Chong Qing, China 2002 - Part 14 - Trip to Kong Summer Palace

This channel is dedicated to the trip to my hometown Chongqing, China in 2002. I had gone back many times before so I was fully aware of the sharp contrast between the country I departed and the country I just landed on. About 18 hours later, all of sudden I was dropped at another planet, a planet earth full of people who all look like me. I talked their languages fluently without the slightest accent. Alas, I was amongst my people. I was a minority no more! It all came back to me effortlessly in an instant. I was immersed with the familiar faces in the familiar environment for rest of the journey. I was me again, not as Ping Sun as named in America but returning to the old Sun Ping-er as called in Chongqing dialect. I was again the middle daughter in the original family that started it all. Like a fish released back to a river, I felt alive with all my senses shut and open to the same steam I came from. I was in the United States of China! OK. Stop here. It all changed on my Year 2002 trip. I was no longer in the zone. It was the first time I looked at my country in the eyes of a foreigner because I was traveling with my American husband, then boyfriend. At times I tried to show off the things I grew up with but thought nothing of such as the neat cultural sites and customs, and then at other times I was embarrassed at things I wished I could drag him away from seeing such as filthy streets, polluted rivers and my folks ghetto apartment. We bared them all in these videos for your eyes only. Just an update, a lot have changed since then. On the city side, Chongqing is getting cleaner and more metropolitan; On the home front, both my sisters and my parents have moved into their new condos, nice enough that my husband did not have to stay in a hotel on his subsequential visit. As for me, I speak better English now. At least I would like to think so anyway. Recorded along with the images were a lot of small talks, unintended for the viewers at large. Many of my Chinese comrades might find some of the comments from my husband offensive. You are not alone. I feel your anger. You heard the saying when you marry someone, you marry his family. I assure you it goes much farther when you marry a Chinese, you marry his country! So I have revenged on him for you by making him marrying me a 100% made in China Chinese, if it is of any consolation to you.

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Travel & Events

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• chong qing