good for the eyesight. There were several other dishes that we had no idea what was in them and honestly didn’t want to know.

During lunch we had many ‘gan bei’s’ but luckily we had pretty small glasses (which along with super small napkins, seems to be the norm over here). At one point during lunch the head official presented my grandma and her sisters with the old test papers of a scholar from the region that had been reviewed and commented on by the emperor at the time (not too sure of the time frame) and the story goes the scholar taking the test wrote with the papers on his leg rather than on a desk and still all the characters were written perfectly.

After we filled up on the traditional after meal dumplings during lunch (although we can’t really be sure what was in the dumplings) we got back on our bus and headed for the next city Weifang and it’s famous handmade kites. Historically, the kites were all made at a village called Yangjiabu village which coincidentally means “Yang family village”, however they became so successful and well-known that the government has taken over the business and has pretty much turned it into a tourist trap. The kites are made behind a large wall with a gate that seems to be modeled after the historical city walls. You buy a ticket and on the other side of the door is a large pagoda and what looks like traditional palace buildings that are very nice but you can tell they are pretty much brand new, and after seeing the Forbidden City and Summer Palace just isn’t that exciting. We did get to watch them making the kites however and that was pretty impressive giving they are all made completely by hand. One kind of strange fact that our guide mentioned several times is that each kite is numbered to identify who made it and if that kite doesn’t fly, the kite maker is “punished”. During the tour we expected to come around the corner and see one of the villagers being whipped or on the rack or something but how they are punished remains a mystery.

After some of the group bought some of the reasonably priced kites (which are actually made out of really thin silk rather than paper so they don’t get ruined in the rain) we headed to our hotel close to city center and next to an amusement park. Those of us not too overwhelmed by the head cold that is rampaging through the group headed out to a pretty average dinner (at least there were no insects) before going back to our hotel for the 4th night of 9 in a row at different hotels/cities.

The next day we head to Qingdao for some beer, beaches and some warmer weather.

Gan bei!!

Wednesday Oct. 20th -

After another buffet breakfast (every place we have stayed has had one included and they have tons of awesome things to eat, I’m not used to eating 3 meals a day) we headed out to the old British concession area of Tianjin to view the Song family house that I think they moved into back in 1942. At the time this was the area where the successful businessmen and bankers lived in western style architecture, and today it has become a tourist attraction because it’s so different from the rest of the city (several horse-drawn carriages with tour guides drove by while we were there). When we got there we could see the plaque out front marking the house as protected and as the former residence of Song Feiqing. When my grandma and her sisters came back in 2007 they found that the government had marked the wrong house and had to have it corrected. At the moment there is only one family living there but the last time they visited there were several living in the not too big duplex (my great-grandfather I’m sure chose it for it’s nice but modest size). After looking around the outside courtyard the current residents invited us inside, which was no small favor considering the number of people who would be tromping through their house.

Inside the house was clean but obviously lived in and a little run down. There were 3 stories plus a large outdoor patio on the third floor with a courtyard and servants quarters in the back (someone else living there now, not servants) with a brick wall around it all. The real treasure however was not the house but the stories and memories it stirred in the 3 sisters that used to live there. Just a few of the many stories, my grandmother remembers in the summer setting up bamboo covers on the roof patio and playing ping-pong and also going on the roof to watch the Japanese air force drop their bombs on other parts of the city. My Auntie Rebecca remembers her brother Albert would run down to the kitchen before meals and spit in the best dish so no one else could eat it. My Auntie Roberta remembers when Rebecca would hold out her arms and legs at the front gate blocking it when she didn’t want to leave.

We took pictures then said goodbye to the current residents before the 3 aunties and a local government historian and professor who has been working with the family drove off to the TV station for an interview (Chinese TV so no chance of seeing it in the States but my aunt Roberta is concerned about them portraying all the facts correctly anyway).

The rest of us got back on the bus for some more sightseeing and headed to another Buddhist temple, however this one was surrounded with tons of these small shops selling all the things you would think: fake Rolex, chopsticks, purses and, as I alluded to in my previous post, swords (it kind of reminded me of the story in the Bible where Jesus went off on the money changers in the temple, but I think Buddha would have been OK with people getting a good price on a knockoff Prada bag). Mike and Mark bargained a good deal on swords (now we have three) while Vicki and Robyn went elsewhere on a search for purses (if you were wondering we did see the temple, if only to pay homage to the porcelain God since they were the only facilities nearby) and even got access to one of the shop’s secret back room where they pushed a button to open up a door between two shelves and activate the lights. regardless of the ‘special’ treatment they didn’t buy any and we had to head back to the bus after our allotted hour was up.

