Author Archives: Lisa

About Lisa

Working while living with a nice mood, passion and hope.....

Jinan Is Heating for Tomorrow's Torch Relay Now

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Tomorrow, Torch Relay in Jinan, the capital of Shandong province will be held on. All the city now is heating for that!

Qilu Soft Park is the end of the relay and the handing-over ceremony will be there! My company is also located in this Park.

The last one is the new stadium for the 2009 National City Games. It is still being constructed.

Welcome to China!

Welcome to Jinan!

Please watch ~~~~

 

 

 

Some Further Photos of Panda

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So nice pandas!

However, do you know how were they during the Sichuan Earthquake?

Here are some photos as an addition to Eva.

 

 

 

An incredible Love Story in Modern China

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I got this story by a letter from my foreign friend and I was shocked when I read it. So, I'd like to dedicate it here to share with you all......

It is a story of a man and an old woman who ran off to live and love each other in peace for over half a century.

The 70-year-old Chinese man who hand-carved over 6,000 stairs upto a mountain for his 80-year-old wife has passed away in the cave which had been the couple's home for the last half century.

Over 50 years ago, Liu Guojiang, a 19 year-old boy feel in love with a 29 year-old widowed mother named Xu Chaoqin....

In a twist worthy of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, friends and relatives criticized the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already had children.

At that time, it was unacceptable and immoral for a young man to love an older woman... To avoid the market gossip and the scorn of their communities, the couple decided to elope and then lived in a cave of Jiangjin County in southern ChongQing.

At the beginning, life was harsh as they had nothing, no electricity and even no food. They had to eat grass and roots they found in the mountain, and Liu made a kerosene lamp to light their life.

Xu felt she had tied Liu down and repeatedly asked him: 'Are you regretful?' Liu always replied: 'As long as we are industrious, life will be improved.'

Since the second year of living in the mountain, Liu started to hand-carve the steps and then kept doing it for over 50 years, so that his wife could get down the mountain easily.

Half a century later in 2001, a group of adventures happened to find this elderly couple and these over 6, 000 staires with a great surprise when they were exploring the forest. Liu Mengsheng, one of the couple's senven children said: 'My parents loved each other so much that they lived in seclusion for more than 50 years and never been apart for a single day. He hand-carved more than 6,000 steps over the years for my mother's convenience, though she doesn't go down the mountain that much.'

The couple had lived in peace for over 50 years until that day.... Liu, when he was 72, returned from his daily farm work and collapsed. Xu sat and prayed when her husband passsed away in her arms. So, in love with Xu, it was Liu that no one else who was able to release the grip he had on his wife's hand even at the moment he was passing away....

'You promised me you'll take care of me. You'll always be with me until the day I died. Now you left before me, how am I living without you?'

Xu spent days softly repeating this sentence and touching her husband's black coffin with tears rolling down along her cheeks.

In 2006, their story became one of the top 10 love stories in China, collected by the Chinese Woman Weekly. The local government has decided to preserve the love ladders and the place they lived as a museum, so this love story can live forever.

Love & Responsibility - Memory of Earthquake

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Full month ago near this moment on the day today, the shocking Sichuan Earthquake happened.....

A lot of things I did and many photos I watched as well as so much news I heard during the last month are now all bumping into my heart and let me tear....

Then I understand deeply that the best nature of our great Chinese Nation is love and responsibility!

Since we people love our motherland and nation, we could do donation with money, materials and even blood without any hesitation.  Since many individual volunteers love others, they could run at once to help the victims in disaster area. Since our Premier Wen Jiabao also loves the people, he could manage to get the disaster area at the first time and called out all country for help. Also, there is our Great Army and many root officials who did well and contributed greatly in the rescue...

However, only love is not enough. There is existing the Responsibility by which we Chinese People joined in forces to fight with the earthquake..

I believe that our China is prospective! I believe that the Chinese People is hopeful! With the enlightenment got from this disaster and other lessons, we will build a more blooming China!

Pondering deeply over the Earthquake

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20 days passed after that Sichuan earthquake, but we people are still suffering from that huge disaster and feeling sad with the death and lost... Yes, there is still aftershocks everyday, many local people haven't settled down yet and the children there have to go to school at other places, etc....

However, besides paying close attention to so many issues there after the earthquake, I nowadays more and more keep my mind soaked into the meditation as follows:

1, Many children dies not due to the earthquake itself, but the bad quality of school buildings. I can never forget the photos which showed the died young lives and the helpless parents in front of the rubble piles..... Is that only God who can punish those dark minded constructors?

2, Our nation is really a good one with so many kind people who would like to donate when they are facing this disaster. Our current state government is also doing well on rescue. However, why not all the officials at all the time behaved so efficiently, so cleanly and so caringly before? I don't blame any individual official in any level of government, but I know deeply the key issue for creating bribe and corruption there. That was why I quit the official career with deep disappointment 15 years ago. I don't want to discuss deeply on such topic due to some well known reasons. I simply look forward to some historic transformation after this huge disaster!

