Buddhist Temple On The Mountain

One of the highlights of my second visit to China was taking a pilgrimage up a mountain just on the outskirts of Chongqing. This entire mountain belongs to a Buddhist sanctuary, with numerous temples and facilities scattered throughout the mountain.

I set off with many members of my fiancee's family from the city of Chongqing in the early morning. The weather was a little chilly to start, but climbing the steps ascending from Chongqing warmed us up very quickly, and the sun was welcome that day. This mountain had many trees, and was the closest I had come to seeing a forest near the city of Chongqing - it was quite beautiful.


We eventually reached a halfway point up the mountain, where there was a small vegetarian restaurant with excellent food. We enjoyed lunch there, and sat around taking in the view. There are places to purchase and burn incense along the way, which my fiancee did as an offering. We stopped at numerous mini temples along the way, with various statues of Buddha.

After lunch, we decided to head to the summit of the mountain, where there was another level of temples. There were many steps to climb, and it was quite a workout, but once at the top, the view made it quite worth it. It is hard to imagine how these magnificent temples were constructed so high on the mountain with no roads, just many steps on a path to get there. The view from the top was spectacular, we could see the city of Chongqing through the clouds and haze. This day trip turned out to be quite a rewarding and education trip about my fiancee's family religion.

The Second Visit

After my first trip to China, I had another visit allowed within 6 months on my China visa, so I decided to go back to see my fiancee in Chongqing again. I arrived on the night of Chinese new year - one of the most important days of the year there.

On my previous trip, I had flown into Seoul, S Korea, then to Bejing with another flight on another airlines to Chonqing, as the flight with Asiana airlines from Seoul to Chongqing had been canceled. On this trip however, I had a stop-over in Seoul, then a flight directly to Chonqing. This presented a bit of a problem - they have a separate terminal in Chonqing for internation flights to go through customs. My fiancee was awaiting me at the terminal for dosmetic flights, as she did my previous visit. I when through customs, and waited for a bit outside the internation terminal. I refused rides with the cabs that came up, as I thought I could easily find my fiancee. That turned out to be a mistake.

I called her up, but it was hard trying to explain to her where I was with my limited Chinese, and her limited English. I finally was able to find a customs agent who spoke both Chinese and English, and was able to communicate my location. My fiancee was very worried, so she found a police officer, who very nicely escorted her on the half mile walk to the international terminal, and escorted us both back to catch a cab to town. We learned a lesson on domestic versus international flights for sure.

The second visit was wonderful, enjoying all the fireworks for the New Year celebration. We again took many pictures of us together, something that later turned out to be invaluable for her immigration to the United States.

Engagement or Marriage ?

After many months of daily emails, meeting her in person, and meeting the family, and a very enjoyable trip altogether, what should I do now ? I have met the person that I want to grow old with - so why not get engaged ? That is what we did towards the end of the my first visit.

She initially wanted to get married in Chongqing right then and there. This was a little fast for me, so I did some research, and it seemed to be more advantageous to get engaged first, and married in the US once she was able to immigrate.

We decided to celebrate this event with a dinner at a nice restaurant, inviting my fiancee's friends and family. We got a tailor to make a traditional Chinese shirt for myself, with my beautiful fiancee in a traditional red dress. I got to meet her two best friends, both who have subsequently also immigrated to the US as well. We shared food and drink with the gathering, and even Jiao Jiao the cat got some leftover fish.

Meeting Her Family

The second most important part of my first visit to China, besides meeting my future wife in person, was to meet her family. Her immediate family consisted of her brother, who is about the same age as myself, and her mother and father. And, of course, the family cat Giao Giao.

They live in a modest but comfortable apartment in a high rise in Chongqing. I was greeted well, and offered all kinds of fruits right off. Though I had my translator (a CD 636), and Yi had hers, I had quite a time communicating with her parents. They were not used to the translation devices, and labored to use them. Still the most important communication is often unspoken, and they were very good hosts, making me at ease right from the start.

Her brother had been taking some English lessons, and was able to speak some English with me. His wife took a big interest to the translator device, and asked a lot of pretty complex and thoughtful questions. I look forward to when my Chinese improves enough to hold more than a superficial conversation with her family.

I really enjoyed the time spent with her family there. They are very close knit, and stick together, helping each other out. Families in China tend to stay together much more than we do here it seems. Even Giao Giao the cat overcame her shyness, and came to visit with me (even though I am allergic to cats).

My First Visit To China

After some snafu's with the airline and scheduling, with an overnight lay over in Seoul, Korea, I finally arrive to my destination - Chongqing, China. My future wife was there at the airport to greet me with a huge bouquet of flowers - we knew each other right away, and I smiled - she was more lovely in person than the pictures we had exchanged did justice. She had hired a cab driver who was waiting outside for us, and wisked us away to our destination, the Chongqing Hilton.

We could have eaten western style food in the hotel, but I wanted to eat something local, so she asked, using her electronic translator, whether I liked hot food - a resounding yes, and we were on our way to partake in the dish that Chongqing has made famous, namely hot pot. As lovely as I mentioned above, she was both sweet and thoughtful, having carried along western style utensils just for me, as I had quite a time with chopsticks. Though myself a vegetarian, the restaurant was quite accommodating, serving me my half of the spicy broth in a special 2 vessel cooking pot. I was hooked at first bite, and we enjoyed partaking in hot pot numerous times during my visit.

I mentioned the translator - we both had electronic pocket translators, which initially, made the trip easier, though I wish I had learned to speak more Chinese than my first level of Pimsleur CD's. Her English language skills did surprise me though, as she had been taking lessons on her own for quite some time.

Next stop - to meet her family and friends...

A Loving Relationship Blosums...

It all started with a message from a dating site that I had long forgotten that I had left a listing. Somehow, even though some years had passed, a lady from Chongqing, China had dug through the many listings and found my profile. I almost missed the email announcing I had a message at the site through the deluge of 100's of messages I get daily. A little surprised that it had made it through my spam filters, I was curious enough to see why this person might be interested in myself, a hopelessly never married bachelor entering the prime of middle age.

What struck me first, was not her picture or profile (of which there was no picture, and little in the profile), was her simple but magical demeanor. Her command of the English language seemed to be that of an well learned scholar, but yet her expressions were somewhat lyrical, but not complex. What was in her profile, was interesting - we both disliked tatoos and body piercings, were both very interested in music and reading. She was very family oriented, another trait I was looking for in a relationship. I got the impression right away that she was someone I wanted to get to know better.

We continued forward with some short but cordial exchanges on the site, where we both eventually decided to swap real emails addresses and pictures, leaving the dating site far behind. In those messages, I continued to be amazed with her apparent command of the English language, as well as having a hard time believing her age, which was close enough to my own, given the pictures we exchanged. I was later a bit amused to find that she admitted to knowing very little English after my compliments, stating that the translation software she used through her email software was very good.

After months of exchanging emails daily, I finally decided to visit her in Chongqing....