First I'm just going to reiterate that it was an amazing trip. The food, the scenery, the people - everything we saw was incredibly different from my norm at home and it made such a huge impression on me in so, so many ways. You never really think about other places in the world until you visit them - of course, you think about them when there are famines and floods and they come up in the news, but is there a real connection there?
As a girl with Chinese blood, despite being several generations removed from "the motherland", there's something inexplicably magical about setting foot on the ground your ancestors lived and loved on; something unspeakably heart-clenching about being surrounded by the people who speak the language of your lineage in a place that isn't quite home but holds a strange power over you to the degree that, if you think hard enough, it could be.
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| an alleyway in one of the gorgeous old parts of Shanghai; due to modern construction this particular area was a block of tiny houses entirely enclaved by apartment complexes and high-rises |
