SURPRISE ON A SNOW DAY

The phone rang at 5:30 a.m. and sure enough, we have another snow day off from school. I suspect tomorrow will be off too because of the size of this storm.  I couldn't do back to sleep so I turned on the computer to check out email, Facebook and ebay. I got to Facebook and what did I find?!? Our son in China was on chat.  I held my breath and wrote,"Are your there?"  Sure enough he was and we had a great conversation. He had been in Xian only a day and a half, not giving him enough time to see the famous Terracotta Warriors. Now he is in Zhengzhou and will be there for the Chinese New Year.  Zhengzhou is the capital of Northern China’s Henan Province, and has a long and interesting history. Located in the center of the province, it borders Luoyang to the west, the Yellow River to the north, and Kaifang to the east. It is one of the 8 ancient capitals of China and this region was the center of Chinese civilization for centuries. Zhengzhou is an old and beautiful city with wide roads lined with tall trees towering over quaint shops. It was 7:30 p.m. my son's time and he was getting ready to go out to eat dinner. Later this week he'll start touring around to see the birthplace of Kung Fu (the Shaolin Temple-also an important Buddhist shrine),  Henan Museum, Zhengzhou Museum and maybe the new zoo and botanical gardens. Other famous attractions of Zhengzhou include the Song Mountain (Song Shan, now is a World Geopark recognised by UNESCO), the Yellow River and the birth place of Huangdi (recognized as the ancestor of Chinese people). Tai Chi started in Henan Province too, and our son should see people practicing it in the parks.  I can just imagine it all in my mind. For once, I wasn't upset with being awake at 5:30 in the morning.