Dinner at the Pei's

This one will be long, so go to the bathroom, get a beverage and get settled in before starting ;-)

Saturday, January 28th was the eve of the Chinese New Year. A very important evening in the week long celebration of the “Spring Festival.” We had previously received an invitation to go to the home of Pei Ying and her family to celebrate the Chinese New Year in the traditional family way. Pei Ying, the “justa maybe” girl who helped us with our visa process as a fill in translator, works in the Islanders office downstairs from where we live. Apparently, invitations to the home of a Chinese person is VERY rare, especially during the Holiday, which is very family based, so we were extremely honored.

So, she met us at 12:00 noon and we headed out to Center Street first. Center street is the walking street in downtown Harbin with all the shopping that ends at the Songhua river and a park. We had offered to take her out to lunch for her hospitality and all her help in getting our visas finalized. She was insistent on pizza.

After we arrived at center street, we headed down the street towards the river, admiring the snow sculptures that lined the street, like the hockey scene below.


Next, we headed to the big park at the end of the street by the river. Yes, this the same river that carried the thousands of gallons of benzene pollution safely through Harbin downstream into Russia after the large chemical plant explosion. Anyway, as you can see from the pictures below, the river is frozen over, there is ice skating and snowmobiling and other activities. There is even a huge ice sculpture (looks like the castle) that is actually a long ice slide down the bank to the river bed.



After taking in that scene, it was off to Pei Ying’s pizza place, which turned out to be a PIZZA HUT!. We had a nice meal of pizza and next was shopping. We went into Walmart which, other than the Carrefour, was the only place really open. In fact, the city was a ghost town, much like you would expect if you were to go anywhere in the U.S. on Christmas day. It was very interesting, as the only other times I had been downtown, there was a mass of humanity everywhere. It was very peaceful that day. We purchased some gifts to bring for the Pei family as a “thank you” in Walmart.

As it began to get later in the afternoon/evening, the firecrackers began. Men, women, children on the street lighting firecrackers and fireworks of all varying sizes with little regard to any safety. It was not unusual to see them lit off right next to someone unsuspecting on the street walking by who would jump a little at the sound and keep walking as if nothing unusual was happening. I even sa a man on the 7th floor of an apartment building holding a whole string of firecrackers out his window on a stick while they were going off, with pieces landing on people walking below.

Next, we got in the taxi and headed to the Pei’s! They live in what appears from the outside to be a rather rundown part of town. But, their home is very nice and very large by Chinese standards. Pei Ying is 26 years old and still lives at home. She lives with her Father, Mother and younger sister, who is 16. Her cousin also came over to help cook the lamb as apparently he is a very good cook. The home is two levels. You walk in off the street into a foyer/basement/garage area. The bathroom is in the back on this level also.


There are desks and an office type setting in here along with a couple old vintage motorcycles (see Tim on one below).


From there, you take off your shoes and put on the sandals and head upstairs to the living area. The dining/living area is first with a TV/Stereo table and mattress on the floor for sitting on. Off to the left is a kitchen area. Has a stove and a sink, not much table space and quite small the size of an average US bathroom. You go through the living room into the parents bedroom and through and around to the left to the kids shared, very small bedroom, which is really like a hallway. The whole thing is very open and even where there are walls, they are glass so you can see through. We were given the traditional red socks as a gift from Pei Ying, that we were told to wear for this new years eve. Pei Ying also told us that their home is not normal, as most are much smaller for a family of 4 in Harbin. Her father had worked hard and done well to get this home. Her father was an announcer in a school for a long time and now owns his own building supply business it seems.

We started with tea sitting around the table playing cards with Pei Ying and her sister. Her sister is quite smart and learning English so she was excited to talk to us. Actually, she also turned out to be a great Chinese teacher for Tim and I as she would speak slowly and help us learn the Chinese words and phrases. During this, Mom and her cousin were making dinner.

Once dinner was ready and on the table, first we had to head downstairs to light off firecrackers and fireworks. This tradition is to scare away the past year's animal and usher in the New Year, and must be done before eating the “Big Spring Day Meal.” Again it was a dangerous proposition as Tim helped Mr Pei light off a huge string of Firecrackers that were layed out away from the door way and rolled down the stairs to the street (see below). Her sister, was lighting off very high end bottle rockets out of the snow bank.


Dinner was Lamb, Beef and assorted vegetable dishes. It was all quite good. We finished the meal with homemade dumplings which are a traditional ending to this special meal. Throughout the meal Mr Pei drank MANY toasts with us. Luckily, we had convinced him to drink the baijio (beer) instead of the pijio (Chinese devil wine). But, every toast had to be a ganbei (drink the whole thing). Our glasses were only about about 5 or 6 oz in size, but still we had a lot to drink in a short time. Mr Pei was definitely drunk, and we were not far behind. We were told to consider their home our “Chinese home” and this our “Chinese Family.” They were so nice and very welcoming, like most all of the people we have met here. We found out that we were the first "foreigners" to ever come to their home, a VERY big deal as I have said. Below you can see the “Family Photo” (Pei Ying is the one standing).


After Dinner, we again had tea, which was supposed to help us with the drinking we had done. We stayed for a little while longer and chatted with the family. We found out that for the remainder of the Holiday week the tradition is for people to travel around to visit with their extended family, as this evening is usually just immediate family.

Later, they called us a taxi and sent us on our way. The entire family came down to see us off and invited us back some time after the Holiday. We got back to the training center around 10:00 p.m. and the city of Harbin was already lit up with fireworks covering the entire skyline. It was an amazing site out my window, past the lit up ferris wheel. The fireworks were as intense as a fourth of July finale, and constant until at least 2:00 a.m. Now, a few days later, I can still see and hear some being shot off at all times of the day and night. Here are a few photos I took that night.


It was another amazing Chinese experience… And so begins the "Year of the Fire Dog"