Happy Memorial Day !

    In China,The Memorial Day is known as Tomb-sweeping Day. Cleaning the tomb and paying respect to the dead person with offerings are the two important parts of remembering the past relatives. Weeds around the tomb are cleared away and fresh soil is added to show care of the dead. The dead person's favourite food and wine are taken to sacrifice to them, along with paper resembling money. This is all burned in the hope that the deceased are not lacking food and money. Kowtow before the tablets set up for the dead are made.Today, with cremation taking over from burying, the custom has been extremely simplified in cities. Only flowers are presented to the dead relatives and revolutionary martyrs.     Unlike spending Memorial day in China, I drove to Vancouver and spent my Memorial time to tour Capilano Suspension Bridge (and some parks). This bridge was built in 1889; the 450 ft Long, 230 ft high bridge, originally constructed of hemp rope and cedar planks attached to Douglas-firs, is today made with pre-stressed wire cable attached to 118 ton anchors. I had a great time for visiting it. If you have not been here, I recommend you to visit it. I had lots of fun and took a lot of pictures.

A Saturday's Memory

I did not get many chances going out to enjoy the beautiful scenarios in Seattle because of the hectic life. One day last year, I walked in the golden garden beach. A huge dog with a woman walked near by me; when the "friendly" dog tried to approach to me, I was so scared and shouting for help; I did not get any sympathy from anyone around me (maybe they felt I over reacted). After that, I could not have a mood to enjoy the beautiful view; about 11:30am, I had lunch in Ray's. Somehow, I just could not forget that bad memory. This morning, I accidentally found that day's pictures in my camera. So I made a sideshow and post here as an e-memory (too bad, we did not take picture of that crazy dog).

When I told this story to my parents, I learned that if a dog tries to be "friendly" to you, you do not need to be panic; all you need to do is to standing there and do not move then the dog will stop acting. Also I think the more important is that the dog's master should keep her or his dog behaved in public places.

Weather ---Dalian vs. Seattle

Dalian In May

Seattle In May

Both Dalian and Seattle are port cities and they are beautiful, but the weather between the two cities is very different. Dalian has four distinct seasons with no extreme cold or hot. It rains in summer in Dalian. It rains in fall, winter, and spring in Seattle. The most beautiful season in Seattle is summer. We should stay here for vacation then.

A Gift From Mother's Day

Medal

On this mother's day, I received some flowers and a red envelop from my honey, a set of make up from my little girl Sam, a brand name wallet from my big girl Wenyi...and I was taken  to Brunch at Saltys' restaurant in West Seattle. The gifts were beautiful and the food was delicious, but what really made me a happiest mother in the mother's day was a medal received from my daughter Wenyi. She won it on May 8th and sent it to me from Georgia as mother's day gift. I am very proud of her and happy for her.
See the picture, someone might be familiar with this kind of medals. Can you guess where this medal came from (what is the organization)? or what is this medal for? (Ask me? Of ourse I know the answer. You guess first)

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all our mothers!

Since I cannot spend time with my mom, I ordered flowers online and they will be delivered to my mom's house on Sunday morning in China. My mom is an ordinary, but great mother. She was born in 1934, into a big landlord family. Her rich family did not bring her a good life. Her grandpa had four concubines and eleven sons; turned out, my mother's father had ten brothers. The rich family was broken up soon after my mom was born. During the Chinese Land Reform, my grandpa (my mother's father) was killed by the communist party; of course his ten brothers were killed too. Some male relatives ran away somewhere (they were never found later). The communists tried to kill all males in my mom's big family. This kind of killing was called "Extermination". Fortunately my grandma and her two daughters (includes my mother) were female. Their properties were taken by the communists. My mom lived in a terrifying environment. Later, she married my father who was born from a very poor family (he became a communist party member when he was very young). I have three sisters and one little brother. My mom and grandma took good care of us and supported us going to college. My mom believed that high education could give her children a quality life. We can never repay enough to our mom. She is old now. My sisters and little brother are taking good care of her. I am living too far from my mom, but I have never forgotten that without my mom's kindness and sacrifice, I won't have today's happy life. I appreciate her forever from bottom of my heart.

