Back to Yingtan, Part 2: Connecting with Lia’s Past

[Continued from Part 1] On our first full day in Yingtan, we drove to Mama Zhu’s house, located in one of the little villages on the outskirts of the city. The village is surrounded by rice paddies, and we had to park on the main road and walk the narrow alleyways to Mama Zhu’s house. […]

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Back to Yingtan, Part 1: The Challenges of Travelling to China

We had an amazing trip to China a few weeks ago. One of our big goals for spending time in Asia this year was to travel to China at least once. As our time here progressed, however, we kind of lost sight of that goal. The kids have been doing very well in school, and […]

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Now Lia Is Six

We’re pretty worn out from all the festivities, but here are the highlights from Lia’s sixth birthday…

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Quotidian: The Mahjong Table

When we checked in to our Yingtan hotel, we were given an “upgrade” to a suite. I say “upgrade” because while it did have two beds on separate levels which was great for parental privacy, it meant that we were located in the smoky gambling wing of the hotel right across from the “massage” parlour […]

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Yingtan in the Year of the Dragon

On Friday we are going to China. That sentence is deceptively simple, and belies all of the conversations, decisions, emails, and errands that went into making it happen. Back in the winter of 2010, when we were deciding where to spend our first year of Operation Hejira, we toyed with doing an extended period in […]

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