It was then time for lunch and our guide had the bus drop us off at a food market with lots of smaller shops, bakeries and restaurants (Tom R. you would have loved it). Some of the group were getting a bit tired of chinese food and hit up a McDonald’s in the area but a group of us (including thankfully a few that speak chinese) walked around sampling some of the goodies like a fried bean curd ball, a kind of crepe filled with fried dough, hoisen and hot sauce, and candy coated berries of some sort (mulberries maybe?). We also spotted a crazy live seafood stand with giant and strange looking shrimp, sea cucumbers, huge live frogs, and these wriggling giant earthworm things called ‘sea intestines’ (would be perfect to have in a bucket on the porch for Halloween). I ran into Mark and Dave at a noodle stand and decided to join them. We had some noodles in a tasty broth with beef balls (again, not what you’re thinking) and some other spices and herbs. By the time a few other people joined us at the noodle booth and we finished lunch the Aunties had returned and so hopped back on the bus for the ride to the (non-bullet) train station.

After we got through security (see my previous post for the sword saga) we boarded our train to the city of Jinan in the Shandong province. This is where we start to go way back in the family history to the origins of my great-great grandfather and I’ll try to give a brief summary in my next post.

After arriving in Jinan we met up with our local tour guide and boarded our charter bus to take us to our hotel (if you notice we haven’t stayed in the same hotel 2 nights in a row since Beijing and wont for the rest of the trip). Just a little info on the city for those that care, Jinan is what they consider a medium sized city with a population of 3 million. According to our local guide Dennis Jinan has had a reputation of being a dirty and ugly city. Well last year they hosted the China Games which is kind of like a Chinese only Olympics where teams from the different provinces compete and I think they wanted to change their reputation. I think their idea was to put neon lights on everything. All of the buildings, billboards, and even some on and off ramps had flashing and color changing lights on them. It really did give the city an Asian Vegas-like’ feel.

Auntie Roberta had asked for help booking a hotel for us here in Jinan when we were back in Tianjin and they must have really bought into the notion that we are a big deal because they booked us into the Shandong Hotel which is an absolutely amazing 6 star hotel (a lot of the places we go they talk about how government dignitaries stay there, I think the government builds these places just so they have a nice place to stay). The lobby was amazing with a huge chandelier, statues and caged tropical birds. The rooms were ridiculous with hardwood entryway, a video screen that activates when someone rings the doorbell and shows you who is there, down comforters and pillows, a full desk stocked with office supplies and a flat screen TV. The bathroom had a separate bath and shower and the shower head was imbedded in the ceiling and shot straight down to the faux wood slatted floor. The coolest part though was the control panels next to each bed that let you turn on and off any of the lights in the room. We all thought it would be nice to stay there a few nights, however we weren’t the ones paying for it.

We just dropped our bags off before heading right back out to another banquet with some important locals (not sure who they were exactly, might have been the government officials that came with us to the village the next day). When we got to the restaurant the table wasn’t big enough for our whole group so Mike, Robyn, Mark and I volunteered to sit at the ‘Kids’ table in another room. It was actually really nice as we ate at the table with our local guide Dennis, our bus driver, our overall guide Allen and I think the fourth guy was the driver for the people who invited us to dinner. We didn’t have to worry about being on our best behaviour and risk offending someone and getting thrown in chinese jail.

The food was good (pretty much on par with what we got at the other meals) but there were a few exotic dishes (nothing like we would see the next day) like kidney, chopped intestines, sea cucumber soup again and a whole fried fish from the Yangtze river. One of the nice things though was we pretty much got all the beer we wanted and it was Tsingtao Draft which is made in Qingdao where we were heading the next day. In China instead of saying cheers when you drink you say ‘gan bei’ which means ‘dry glass’ and you’re supposed to drain your cup. Well my brother Mark turns a little red after he drinks (like me) and when my grandma saw him she said “Oh Mark, you’ve been gan bei-ing!”

