Reunite with Relatives, Drink Tea, Eat Lunch, Repeat

When I told friends I was going to spend time in Fujian, I heard, "you're going to drink lots of tea!"  And...they were right!  Here's your typical tea set.  Tea is brewed in the covered bowl, then poured into the taller bowl with the spout and then distributed into the smaller cups for distribution.  The second your cup is empty, it's filled.

When I told friends I was going to spend time in Fujian, I heard, "you're going to drink lots of tea!"  And...they were right!  Here's your typical tea set.  Tea is brewed in the covered bowl, then poured into the taller bowl with the spout and then distributed into the smaller cups for distribution.  The second your cup is empty, it's filled.

The second day after the New Year's is the day to visit family.  We got our start early on the night of New Year's.  Here we are visiting with one of Onions' cousins (the female on the left) at her tea shop.

Kids EVERYWHERE are drawn to the iPhone!

The next day, we drive into the hills of Anxi County.....the home and heartland of Oolong tea.

The goal of the day is to visit many of Onions' Mom's family in the mountains where she grew up.  Our ultimate goal is to get to Grandma's house.  Here we are at the first stop, an older sister's house.  I had yet to figure out how the day was going to work.  We sat for tea, then ate lunch. Little did I know this was to the be the first of FOUR lunches.  I didn't pace myself well and ate myself full at the first stop.

So in the 1970's Onions Dad, as part of a program to help the rural areas, was sent from the city to work at this tea factory in the Anxi area.  It was while he was here in the area that he met Onions Mom.

The family lived in the dorms of the factory until Onions was 4.  Even after he moved to the city, Onions would come up here every summer and hang out in the country with family and friends.

Stop 2.  Onions Mom's youngest sister and her husband, who live in the house on the left.

The other two houses belong to the younger brothers of the wife's husband.  You'll see the tea set up in all the homes.  So it turns out that these families don't live here but all work in the big cities along the coast, such as Quanzhou, Fuzhou and Shenzhen.  The big deal about Spring Festival is that everyone comes back to their homes and gets to see each other!

One of the favorite people I met all day was the youngest sister's husband.  Very chill and open to conversation.

Tea with the husband's middle brother.

Then five minutes later with the youngest brother.

Then lunch number 2.

Quick stop for tea with on of the older sisters (far right).

Then it was up farther into the mountains to visit more relatives.

Then it was up farther into the mountains to visit more relatives.

A drive up a steep hill (of which they all used to have to walk) we ended up in a high mountain valley where Onions mom and her family grew up.  Two brothers live in the white house farthest up the hill and a house that you see the side of to the right of that house next to the trees.

Tea at the home of the youngest brother, who lives in Shenzhen.

Lunch Number 3.

Lunch with a view

Tea with another brother.

And then it was time to go to Grandma's house, which is pictured, tucked back up against the hillside.

Onions and his Mom.

The entire family grew up in this home, which is on the walk up to Grandma's house.  It now sits empty but is apparently given to one of the brothers.

GRANDMA!  88 years old and lives on her own.

Raises her own animals to eat and plants her own vegetables.

Raises her own animals to eat and plants her own vegetables.

Onions Mom, Grandma and Onions.

Time for lunch number 4.

One of the sisters took some of her Mom's vegetables.

Funniest scene of the day.  The youngest son came over to go refill the Grandma's propane tank.  She comes out with food to give him.  He reverts to being a kid and exclaims he doesn't want it.  It was funny to see how he went back and inhabited his teenage self.  I probably do the same.

He left with the food!  Like he ever even had any other choice.

Time for us all to leave the mountain and we all paraded down to the cars.

Sunset on a crazy day of tea, food and relatives.  It was totally a Chinese cultural day.

春节 in Quanzhou

The Lunar New Year Festival is a HUGE event in China.  Onions invited me to spend four days with him and his family in the Fujian province city of Quanzhou.  Here's the entrance to his building, which is way in the back at the end.  You can see his Dad in the 2nd floor window!

Onions Dad has a slew of brothers and sisters and many of them live in the building.  Everyone in his building is related and the cousins, aunts and uncles (from his father's side) were in and out all weekend.  On the first floor, there is a shrine to the elders who have passed.

In the next few years, Onions' family's building is slated for rebuilding to look more modern, such as these across the street.

In his neighborhood, there are even the original homes such as this one.

After the first night with the family, Onions and I took the bus out to the beach.  Quanzhou was the largest port during the Tang and Song Dynasty's (around 900-1300) Quanzhou was the largest port in the world.  Here's the wall the keep the foreigners out!

Zhengchen Gong, who successfully retook Taiwan.

Onions doesn't like direct sun.

So, here's a cool geographic marker in Quanzhou.

On the far side of the rocks, the East China Sea.  Closer to us, the South China Sea! 

We found a nice spot on the beach away from other people.  An amazing feat in China!

Onions' family lives in the HEART of old Quanzhou.  Here's some of the original European architecture.

The west pagoda of the Kaiyuan Temple.

"Little Chester"

Onions' Family

Laozi, the founder of the Daoism.

Being a port city, seafood is everywhere!  Oysters.  Turns out the small ones are tastier,

Turns out here in Quanzhou, they eat "zhongzhi" with sweet peanut sauce.  I approve!

We got to visit with some of Onions' friends.  Here he is with his best childhood friend and the friend's father!

44

January 29th, 2014...my 44th Birthday.  The day was also the last day of work before the Lunar New Year's Festival!  Kind of like having your birthday just before Christmas Break.   Everyone is thinking about their holidays.

The school purchases a cake for everyone, which I carried around all afternoon until Onions opened it up.  Oreo cheesecake.

Where did we celebrate?  Well, we started out at Pizza Hut......with dessert.

But then had actual dinner, which was going to be Beijing Duck, but we went with the duck bones!  Nice to have time with Onions on my birthday.