Helen and Lily,
I am surprised that I can receive emails with this email address in Guilin. Aren’t the servers in the US and HK respectively, and how come one can send and receive emails in a third country? Beats me!
As long as the passage is available, I’ll take advantage of it and write to you. I’m still not sure if this email can be sent out successfully when it’s done. We’ll see.
Guilin is a favourite tourist spot for Westerners, and for tourists from other parts of the world, for that matter, for its strangely shaped hills and mountains along a scenic river. It doesn’t have much other commerce or industries. So the air is relatively fresh, which is good.
One thing that goes against it as a nice tourist city is its weather. This year, it seems it has been raining 80% of the time. I don’t know how the retailers make their livelihood under this kind of weather. And it’s very cold in the winter time. It doesn’t snow, and temperature hardly goes below 0 degree, but man, is it cold!
It’s the wet cold + the wind chill factor that makes it almost unbearable. Who would want to go on board of a boat and ride along the river in freezing cold to look at—not to enjoy because one can’t possibly enjoy anything under the biting wind—the strange hills along the shores? I’ve lived in a rainy city like Seattle before, and I thought it was bad. Guilin is much worse, in this sense.
In other senses, Seattle is one of the best cities to live in. I guess, so is Guilin. The people here seem to enjoy their city...
Last evening, Rong’s sister invited us to dinner. Their cousins have all come from their village town to Guilin to work, so we had two full tables of heavy drinkers and smokers. I didn’t join their smoking circus, but as usual, happily be a part of their drinking gang. We had 53-degree Moutai yesterday. I emptied almost 2/3 of a sizeable cup. Didn’t feel anything afterwards, but it was a torture to the throat with every sip. Tonight, we’re inviting the group back for dinner in another restaurant. I don’t plan to drink tonight. It’s not enjoyable at all for me.
OK. See if this email can be sent out.
Love you, Dad
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