After thanking our hosts we headed back to our palatial hotel. I decided to stay up to work on the blog and try to get some pictures up but the wi-fi only worked in the lobby so I had to stay down there. There was some sort of conference going on at the hotel and at about eleven thirty all these drunk businessmen started coming back, and when I say drunk I mean fall down drunk. It was pretty entertaining watching 40 to 50 year old chinese guys in nice clothes stumble around the lobby and cause a ruckus (we learned later toasting and drinking is a large part of doing business in China and a coworker at Steven’s, who is my auntie Rebecca’s son, company in Shanghai was hired in large part because he can hold his liquor).

After watching the parade of drunk guys and getting fed up with the WordPress iPhone app I went up to bed. The next day we all travel to our ancestral village of Songwang before driving to Weifang to stay th night.

P.S. no wi-fi where I am today and definitely not where I’ll be tomorrow so no pics for a couple days. I may have some free time though so hopefully I can get caught up on this thing. Also I’m too tired to proofread this thing so just chalk up the typos to my Kindle keyboard not being designed for this much typing.

P.P.S found a slow computer so added pics.

We’re kind of a big deal…

Tuesday Oct. 19th -

* I need to start off this post by saying I am going to try and get the history as accurate as possible and if any relatives are reading this please correct me if you see any mistakes.

After breakfast our whole group of 16 headed to the Beijing South Railway Station (our guide claims it’s the largest in Asia) to catch our bullet train for the 45 minute ride to Tianjin. The train looks like a space shuttle and is pretty awesome as it’s faster than driving (got up to 330 km/h, someone else can do the conversion) but not all the hassle of flying. After arriving in Tianjin we met up with our new local guide ‘Stone’ (he chose that name because his Chinese name means stones, and also because it sounds badass) who speaks the best english out of any of our guides so far and provided our fun fact of the day: Tianjin is the 4th largest city in China with a population of 12 million.

We went straight from the train station to our hotel, the Tianjin Sheraton, and dropped our bags before leaving right away to visit the old factory office of my great-grandfather’s company, Dongya Textiles.

It’s here where I should try and give a very brief history of my great-grandfather and his importance to Chinese industrialization, the Tianjin textile industry and more importantly the people of Tianjin. I really wont be able to do it justice and anyone that would like to read more let me know and I can send you a copy of the book my Grandmother’s sister Roberta put together.

His name was Song (family name) Feiqing (given name, english name was Harry) and after being involved in business for years working with his father (who has a whole other amazing story) he saw that the nature of Chinese industry was lacking, especially in the textile market where Chinese wool was being exported only to turn around and import foreign yarn; other countries were getting rich at China’s expense. My grandfather’s dream was “to save China through industry” and realized his dream by creating completely domestic yarn production. Eventually Dongya’s yarn brand Di Yang held over 80 percent of the domestic Chinese market.

Song Feiqing’s real accomplishments however went far beyond his commercial success. He was a values driven man who was devoted to demonstrating his Christian beliefs and desire to help the Chinese people. For example when he was trying to think of a brand name for his new completely Chinese yarn he wanted something that stirred the nationalism in the people, however at the time that area of the country was under Japanese control and they would not allow anything overtly anti-foreign. He came up with the Di Yang brand name which means “head-butting rams (sheep)” or I think more literally “sheep against sheep” and the logo was, appropriately, two head-butting rams. However in Chinese Di Yang is also a homonym for “against foreign” and the logo was designed with the ram on the right (representing the East and China) slightly higher than the one on the left.

Success did not go to his head and my grandmother and her sisters remember that as children they had to treat everyone as an equal no matter what their social status, which was extremely rare at the time. They would call all of the servants “auntie” or “uncle” just as if they were part of the family and Song Feiqing refused to be called “master” or anything else that would raise him above anyone else. Another story talks about how he used to have dinner with his pedicab driver in public restaurants much to the shock of everyone else there.

Song Feiqing believed that the real value of a company lies with the people or employees and took amazing care of them with benefits ahead of the times like scholarship program, paid sick and maternity leave, medical, disability and death benefits. One of the other amazing stories took place during a terrible flood in Tianjin in 1939. At the outset of the flood he gathered all of the employees and organized them into preparing sandbags and creating rescue teams. He sent out 5 boats to bring stranded employees back to the factory. He also opened up an adjacent area to care for hundreds of other refugees, halting production in order to provide food and shelter.

