Best birthday ever, at least the most celebrated one. I was glad to see that my grandparents were in excellent spirit despite being 88 and 86 years old (with my grandma two years older than grandpa). They appeared to be in even better shape than the last time I saw them in December of 2009 (maybe the winter had something to do with it). I took a few photos of them in the middle of the condo development. These kind of high rise condo developments often have a few building together as a cluster with some small community conveniences ranging from a small grocery store to shared gym. These clusters are called “xiao qu” which literally means small community/neighborhood. Xiao qu-s, ranging from a few buildings to a couple dozens, are the building blocks of the modern day Chinese concrete jungle. It sure is not my preferred way to live but when land is scarce people are forced to develop upwards.
Very rarely do I get to celebrate my birthday in China with all my relatives. To mark the special occasion my grandparents offered to invite everyone to dinner at an upscale restaurant nearby. Grandparents are well to do by Chinese standard with consistent pension payments from the government but this is the first time I’ve ever seen them making such big gesture for a birthday. To make it a truly Chinese experience, it is not only a great honor to receive such treatment but it is also a bit awkward. I don’t want to make my other cousins feel like they are left out and I also don’t want to people to make this a habit for future birthdays. I insisted to pay for dinner myself but of course, no luck. Fortunately for me I got to order all the dishes tonight: 12 dishes for 13 people. What’s impressive here is not the extremely hot food but to be able to eat it all with boiling hot tea! Great for the sinus, not so much for your mouth! I learnt very quickly from my first trip back that there is no ice water in China no matter how good of a restaurant you go to. Chinese people drink hot water, period. Even most soft drinks are served at room temperature, yuck. Bring your own ice cubes because you won’t find any here. The food was pleasant but to have a meal with so many relatives together far outweighs everything else.
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