I decided to bring my Canon Rebel XTi because this was the first camera I had purchased when I got into photography. What a great way to document my first time going to Fuzhou as an adult ^_^

I got a chance to visit my parents hometown Fuzhou, China. A lot has changed and it was also a different experience the second time around, since the last time I’ve been there was 20 years ago.

The main reason of my trip was to visit my grandmother in the hospital. Majority of my time was spent at my grandparents home and the hospital. I had about 2 days to explore Fuzhou, but with 2-3 hours each of those days, it wasn’t enough =( I really wish I got a chance to bring my camera out more. My family members were telling me not to bring it since Fuzhou was a dangerous city =T I usually bring my camera on every trip I attend and I didn’t think it was that dangerous of a city, but I had no choice.

The whole trip itself was quite interesting. I am grateful to have spent some time with my grandmother and got a chance to see where my parents came from.

During my flight home, I had a nightmare of a trip due to the blizzard in New York’s Airport (JFK Airport). What was suppose to be a 1 day trip back to the states, turned out to be a 5 day nightmare. I don’t think I will be traveling in the winter anytime soon >_<

I spent most of my time here at my grandparents place:





It felt like never ending stairs at this house. I finally reached to the top, where I encountered more stairs >_< However, it lead to a beautiful scenery, so it was worth it!




In Fuzhou, majority of the houses had washer machines. However, they did not dryers, so a lot of people hung their clothes to dry:


My grandmother LOVES to plant/garden. Here are a couple of her interesting plants:





This is how hot water is produced. At times, we would run out of hot water in the kitchen. It really sucked when I was doing dishes and I ran out of hot water. I am so thankful to be living in the United States.


Poor doggie never gets to walk outside. My brother and I decided to take it for occasional walks every other day. We even gave it a bath ^_^ It wouldn’t let us leave it’s side. She is such a cute dog!!! ♥




We got a chance to visit West Lake (Xihu) Park, Fuzhou:










We also got to visit Nanhou Street:



After siteseeing, we were really hungry >_< I got a chance to try out Fuzhou Fish Soup, which is a famous around the area:


Fuzhou, China has a lot of seafood street markets:



We saw a lot of interesting seafood:





After shopping at the seafood market, we had a hot pot!


I also got a chance to visit my uncle’s place around downtown Fuzhou. The condo, along with the view is spectacular:



My grandparents live in the suburban area, where there is absolutely NOTHING to do there. When there is construction going on, the roads in Fuzhou are horrible~! There’s just too many people in China to have them shut down the road to do construction, so you’re forced to drive on the rocky, muddy, dirty roads. It was quite an adventure riding on it because usually there’s traffic EVERYDAY, which can range anywhere from 1-3 hours to get into the city. It was such a pain driving on this road. So many cars would get stuck or rocks/potholes would damage their cars, which would cause backups. (Image taken with cell phone camera)


All over Fuzhou, people hang their clothes to dry:


During the 14 days I was in Fuzhou, this is where I spent majority of my time. My grandmother had a stroke and I hope she will recover soon. She was doing a lot better while me and my brother was there. I hope she is still doing well~! The people on the right hand side is my grandmother’s caretakers family. The kid on the far right was playing rock, paper, scissor with my grandmother ^_^ He was an awesome kid!


A mall in downtown Fuzhou (Image taken with cell phone camera)


My uncle wanted to try out the interesting massagers they had at the mall =P (Image taken with cell phone camera)


There was a McDonald’s in Fuzhou! It felt great to be able to eat junk food! They even had fried chicken there =D The fried chicken was pretty tasty ^_^ Majority of the time I was in Fuzhou, we mainly had hot pots or soup because I was afraid to eat things in China. I figure anything soup related would kill germs. I also got a chance to try out Dico’s, which is like a KFC. It was quite tasty and the meal came with an egg, seaweed soup~! (Images taken with cell phone camera)



They have a Walmart Supercenter in Fuzhou! OMG, that place was HUGE! It has 2 levels of EVERYTHING you can imagine ^_^ (Image taken with cell phone camera)


There was also a Sam’s Club there! ^_^ (Image taken with cell phone camera)


Before we left Fuzhou, I got a chance to visit Drum Mountain [Gu Shan] (Images taken with cell phone camera)




We were held in a holding cell at Vancouver Airport.

