We are walking through Chengde’s Mountain Resort when Lydia comes up to me and shows me a small pine cone with two white feathers she managed to attach to the top. I ask her what it is and she searches for the word in English. She then says “what rabbits eat” and I say “carrot” and understood, she happily says “yes”.

Lydia draws a lot and makes things out of other things. I hesitate to use the word “art” but at its essence that is what it is, if you believe art is about creating a connection. In that producing or consuming of art, we feel connected, even if for just a moment.

Last Thursday marked the 10th anniversary of my marriage with Yang. I’m not really surprised about the 10 years, only with the speed of its arrival and the life we’ve set up here. I’m sure like many folks, to me, each day proceeds slowly and I am often pushing myself from one thing to the next in an effort to move the day forward. But then one day I wake up and Aidan is eight, Lydia seven, and Elisa three. One day I wake up and we’ve been married for ten years and in Beijing for six. One day I wake up and I want time to slow down so I can enjoy this even more.

For the anniversary Yang and I had first thought to go away for the weekend but then decided it would be better to go somewhere with the kids. The main reason being the kids are a bit locked up here during the dog days of summer, especially Aidan. The ayis won’t take them out in the heat or the rain both of which are plentiful from the middle of July to the middle of August. Plus they just don’t see anything wrong with plopping them in front of TV for 10 hours. So I end up taking them places, a water park, our neighborhood park, lunch, and so on but my time free time is limited as well since I’m working. So we decided to spend the anniversary night together and then get away for the weekend with the kids.

On our anniversary we night stayed at the trendiest boutique hotel in Beijing, The Opposite House. The hotel is famous for the art work in it’s open lobby, great service, and unique design. Part of the unique design includes not having a check in desk, rather you sit in the lobby and casually attired staff walk up with an iPad and check you in. The rooms themselves are modern in style, clean lines, wood floors. One nice touch was the mini bar was free and it was stocked with six sodas, six beers, a few candie bars, and a few cookies. They sent us a bottle of champagne for the anniversary after Yang dropped the hint on why we where there. We went to the posh mediterranean restaurant inside the hotel for dinner followed by a trip to the hot night club in Beijing. When we got back to the hotel later that night we stopped by the hotel bar which was packed with dozens of handsome young men, which attracted Yang’s attention but not hers theirs.

For the weekend we drove about 130 miles northeast to the before mentioned Chengde. Chengde is famous for being where the emperor would go to escape the heat and humidly of Beijing so it was fitting for our trip. Our trip was surely easier than the emperors with the relatively new expressway that takes you there. Kids were great on the way up and down, happily chatting with each other and napping occasionally. Yang booked the last four star suite available in the town and while the hotel’s location was great – part of a temple complex – the hotel was only four stars on a scale of 16. No matter, it was serviceable and we didn’t spend a lot of time in the room anyway.

Chengde is maybe a third tier city here but has a certain charm about it. The town is split by a river which is something I always like and provides a nice backdrop to the sidewalk ballroom dancing and folk singing. The main tourist attraction in English is called Mountain Resort, in Chinese is Bìshǔ Shānzhuāng which translates to “Mountain Villa for avoiding the heat”. A much cooler name in Chinese. It is a huge complex, actually bigger than the city downtown, with a residential compound in the forbidden city style, a lake area, and mountains. We made it through part of the lake area before heading back for lunch and then the drive home to Beijing. It’s not a resort area that too many foreigners go too and as such Aidan, Lydia, and Elisa got a lot of attention. People wanted to take pictures will all three of them. Elisa would run away, Aidan would say no, and Lydia would stand in picture mode not minding at all.

Our drive back was punctuated by seeing purple flowers and cows and we all we just glad to be back home.