Chinese New Year 2008

Guangzhou (which is 7,434.4 km² and is the capital of the province Guǎngdōng) is described to me as the size of 6 Hong Kongs (land size). A Cantonese student in Hong Kong has invited my sister and I to stay with her family for the week of Chinese New Year.
I had seen reports of four inch thick, clear ice on the roads and mass transit trains frozen in place without power. People are mobbing buses. People have died. One was crushed to death in a human stampede. For days people are going hungry and sleeping where they stood on trains. Tanks, military tanks, have been deployed to attack the ice.
Her mother informed us that everything was O.K. and so we decided to go.
I guess that this city must be huge because when I arrived it was 55F and there was no sign of disaster at all. In fact, it was the largest celebration that I have ever seen in my life. It was also the most well behaved crowd that I have ever seen in my life. At one point there were tens (maybe hundreds) of thousands of people shoulder to shoulder, front to back in a seamless crowd that was slowly and constantly changing its members and their positions. The crowd spanned a hundred feet across each road and all around a lattice of city blocks.
The family that I stayed with could not have been more welcoming. I felt like I was a visiting cousin. They took us out to climb a hill for a great view of the city and forests, a circus, festivals down town, we all had a fantastic time. ..and when it came to mealtime, I had to learn how to say in Cantonese "Full! Full!" as self defense.I have found a beautiful old bonsai tree to give as a gift to their beautiful old great grandmother (92y.o.) for having such a great family to treat me like they did. I will never forget them.
This is the year of the Rat.