This only shows some of the passengers on the plane that I helped out. Majority of them came from Fuzhou, China and did not speak English. I helped out each and every one of them (22+ people) translating for them, filling out paperworks for them.

After we landed at JFK Airport (Around 2AM), only one gate was open and all the international planes had to wait until each one of those planes finished unloading. We spent a total of 11 hours on the TARMAC >_< The airline ran out of FOOD, SNACKS, and DRINKS =X It was insane! Everyone was clueless to what was going on and no one could provide us any answers. After the 11 torturous hours on the plane, we were let out at the wrong Terminal/Gate. There was no representatives for our airline (Cathay Pacific), so no one knew what to do.

Customs security mentioned that there were not enough people to unload the luggage's and that we could just pass through and just go home w/o our luggage's and someone will mail it directly to your house. I was a little hesitant b/c I had a connecting flight back to Raegan and there was no way I would leave my luggage's at JFK Airport, so I decided to wait. The 22+ Fuzhounese people also decided to wait b/c they resided in NYC, so it didn't matter for them. Later I was informed by a customs agent that our luggages will not load until 4 hours later O_O I decided to wait b/c I had already missed my flight, so what else do I have to lose? I waited for 30 minutes for someone to inform us that our luggage's are at the wrong Terminal >_< The plane landed at Terminal 8, which was the wrong terminal for our airline to unload us. Our luggage's were at Terminal 7 and the only way to get there was by AirTrain, which was SHUT DOWN =T The other option was to catch a bus/shuttle. Each and every time a bus/shuttle pass by it was completely PACKED like sardines! It didn't help that it only came every 30 minutes >_< A random guy came around asking if anyone needed a ride to Terminal 7 for $10.00 a person. Some of the people got desperate and decided to pay that guy. Taxi's REFUSED to go to Terminal 7, so we waited 2 hours for a bus and when we finally found one, we tried our best to squeeze in, and it took us nearly 1 and 1/2 hours to get to Terminal 7! What should only take 10 minutes on the AirTrain took us 1 and 1/2 hours >_<

After reaching Terminal 7, we were informed that our luggage's were NOT going to be unloaded off the plane. At this point I was FURIOUS! But being angry will not resolve anything. I felt so bad for the Fuzhounese people (and some of them had kids) that could not speak English, so they all asked for my help and I decided to just miss my flight and help them out. I helped out all 22+ passengers fill out their form to have their luggages ship to their house. It was a total mess at JFK Airport! I am really disappointed at the way they handled things =T Along with our airline! I am NEVER traveling in the winter again! >_< (Image taken with cell phone camera)


The nightmare Airport! Lines for AA wrapped all the way to the other side of the building! A lot of people, including me and my brother had to sleep on the floor b/c we had already missed our flight and had to re-book and be put on standby, which is the worst feeling EVER b/c so many people are trying to get back home, so if the plane is packed, then we just have to keep waiting for the next one =T The earliest one was next day =T I could not sleep b/c the floors were like hard marble and I didn’t have any of my luggages to soften the floor =T All I could do was try to stay awake until we were able to go through the security checkpoint [which did not open until 3:30AM] (Image taken with cell phone camera)

The rest of LA was amazingly beautiful~!

I was getting tired of my vibrant style, so I wanted to try something different. Lately, I’ve been noticing that people like a variety of styles. I’ve been trying to expand my style and learn vintage style or muted colors. It’s going to be a huge change for me because I’m so use to the vibrant style. Hope you’ll enjoy our Paris collages =)

Hotel Grand Francais
223 Boulevard Voltaire | 11th Arr.
75011 Paris, France

This was the hotel we stayed at for 2 weeks, while we were in Paris. It was VERY VERY small, but we figured most of our time will be spent touring around Paris, so it was cozy enough for the both of us. The hotel was well worth our money.

You can find my whole review on TripAdvisor