~ Jing-Mei Woo~

Today is the day that I left the Hong Kong Border arriving to Shenzhen, China. As I entered China, I realized that I've never known what it means to be Chinese. I only knew a few phrases in Chinese, even though I am 36 years old. Now, I am on a train, thinking of my dead mother, and her dream to coming home. First, my father, Canning Woo and I are going to Guangzhou. We will visit his aunt, who my father hasn't seen for more than 60 years. As I look at my father, I see tears in his eyes looking out the window of the train. This also makes me tear too, even though I don't have any memories of being here.

My guidebook tells me that we will arrive in three hours, and it also shows me that the spelling of the places have changed. Chungking has become Chongqing, Kweilin is now Guilin, but shanghai is still the same. After we visit Guangzhou, we will take a two housr trip to Chanhai, to see my half sisters for the first time. They are twins, who were from my mothers first husband, and she was forcd to abandon them on a road during an escape fromKweilin to Chungking. I thought about when Auntie Lindo received a letter from my half sisters, and thought about when she didn't tell them that my mother was dead. I saw a scenario where I've arrived to Shanghai to see them, but they ran away.

I look out the window of the train, and I see old factories, and tracks. We're here. We met our family, and ended up at a hotel that looked expensive. I thought it was the wrong hotel, but it ended up being the right one, but it was more luxurious than I have imagined. Time passes by quickly, and I get nervous that the time to meet my sisters is coming close and closer. The time is finally over, and now I am at the airport waiting for what will come next.