These are just a few of the many amazing stories I have read about or heard first hand during this trip and I would like to add one more before moving on. On Wednesday we went to the train station in Tianjin for our trip to Jinan and unlike flying you don’t check your bags you just carry them all on. They still have security however and when they scanned my brothers bag they saw one of the souvenir swords we had bought and stopped us. Both of our guides and our Grandmother were trying to negotiate with them to let it pass but eventually they called a supervisor down. The supervisor spoke with my grandmother and upon learning who her father was decided to let us through. He said he was an admirer of Mr. Song and all he had done for the people of Tianjin.

So, after dropping our bags we headed to the old factory headquarters which is all that is left of the old buildings. We got off the bus and walked up to a modest looking gated 3 story building with a butting rams statue out front and a large “1932″ on the front representing the year Dongya was founded. Along the left fence is a large marble plaque engraved in chinese and with a bronze picture of my great-grandfather. Inside, the building has been nicely restored into a meeting place for high-ranking company officials (more on the present day company later). There were some amazing historical pictures on the wall which is what we spent our time going over.

After we finished looking around and taking pictures we headed to lunch. On the way I learned that we were being taken out to lunch by several movie and TV producers who are working on projects about my great-grandfather (there already was a tv special made back in 2002) and they were taking us to a really fancy place that is used to entertain dignitaries. Luckily when we got there were 2 large tables and all the important people who spoke chinese were at one while everyone else sat at the other table. The table settings were very extravagant as well as the food, with sea cucumber soup and quail being the ones I remember out of the 20 or so dishes.

After lunch we boarded our bus and traveled to the outskirts of the city to visit the Tianjin Textiles Museum. Upon arriving we were greeted by a brand new, giant office building located on a sprawling and equally new industrial complex. It turns out a holding company called the Tianjin Textiles Group now owns the Di Yang (or Dear Young as it was called after the Communists took it over) brand name along with 11 other random textile brands. The holding company is run “in cooperation with the government” however it’s no secret what that means. When we walked into the museum which was located inside the office complex we were met by one of the holding companies officials as well a TV crew there to film us.

The museum was actually very nice and fairly large. It covered the history of textiles in Tianjin up to the modern day. Our museum docent took us through the exhibits until we got to he one about Dongya. It was amazing as they had reproduced the facade of the factory office we were in earlier that day which led to a whole room dedicated to Dongya and Mr. Song (no other exhibit was nearly as extravagant). There was a large picture of him on one wall and several rows of display cases containing various artifacts and paperwork. They even had a model of the butting rams logo and a wall displaying all of the accolades from famous figures in China at the time. I really can’t describe what it was like looking at all of this with the family there so I wont try, but needless to say it was incredible.

After finishing up at the museum we left the TV crew behind and drove around the corner to where the new Dongya/Di Yang offices were located complete with butting rams statue out front. I couldn’t help but wonder what Song Feiqiang would think of the audaciousness of these new surroundings?

We took a few pictures from outside of the gate and started back into town. Because of traffic we went straight to dinner which was at a hot-pot restaurant, however this was not the traditional hot-pot like I described before. The guy who started this place apparently cooked for the army and would fill the pot with various meats and spices before adding the broth. It was very tasty and reminded me of stew with its content and consistency.

Once we finished dinner it was time for bed after a long and emotional day. Wednesday we will be touring the Song family house before my grandmother and her sisters get interviewed at the local TV station. Like I said, we’re kind of a big deal (and I expect the appropriate treatment when I get back, Tom).

Pics

Here’s a link to some unsorted pics my aunt Christine posted. The site doesn’t work on my iPhone so I haven’t looked at them yet: http://albums.phanfare.com/isolated/x1IUXsBf/1/4866059

Blog post of supreme double happiness

Monday Oct. 18th -

We woke up Monday to a cold, rainy and cloudy Beijing day. After checking out umbrellas from the hotel, 7 of us (6 NW Yangs, Daryl) plus our 2 guides (local guide David, overall guide Allen) boarded our 53 passenger bus for our second day of sightseeing here in the capital city. Everyone else in the group had been here before and were going shopping and getting massages instead.

