We're pretty much a big deal now

I realize that I'm violating the unspoken rules of good blogging (that is, little text and more pictures) but bear with me, this story is worth it...

A few nights ago we were invited to Jinji Hu (a lake here in SZ that has a lot of development around it and does this water show thing, etc.) by one of our new friends, Zara, to watch a water show (like, they spurt off fountains in synchronization with lights and stuff on the lake). We thought the water show started at 8, but 8:32 rolls around and still no water show. So we ended up walking across the path that crosses the lake. An older couple starts a conversation with us, well, sort of; they spoke very little English so most was done through our friend as an interpreter. The woman is very eager to talk and did so non-stop, asking us a barrage of questions about the US, our families, etc. After walking for 30 min or so with them , we arrive at a cluster of well-to-do restaraunts. Carley and I had gone running right before we came and hadn’t eaten dinner, so we asked where a good place to get a small, fast meal was. Immediately, they invited us to their home and insisted on cooking a meal for us, but we felt bad intruding at such a late hour (it was past 9:00 by now). No worries though, turns out they said they knew the owner of a nearby restaurant.

(At Jinjihu, you can buy these things and light them, the flame creates hot air to make the fabric balloon rise. I thought it was pretty cool so I gave in)

Just to give you a mental picture of what these people are like, the woman is very extroverted, bubbly and laughs frequently, especially after parts of conversation we obviously both don’t understand due to language barrier. She’s super kind. While his wife chatters to us, the man walks silently and dignified ahead, stopping every once in awhile to say something. He commented once to me that we were about the same height. He also will start to sing intermittently, in a rich baritone voice. He sings old Chinese songs, and it’s probably one of the coolest things I have ever heard. When we showed him how much we liked it when he sang, he sang some more and taught us some of the song.



They lead us into one of the very well-to-do places (we’re not quite sure what to do, but follow them) and it ends up being an expensive Irish restaurant/pub type deal. There were almost all foreigners here...and a live band singing "What do you do With a Drunken Sailor" and "Ring of Fire;"and the walls of the pub had lots of pictures of Audrey Hepburn and other old actor people that our parents probably know but we don't. They hand us a menu and we skimmed down the 100-200 RMB priced items to find the cheapest thing: fried rice at 25 RMB hiding at the bottom. Our new older friends sit with us and talk to us the whole time and, as Carley and Zara walk up to pay, insist on paying for us. The older guy gives us his business card, and turns out he’s a real big deal in China. He has like, 3 major titles, one is the CEO of this Investment and Development cooperation, one is in government, and a few more that we didn’t really understand. Our Chinese friend whispered to us as we were walking, “Wow…these people are TOP. Like, REALLY TOP!” Coming from another Chinese person, this held a little more weight.

After our late night meal, they continued to show us around the lake and invited us again back to their home to talk to their son on skype (he’s currently in the UK, but will soon go to the U.S. -Yale or Columbia, can't remember which one - to get his PhD …we didn’t go because it was about 10pm by now. We were continually astonished by their obliviousness to the late hour). This wasn’t the end, though. They had traveled all the previous day, and were preparing to go to Shanghai the next day (Sunday) to meet, well, at this point we only knew he was another "real-big-deal" guy. We asked, through our trusty interpreter, "how will we communicate during this little journey to Shanghai?" They said it wouldn't be a problem because the "real-big-deal guy" they were meeting could speak very good english. We explained that we also had church on Sunday morning, and furthermore, they insisted that we meet them at 2:00pm, and offered for Zara to accompany us. We didn’t have plans, so we said, "why not?" much to their delight.

The next day rolls around, and we meet them and their driver (yes, they have a driver) to go to Shanghai. The man is dressed impeccably in a suit and tie, but the wife is wearing a skirt and tights with boots, and her hair is pulled up in a ponytail with a scrunchie. We were glad she was dressed more informally; because we have basically no clothes here, especially not formal clothes, we were a little self-conscious in our jeans. The two of us have photo albums made of family and friends, so that consumed most of the ride there. They loved looking at pictures of Americans and the woman especially studied each picture for a really long time. We pull up to the hotel, and the man gets out with his briefcase to meet the other big-deal guy to talk business. The wife wants to go look around some nearby shops, so we go with her for a little bit. Soon she gets a call to summon us to come back to the hotel.

Did we mention.. this place is a 5-star hotel in Shanghai – never been to a nicer hotel. We’re taken to the 17^th floor, which is like a VIP lounge. (once again, self-consciousness comes in; we’re still wearing jeans). There’s a table with a few Chinese people around it in nice suits – including the husband guy we know. We shake hands with all of them and stutter out “ni hao…”. We quickly realize who the big guy is. It's rather obvious – he’s wearing rose-colored glasses (only big deal people could pull that off). Through the course of the night, we learn that his name is James IC Chiang (I found some more info at http://www.expo2010china.com/expo/expo_english/documents/em/node2308/userobject1ai36072.html), he’s lived in the US for a long time, and did this huge investment that turned out to be a great success at the World’s Fair a long time ago, and has been important in US/Taiwan/Chinese business relations. The big guy was also sure to point out he was friends with Bill and Hillary, and George and Laura (and showed us many pictures and even some of the Christmas cards they had sent him. I guess I didn’t know they sent Christmas cards…). We don’t sit at their table though to eat, we (and the wife) are escorted to sit comfortably on couches while the men discuss business matters. (unfortunately we didn't get many "good" pictures of us with him...while he commented on our American looks, we weren't super comfortable with the 88-year old man.)

Yes, they are bubble-wrapping a DINOSAUR. Lydia couldn't resist taking a picture:

We stay at super-fancy-5-star place a while and dine on an exquisite dinner. When we finally leave, the couple takes us to this boardwalk-type thing over a waterway in Shanghai that is across from a really cool skyline. They loved when we would try and speak Chinese, and when we called them “shu shu” and “a yi” (like “uncle” and “auntie” – you don’t really use Mr. and Mrs. In China, you use their full name, or this) they thought it was the coolest thing ever. We find the car/driver then and they drive us home. What a wonderful time! We fell into our beds utterly exhausted that night! It was just so crazy that we got to go to Shanghai, to an incredible restaurant, with wonderful people, for FREE--though we tried to pay many times! We thank the real Big-Deal-Guy upstairs for His blessings! :)

Sidenote to parents: we DO usually try and avoid the whole trusting-strangers-in-a-completely-foreign-country type deal, especially if their vehicle looks like this: