Tag Archives: Holidays in China

Wistful Wuhan

May 19, 2019 CrazyChineseFamily 11 Comments

We are back from China and it is time for some blog posts again! The past month I had no articles here as we were in China and I didn’t feel like writing any lengthy bit on my phone or tablet for this blog. I also did not reply on any comments on my last article as I just can’t do it, at least not for now or even for a long time. However I did post more or less frequently some pictures on Instagram. All of our planning for the holidays in China was changed in a rather drastic manner after receiving terrible news few days before the flight. In fact a lot of the plans changed but we did stick to travel to Wuhan.

For Wuhan we had so many plans meeting with our friends and the trip turned into something entirely different. We did see some of the city as my wife tried her best to comfort her friend by going to places away from home. It was not a week for full of merriment but we did try to make the most of it for us and our friend. We had lengthy strolls around parks, visited Wuhan city center with a bit of sightseeing, ate some nice food and tried to have as much entertainment for the kids as possible.

We visited the Zhongshan Park for a nice change of scenery and to visit the theme park there for the kids. For me it was rather interesting to see a Zhongshan Park after visiting the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing back in 2016. Besides this it was very strange for at least me to find a theme park located inside that park. It is a nice little theme park with many different amusement rides for kids of all ages. From the park it is also easy to travel to many other sights by metro such as The Bund, Riverside Park and many shopping streets. Wuhan has still some very interesting “historical” buildings right next to towering new structures.

I can’t even say anymore exactly what we all visited as the whole trip is in some kind of blur for me. Sure we saw some sights but we did not visit any of the very famous places such as the Yellow Crane Tower or the East Lake. Our focus was on other things so I do not really have much to write about Wuhan. But what I can say is that Wuhan is certainly a city to visit when going to China as there is just so much going on with so many different sights and feelings to each area. Besides that I can also add that Xi’an seems to be a small town compared to Wuhan. Of course I know that Wuhan is a bigger city with few million more inhabitants but it has just a different vibe to Xi’an where the long history is shown especially with the architecture in the city center within the old city walls. Something else I have to add: I did not understand anything when people talked in the Wuhan dialect, nothing at all!

Next up will be much more as it is all about our trip to Hongkong and Disney Land!

What a view!

Have you been to Wuhan?

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The kind of Mixed 2018 Review

December 16, 2018 CrazyChineseFamily 19 Comments

For the past years I have been not doing really many of such reviews. One I clearly remember was the Amazing Year 2014 Review as it was really a wonderful year full of great memories. The past years on the other hand have been more like “meh” compared to 2014. Now 2018 is something totally different as it will be definitely a year I will remember for a very long time due to its ups and downs.

The year started kind of slow and I thought back about the past years living in Germany and how it changed since we moved here. Besides that I also had another part of the “New Apartment” series which is still not entirely solved thus far. One big thing I had going on was my family research combined with a DNA test to find somehow some relatives somewhere on this globe. I am still in this whole research but have once again hit too many brick walls and for now I just wait for some lucky discoveries when someone adds to their family tree at some point.

In March things changed a bit as we arranged our trip to China and also had finally the confirmation that we could travel to Japan in May! Though we were excited to go once again to China and enjoy the good food there and kind of experience the strange Chinese family with their weird requests the main thing for us was Japan. For so many years we wanted to travel to Japan but it never worked out. Either it was the Japanese Embassy in Finland telling us the wrong information regarding the visa for my wife or we simply had suddenly no time for it. My wife planned the entire week in Japan for nearly two months to make it as perfect as possible for us and especially for Nathan. I don’t know why but I have barely any memories about April even though we wouldn’t fly to China till near the end of the month. Guess we were just busy with work, keeping Nathan busy with sports and being way too excited about our holidays.

May was the most amazing month for us in years as we were in China and of course in Japan. Blogging wise I didn’t do anything and wrote all about the wonder of Japan in June. Tokyo and Osaka were just so wonderful and Nathan really enjoyed the few hours we had at Thomas Land. Each day in Japan we had a blast and thinking back I still can’t believe that we actually experienced all of that. I must say that all the planning my wife did for this holiday surely paid off. Usually all her preparing and planning are totally messed up as I wrote later in summer after our two-week holidays in Finland. The time in Finland was way too short but we did go to Moominland which had been on my bucket list ever since I was a child!

With Autumn approaching we got a new family member, Haruki the Shiba. That tiny dog gave us so much joy thus far and by now he tripled his weight and can fart like a champ. In fact whenever he does release some gasses he cannot take the smell either and runs to another room. He is a strange little fellow with his constant smiley face. Ever since we got him I only started to see how many dogs we have in the neighbourhood. Even now I still encounter “new dogs” with their owners living somewhere nearby and I’ve been doing the rounds with Haruki for four months now. Besides Haruki we had another last highlight and that was visiting Lego Land in Denmark. We didn’t plan to go there this year but after finding some ridiculous good deal we just had to go. Two days of rain but also two days filled with Lego and that is all what Nathan cares for. I also got myself some goodies and went on updating my computer and rambling about my gaming history.

And now I come to the absolute depressing November after having such a great year till then. This month was just cursed as one bad thing after the other happened. Workwise we were totally overloaded, my wife got her wallet stolen, a mirror crashed down and my father was diagnosed with Leukemia. I think that was by far the worst month I can think off. I mean after so many good memories this year everything was just destroyed in one month. By now we are over most of those terrible happenings but just remembering back makes we feel really empty and also angry. But life goes on and December has been rather positive without anything bad thus far.

How was your year 2018 so far?

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Experiencing China

November 18, 2018 CrazyChineseFamily 16 Comments

It has been now over six months since our last holiday in China. It was a great trip and we are already planning for next years holiday session in the Middle Empire. I have mentioned it countless of times that for so many years we never really managed it to go anywhere besides Xi’an. This year was different as we had that wonderful week in Japan (Tokyo, Thomas Land and Osaka) and we are kind of planning on having next year a week-long trip in Thailand. This is not set in stone especially when taking into consideration that we should have been already to Korea, Taiwan, Bali, the Maldives and so forth. Main problem was always that my wife turns into a complete couch potato once we arrive at her home in China.

Anyhow even in case we won’t manage it to Thailand I am still looking forward to visiting China again. For one it is of course the food and I think I don’t need to touch that subject again as writing about it and sharing pictures makes too many people hungry. It is for me more like the whole experience in China. Even though I have seen so little so far it has been always such an interesting experience especially as each region or even parts of the city are so different. I have been mostly only to Xi’an but already there each section of the city has its own vibe. It goes as far as each “block” can be so different compared to the next one. For example the area where my in-laws are living looks to many people (like my parents) like a city shortly after an air raid while as the next block is a complete different matter as everything is relative clean and nice looking. However between those blocks the feeling is already different as in the older parts everywhere you have those wonderful street kitchens which are more rare or even non-existent in richer areas.

It feels sometimes to surreal to drive on some roads passing by mountains which look like just from paintings. To have old temples and other historical buildings right next to some huge shopping centres. Just going a bit outside the cities you even encounter traditional clay brick buildings and even cave houses. Of course there are always downsides to the whole experience especially due to pollution or overcrowded tourist spots but it does not really bother me that much. For me each holiday in China is unique as even in Xi’an I find new interesting thing which each visit. For next year we have another novelty as we kind of have to decide where we want to stay: Either in MIL’s new apartment in the middle of nowhere or in the old one where FIL is staying right in the city center with all the best food around. Guess this decision is a no-brainer.