New Years Day

Look at all the housing

Well, New Years Day was also busy with plans that started with lunch at Karen's Aunt and Uncle's home.  In Fuzhou, really no one has a single family home, but a condo or apartment.  Their condo was quite large, 3 stories total with a couple of balconies.  Their building was one among dozens and dozens in that neighborhood.  At the ground level of many of the buildings was a large grocery store.

New Years soup - quail eggs, mushrooms, chicken

Lunch was amazing and totally cooked from scratch in their small kitchen.  Again, it included so many dishes- Karen told us later that you must serve at least 10 dishes on holidays or when you have guests.  There was a special New Years Day soup for good luck and longevity, and wonderful fried pot stickers - which were my favorite.  Richard helped with the cooking and made some terrific fried shrimp as a treat for Michael - thankfully he shared!  This Uncle was someone who loved to toast and share a drink.  Yes, even at noon he was getting out the 150 proof rice wine.  I only drank it for medicinal purposes- to see if it would help my cold!

Cooking dinner - so many different dishes, one small kitchen.

Temple on the river with boat transportation

After lunch it was off to the special Temple that Karen's Mom had promised to take me.  So, two cars of us took off to this ancient and tiny town about 20 minutes away.  The roads were dirt and very rough, but we ended up at the river to find the Temple setting about 100 yards out in the water.  The Temple was built there about 1,000 years ago to ward off flooding.  It is also a temple where you can have a fortune read.  This was something I had talked with Karen's Mom about many months ago, and she said this Temple was famous for its readings and accuracy.  In fact, she said you must be prepared for the answer, even if it isn't what you want to hear - but it is always accurate.

Really beautiful!

To get to the Temple you got in a little boat and the boatman pulled the boat over via a rope.  The Temple was beautiful and is both Taoist and Budhist.  Only after you pay your respect by burning incense at 5 different places can you have your fortune read.  In the Temple area, you kneel and pick up a wooden canister that is filled with thin bamboo reeds with an inscription on them.  You shake the canister until one of reeds falls on the floor - I don't know how that happens, but it does!

Then, to know if that is the right reed for you, you must throw two crescent shaped wooden pieces on the floor - one side of them is painted red, and the other side is not.  If you get one of them up and one of them down, then this is the right reed for you!  At that point you take your reed to a person who provides a little sheet of paper about it, and then you take that to the reader.  This was a very elderly gentleman, and he jumped right into the information.  Karen and her father helped to translate.

Inside the temple - Readers are to the right.

All I will say is that it was a wonderful reading, and on their scale it was almost as good as you can get!  It was even interesting that the first thing he said to me - without my even speaking - was that I was feeling sick.  He said that would pass and I was sure glad to hear that!  As I am writing this, it is by far the nicest day we have had and I've been in the room all day tending to this terrible cold.  Anyway, the whole Temple on the River was amazing, and beautiful and loud!  
There were people setting off very large fireworks there, like it was an offering of some sort, but so loud you had to cover your ears!  Now back to the hotel for a quick rest and then out to dinner.

For dinner we were meeting up with Karen's Mom's family.  I think to give us a little break from traditional Chinese food, we ended up at Pizza Hut!  It was a fun time, with a bit of a spin on your usual toppings.  Karen was enjoying some octopus and wasabi slices - I stuck to cheese!  It was the first time since we had been here that I had any cola.  They do not serve diet of any kind as they don't believe in the artificial sweeteners.  After dinner and while walking back to the car, we stopped into a full-service grocery store.  That was very interesting, especially the protein area.  Parts of critters were everywhere, but everything is fresh.  Frozen meat or fish of any kind is not even an option.  Again, while we were shopping the fireworks started going off.  We were in the financial district, and the Chinese lanterns lined the street.  It looked so pretty!  We said our goodbyes to Karen's Mom's family, as we would not see them again.  They are all such lovely, warm people who did everything in their power to make us feel welcomed on this trip.  Their hospitality is amazing!

Deb

I love these rooftop dragons!