Because of time constraints we were going to try and cram 4 different attractions into one day and like I mentioned earlier our local guide David is a little high-strung. As a result David was always moving us along to the next location and walking incredibly fast. Mike joked that he kept saying “Here’s one of the most famous landmarks in the world, take 5 minutes to look around.” But I have to give him credit, we made it all the way through everything and learned a bunch on the way.

First stop was the Forbidden City or Palace (from now on referred to as FC). The FC took about 15 years to build from 1406-1421 and served as the home for 14 Ming Dynasty emperors and 10 Qing Dynasty emperors until 1911 (a good reference is the movie “The Last Emperor”). There are 9,999.5 rooms in the FC with the reason for the half room being that there is a Holy Moon Temple with 10,000 rooms and the emperor at the time didn’t want to compare himself to a god (what a humble guy). One reason he might have needed all those rooms is that some emperors were known to have 3,000 concubines! The FC covers 7,800,000 square feet with 26 foot walls and a 171 foot wide moat (so Jeff, what kind of mortgage could you get for that?).

We entered from the North entrance and worked our way to the South entrance as all the important buildings are arranged on the North-South axis. There were so many buildings I can’t remember them all but one that stands out was the Imperial Garden with it’s cypress trees (only royalty was allowed to plant cypress on penalty of death) and mound of special rocks hauled up from the Yangtze River that the emperor could climb up to a special room to meditate and write poetry. The other that stands out is the Hall of Supreme Harmony which is the largest surviving wooden structure in China. It held special ceremonies and events like the emperors enthronement and wedding.

We continued out the front (South) gate past a giant portrait of Mao and into Tiananmen Square. TS is the largest of it’s kind in the world and is surrounded by a museum and government buildings. Obviously though it is most well known for the student protests that occurred back in 1989. Interestingly our guide, who can talk for 20 minutes about anything, only mentioned in passing that some students and scholars gathered there to protest “imperialism and social policy” or something like that. It might have been because every light post has at least 4 or 5 security cameras on it and there were police everywhere.

After a brisk walk through the square and a glance at the old inner city wall gates we got back on the bus and headed for the Temple of Heaven pagoda. This pagoda is unique in that it used no metal at al in its construction and is round shaped rather than square. It has 4 inner pillars representing the four seasons, 12 middle pillars representing the months of the year and 12 outer pillars representing the hours of the day. Added together they make 28 which represents the number of Chinese constellations. The emperors used to come here to perform ceremonies in order to ensure a good harvest for the season.

After the temple of heaven it was on to lunch at a restaurant at a Peking Duck place our guide said is the most famous in Beijing. Well its fame is well deserved as it was easily the best lunch we’ve had so far with several different kinds of duck dishes. We were all looking for more at the end of the meal. One note, it’s pretty awesome having our guide set everything up as we just walk into a restaurant and are escorted to a back private room where the food is already prepared and ready to go.

Finally we headed out for our last stop which was the Summer Palace. The SP was built back in 1750 using a million workers and is located on a giant plot of land including the palace itself, the manmade Kunming Lake, a 17 arch bridge to an island and Longevity Hill. LH was made using the soil dug up from the construction of the lake and includes gardens, pagodas and temples. Really you could spend a whole day there seeing everything and taking a dragon boat ride but by this time we were cold, wet and ready to head back to the hotel.

When we got back to the hotel it was already dinner time so a bunch of us went across the way to a doorway with a neon sign that said ‘Gourmet Street’. It led to a stairway that went down to a food court with tons of different food stands and restaurants. The ventilation wasn’t too good and it felt like a sauna so some of the group headed back out to the surface but Mike, Robyn, Daryl and I decided to give it a shot. We decided on a hot-pot place which for those that don’t know is a burner on the center of the table with a pot of flavored broth. You order raw items and cook them in the broth yourself. Well thank god Daryl can speak and read Mandarin as you order with a checklist and nothing was in english (we were joking that we would have had to play hot-pot roulette). We paid after ordering and the total wasn’t that much but we got a ton of food including a split pot of spicy and normal broth, shrimp, lamb, beef balls (not it’s not what you’re thinking), shrimp balls and an assortment of veggies. We totally ran out of room on the table but it was a great meal and perfect after a cold day.

It was bed time after dinner with a day of traveling on a bullet train to Tianjin in the morning and the start of the family history tour.

There are some really amazing things coming up and I hope to get another entry in soon (thumbs are tired).