3, .......

4, .......

Some one said: "Suffering or disaster is also a wealth, by which you can be stronger and cleverer." I wish our loved best motherland could be going ahead better and better after this disaster!

China is now going to the world.....

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I read here carefully on aw's blog "Being a Chinese, something I want to say" and relevant comments. I also recalled many things I experienced since 1950s in last century. I don't want to talk too much on Tibet issue, since many people have got to know some situation there from whatever points of view. I just want to say my idea as follows:

1, Today's China is no longer a sealed country where we generation could only know news from the official propaganda, and got some misunderstanding onto the other country in the world. It is very good now that Chinese people can know the world by their own efforts and then make the private comparing with China and other country. It is just a proof that there could be some foreigners coming to ifgogo to read and comment. But this opening situation has just lasted 30 years. Both Chinese people and the people in other countries need time to know each other well. So, we should be patient.

2, Other countries from the world now can also get more opportunities to come to China to see a real China. So, they say more and more comments on this or that. But I don't think all the western reporters could have stayed in China for quite a long time or have met quite a more local people and talk with them, so that their news might be here or there some misunderstanding on a real and whole China. Based on this assumed idea, I think that we Chinese also need to be patient. However, we never allow those malicious gossip as well as even some attack with evil intention!!

3, It is always true that there is some gap between the people and its government, no matter how badly the government wants to be on behalf of its people or how badly the people trust its government. Why so? It is due to the different position where their points of view come from. I was a common worker when I was 20 and just after 2 years' living in countryside as a "educated youth". Then in 20 years, I became a middle-level leader in the provincial government. I had gone through from root to quite higher lever of the leadership, but I resigned position and quit the rank and turn to a root company again. Why? I got to know there were many things I could not change and could not even do. I'd better to choose a lower but solid job and contribute my love and energy to my motherland. In the last 15 years, I have done a lot of concrete work and feel happy everyday. So, I quite agree with aw that we should firstly do our current job well and devote to the construction of the New China.

4, Patriotism is a good thing, but need to be understood and showed properly. We Chinese should know that China is one of the largest countries of the world with its great population, but it is still being developed and its economical support doesn't match the role it wants playing. So, China also needs time to boom its economy so that to earn more rights on the world matters. I had a long call with my son who went to Canberra from Sydney to join the torch relay in Australia. He was excited at the site with more than 10000 Chinese people there, holding the National Flag, singing the National Anthem. He said just at that moment he could realize why the oversea Chinese looked so crazy at CCTV on the CNY Evening Party. You could not know such patriotic feelings unless you were out of China! Son also told me there was really some people holding Tibet flags and protesting there, but son and other Chinese just simply ignored them and focused on protecting the torch. Son said: "They were minority only, if we paid no attention to them, how could their protest work? We Chinese should be rational patriots. Reality is reality after all! Any Westerner who goes to see the current real Tibet and compare it with the old one, he can get his right answer!" I agree with my son totally!

Major and Job Occupation

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There was not only one young person who ever asked me for my idea on job hunting and they also troubled with the discordance between majors and occupations. So, I want to say more on this issue after I did a reply to a young girl a few days ago.

This should not have been a problem seemingly, since people would say: "OK, study what you want and then do what you can!" However it occurs very popular in China due to our country's education system. I don't want to say further more on such a visible situation, but just want to give some principles, by which you might get some tips on its solution.

1 , When you select a college to apply for, never think only about some famous universities but your major, whether it is what you really interested in or whether it suits you.

2, You should consider carefully sooner or later about the future work position which should match this major when you complete your study. That means you should know in advance what you would do by this major. If you can't know what jobs you will get by this major or even you can not find a relevant job after you are graduated, how could you get a smooth and successful career by it?

3, You might not have a good choice or you have to take a unhappy major due to your enrollment scores when you are making your mind, then you still have opportunities to make a change after your graduation. You may go on the second major's study and of course you should try to link it to the first one, so that you would not waste the former study. You can regard such further study as a kind of adjustment of your former decision.

Anyway, major is not the most important thing on hunting a good job. You also need to take an optimistic attitude towards life and work. You may work at several industries or quite a few of professions due do your own interest or situation, but the only thing you need to keep on for a good life is to do your best on everything and to balance your pain and your gain no matter what you are. I believe the old saying: "No pain, no gain!"

I hope we ifgogo people can have a discussion on this topic. I also hope Elliott Ng say more from a westerner's eyes.

Memories on CNY's Days

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It is the Lantern Festival for Chinese people today and I hope everyone will enjoy it with the full moon and the magic light!

Memory leads me back to some CNY (Chinese New Year) 's Days I have had in the past....