Mothers always protect their children and they are our first teachers..... They support us, sacrifice for us....We can never thank them enough for what they have done for us. On Mother's day, I want to say Happy Mother's Day to all of the mothers and wish them long life.

Happy Mother's Day

My First College School--LNU

Liao Ning Normal University is the former Luda Teachers School founded in August 1951, one of the first teachers colleges in new China. It was renamed Dalian Teachers School in 1953 when seven teachers colleges in the Northeast merged into three. It developed into Dalian Teachers College in July 1958 and Liaoning Teachers College in 1960. In December 1983, it was renamed Liaoning Normal University. In 59 years, over 100,000 students (I am one of them :-) have graduated from LNU; they have contributed significantly to the reform and development of basic education in Liaoning Province.........It is located in Dalian, a beautiful coastal city. This school has two huge courtyards. They are called south courtyard and north courtyard. The library is located in north courtyard. My dorm was located in south courtyard. There were eight roommates in my dorm. We often went out for movies. Since our building door would be locked at nine o'clock back then (I do not know now if the rule is still the same), we had to make an excuse to the old dorm man that we were going to the library. Every time, he was reluctant to open the door for us. Sometimes we had to help each other to sneak in the building by sacrifyingone person. That roommate could not go to the movie with us and would open the building door from inside if we were late. I have lots of good memories from this school. I visit it whenever I go back to my hometown. It has an international exchange students program. You can visit this school by clicking http://english.lnnu.edu.cn/hzjl.htm

Study Abroad

North Courtyard

Supermoon

In May 5th, 2012, the biggest and brightest full moon of the year was lighting up the sky as our celestial neighbour passes closer to Earth than usual. It was said that tides are likely to be higher as a result of the supermoon but fears of the spike in crime or an increase in crazy behaviour have been dismissed as pure folklore. I visited Coit Tower in this picture a few years ago, and put some lucky coins in it. When I saw it's picture in website, I was very excited. I could not help to borrow it and put it in our own site.

Supermoon
Credit: Don Heller

rrow

Dalian Labor Park

This labor park is about a five minutes walk from my house. I used to walk there in
summer evenings.


                           

Do You Like Seafood ?--Come to Dalian!

Dalian is a well-know seafood city. You can see live lobsters, sea cucumbers, squids, fish, oysters, sea urchins, claims, king crabs in restaurants....Sometimes if you are lucky, you can see them in Tiger Beach port while the fishing boats are reaching land. What would you like to order? Watch this video; your menu is here.

Dalian Food Slideshow: Nietsreuef’s trip to Dalian, Liaoning, China was created by TripAdvisor. See another Dalian slideshow. Take your travel photos and make a slideshow for free.

Dalian--The City Where I Lived

Dalian has about a hundred years history, and it is one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It has four clear seasons.  It is a big city with several districts containing sightseeing, restaurants, nightlife. Dalian is the second largest city in Liaoning Province, North East China and the largest port in northern China, as well as a major destination point for Chinese tourists. Located at the southern tip of the Liaoning Peninsula, the main part of the city is on its own sub-peninsula, with the port to the north of the town centre and natural coastline dotted with beaches to the east and south.  Have you ever been to Dalian? Do you like seafood? Dalian is a seafood city; do you like sports? Dalian is a soccer city. Do you……Well; I have never heard anyone who disliked Dalian if she or he knew about this city. Do I regret that I left this beautiful city? Let me answer this way, I miss this hometown so much.....

Slideshow of Dalian: TravelPod’s trip to Dalian, Liaoning, China was created by TripAdvisor. See another Dalian slideshow. Create your own stunning slideshow with our free photo slideshow maker.