It’s been two years since I’ve been in Nanjing, Jiangsu. I came here to study Medicine on a scholarship at Nanjing Medical University in 2017. I’ve been to various places in PRC (well as many as I could within the holidays I had) just because I like exploring different areas and I have never felt safer anywhere else than in China and falling in love with something and somewhere new again.

One of my most memorable experiences was during early spring of 2019 at my friend Pu Yang’s ancestral house in Gaochun County. Gaochun is a bit far from downtown Nanjing and I’d noticed that people are also a bit more reserved and conservative when compared to the ones living in the city and surprisingly more tolerant towards foreign faces. Of all the four days that I lived there, there wasn’t even one person that took a photograph of me without my permission and I was pleasantly intrigued. I was a guest at the Yang House for the Chinese New Year’s Eve and I’ve always been a bit shy to open up and talk to random people who’d stare at me because I look different from them, but each and every person in the Yang House welcomed me with open arms.

The first day of the New Year, a street dog had delivered two beautiful puppies and it’s said that all babies age one year more on the Chinese New Year’s Eve, so everyone made fun that these two puppies born on the New Year’s Eve are turning a year old right when they’re born! I would start my day by eating茶叶蛋and松花蛋 and a hell lot of dry fruits and some soy milk and by the end of the day I’d have devoured a lot of other foods, some of my favorites are肉圆子 、咸水鸭、油焖大虾、香肠、红烧黄鳝、清蒸鲈鱼、凉拌黄瓜 and I can’t say I didn’t try these dishes in restaurants after coming back from here but they never tasted as good as home cooked! And obviously the fish tasted fresh because I fished it myself with the help of Pu Yang’s maternal uncle from the pond beside their house and what a refreshing experience it was. They fed me with so much food around the round table, I felt as if my Mom was with me, forcing me to eat more and then smile cunningly when I can’t move properly on my two legs because I’m too full. The “拜年” table, as I call it, is a big round wooden dining table found in ancestral homes in China. I eat a lot of food varieties, I’m open to a lot of food options irrespective of meat, fungi, vegetables and seafood; but nothing could have readied me for an array of 29 dishes (yes, I had counted) , decorated beautifully on the table and every dish was hand-cooked by Pu Yang’s grandmother. And imagine going to every relative’s house of hers to have lunch or dinner when I didn’t know a single person in the house! I, born a very shy lady, visited 13 different houses to have拜年food by the end of the third day in Gaochun and I didn’t know their names or what they do. All I knew was saying “你好阿姨，叔叔，爷爷，奶奶” and they’d be elated to welcome me and hug me.

I loved playing the Chinese zither 古筝. I got my first红包 with real money in it, I was used to getting Hongbaos on WeChat , but holding a red packet (红包) for the first time made me a child again. Ayi said children are given red packets on New Year and I’m their own child so I should buy something for myself on that day. I never did buy anything using that 100 yuans red packet. It still rests in my backpack, untouched. I will always keep it with me as a reminder of the precious moment.

With all the young adults and kids in the house, I went to the Old Street of Gaochun called高淳老街, where we ventured into the Museum of Gaochun People’s fight against the Japanese when they invaded China and Jiangsu province that harbored the then capital Nanjing suffered a lot. We all paid our respect and tributes to all those that lost their lives in this battle for freedom and justice and those that managed to survive and bore the battle scars lived to tell the world the true story of what had transpired. It always amazes me how everything old and cultural is so beautifully preserved to this age in Jiangsu. Chinese people pay a lot of attention to their traditions and their rich history and they strive to protect it whether it’s old architecture or buildings or temples.

The highlight of the festival was flying the Kong Ming Lantern and the dragon dances done by the men of the village. Pu Yang’s mother, Xiao Ayi would calmly sit beside me and pass on a spoon and a fork because she knew I couldn’t eat rice using chopsticks. So humbled I was for their gratitude that I continued eating the silkworms served by an Uncle of hers, even though I was disgusted when I got to know later from Pu Yang that I was eating a worm (it was delicious and it didn’t look like a worm or tasted like one, so there was no chance I could have known). I might have said before that I fell in love with my independence, the safety this place offered but at that moment, I felt loved. The countless head pats, blessings and hugs still reverberate in my mind and I’m sure I’ll take these beautiful memories to my grave.