The first and best recall on this is in 1956, the Monkey's Year. That time was just one more years after our family moved from Nan Jing and settled down in Jinan. For visiting us and also for celebrating that CNY, my grandfather came from hometown with some firecrackers and fireworks as well as a small basket of fried then salted sparrows. I can never forget the delicious taste after I had such kind of sparrows. I was also deeply impressed by playing with the fireworks. It was not to blast when you fired it, but burn with twinkling light and some low noise. It was really puzzling and surprising me, a 5 years girl with her first time knowing and playing with such things. Parents shouted our sisters not to play it at daytime, but we couldn't bear waiting till the night. Then, we went to a narrow alley where it could get dark earlier and then fired all the fireworks one by one. At the end when it was full dark, we realized that we should have fired them later, so that we could enjoy them better. However, it was too late. I got a lot of fun as well as deep regrets with this first experience.

The other thing impressed me best on CNY is in 1960, which was also a Rat's Year. My 5 years brother got a new cotton padded jacket for the New Year. It was his first time to get new clothes for him own, since he was the younger one then and normally put on the remaining clothes from our elder sisters. Without parents' awareness, he took his pocket money and bought some fireworks, which could work only by being struck. But brother was too young to know how to handle such kind of fireworks. He even put them in his new jumper's pocket and played with other young fallows in the big courtyard. Suddenly, the fireworks burnt out when he was running. His new jumper was badly destroyed. Nobody blamed him as he was lucky not to hurt himself. But he himself and we sisters were all shocked by this accident. We then got to know that it was never a safe thing to play with fire or fireworks.

After so called "Cultural Revolution" due to what my father died, the CNY seemed hardest days for mother and me. I needed to help mum to manage how to spend such days easier. When we approched to the CNY's Day of 1970, which was a Dog's Year, we met a big problem on family finance. Then, I suggested mother to sell some old books for getting some living cost. Mum agreed, while she said "Oh, we need to check before taking the books out, to see if there are some photos in."  With great surprise, we found in one book a note of "National Debt" mother bought in 1955. It was still valid to exchange. We were delighted and I rushed into a bank and got back 40 Yuan, which was a big amount at that time. We then had a great CNY's Day. And I believe now that it was God who blessed us in that disaster......

Compared with the above CNY's Days, such days for the latest 20 years are seemed so so. Maybe it is because I have grown up, and maybe it is due to too many hard days I have spent, so that my heart gets insensitive. However, I am still looking forwand to CNY, during what time I can get long vacation and have a good rest.

At this moment when I was almost completing this post, I suddenly recalled a song, of which the words is translated by me as follows:

"We are living one year after another, which is harder and harder,

We are moving here and there, though no place is real home to dwell.

But we still keep going ahead all of our lives, along with the river,

Since its running water flows all over the earth forever...... "

PS

I also dedicate this post to Elliott Ng, who left me comments and asked for such experience.

Fortune in the Rat Year

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It is saying that "The Mouse Year is a year of plenty, bringing of opportunity, and good prospects. It will be marked by speculation and fluctuation in the prices of commodities and the stock market; the world economy in general will boom." Ah, we are looking forward to these mouses what might bring good luck to us all......

I was growing in a time so called "Where there is a mouse passing across the street, there should be people shouting and beating it". Mouse is the evil or calamity in China then. No one liked it and believed his fortune.

In 80s of last century, I lived in a simple apartment which was on the third floor. There was no aperture from where a mouse could enter, so I never thought I could find one at my home. However, I found some food was gnawed into pieces and I heard the noise of mouse. After a couple of days' detection, I got to know that this little mouse was along the sewer in bathroom and so entered. How shrewd it was! Then I threw myself into the course of capturing it. Finally, I stopped it at a corner by a big mop and shoved it to death...

But since then, I often remembered the last look in that small mouse's eyes, which was helpless but keen to survive. I felt guilty and swore in mind never to kill a mouse again!

I now quite agree with this idea that we should leave mouse to its natural enemies such as weasel, owl, snake, eagle, fox, wildcat, and civet cat, etc... We human being should respect and listen to the Nature. Mouse has been created and then it is a part of the Nature. In another word, mouse is an emblem of shrewdness and good housekeeping along with some bumper harvest. So, we should accept it with a kind and natural mood.

Thus, I think further that we should learn how to get along with all living creature in a harmony and let each has its own space to survive.

I wish all people born in Mouse Year good fortune!

I wish each of living creatures is in its proper place!

To Love Oneself

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The famous British author Wills Wilde once said: "To love oneself is the beginning of lifelong romance." What a significant thesis it is, by which we can drill down deeply to ourselves to see our real natures.

Then, what belongs to oneself when one is in love? The woman/man whom one is loving?  No. I don't think so. I believe it is only the feelings, passion and enjoyment of that one during one's loving course.

To go ahead along this thinking, we can understand why one would leave that woman/man he/she loved best before? Why one could betray his/her oath made in hotness? Because the feelings was changed, the passion was gone and the enjoyment was replaced by that with other person.

I am not to say whether this kind of  phenomenon is good or bad. I feel quite confused with it.  On  one hand, I hope all the couples can keep their love and marriage long to the end. On the other hand,  I think people have the rights to update their feelings and passions, so that human being will keep their libido, vitality and creativity.

Alas, then there might unavoidably come the victim of former love.......