October 19, 2015
Depart SFO for Beijing. Grandma passed away last week (October 14, 2015) and we’ll be attending her memorial service in Beijing.

Honoring Grandpa & Grandma
Visiting my mom, uncle and grandma for the first time since I was little. More…

My grandma’s name is Kai Qiong Zheng. She is my mother’s mother. She has short brown hair and always wears a brown suit. She does not know how to speak English. She is a Chinese doctor and lives in China with my uncle. He knows how to speak English.

Kai Qiong Zheng was born on August 5, 1940 on the continent of Asia. She was born in China in Chong Qing Bei Pei, Xiao Jai Ba village. She now lives in Beijing on the sixth floor of an apartment building. When she goes out shopping, she goes to different vendors to buy food and things that look special to her – copper fans and cups.

She has a rabbit named Snowball and fish in her apartment. Her husband died about one year ago. He was a very good painter of temples, mountains, villages and waterfalls — very beautiful — and there is a book about his artwork. She misses him a lot. I met him in the hospital where he got sick from smoking.

When my Grandma was in second grade, she wore normal pants and shirts made by her parents. From 8:00 am until noon, she studied math and art. Her teacher was a pretty woman with short hair. They studied and played. Lunch was rice and fried vegetables.

Kai Qiong Zheng’s jobs at home were to help her parents cook meals and climb the mountain to collect firewood. The girls couldn’t lift the big buckets of water so they had string hanging down the sides of bundled firewood. She would feed her little pig. She played Chinese chess. They did not have television or movies. They had chores instead.

In the Chinese New Year, my Grandma would go to her great-grandma’s house and eat rice ball soup which is a really good rice ball dough with sesame jam inside that they wrap up inside. Sometimes they have seeds inside.
She would also watch dragon dancing. They would carry a dragon around the streets and dance with their poles.
I visited grandpa and grandma with Mommy and Baba again in 2003. We stayed in Beijing at Grandpa’s house for a few days then went to Yellow Mountain (Huang Shan) and Shanghai then finally home. Mommy stayed in Beijing to meet some of her old friends.
Beijing
January 27, 2003


Shanghai


Yellow Mountain
It was really cold up on Yellow Mountain but it was really beautiful. Baba tooks some very nice photos.

We found a small village at the bottom of Yellow Mountain and stopped for lunch. The food was simple but it was very good!
This was my first trip to China and at last I get to meet my grandpa and grandma for the very first time! What an adventure! First we went to Beijing then to the Great Wall, Chengdu and finally, Emei Mountain.
Beijing

I’m so proud of my grandpa…he’s a very famous Chinese painter. His name is Zhang Zhengheng.

The Great Wall

Chengdu


Emei Shan

