Chinese New Year 新年快乐 2014 in ChongQing, China 重庆中国

Like racing through the streets of Disneyland on he opening hour, our family set to the streets to chase the fireworks shows.  We ran from place to place and this video documents our adventure.

Chinese New Year 2014 in ChongQing China fireworks, a war on the evil spirits to drive them away, each year the noise, the flashes, the colorful fireworks show are happening all over... we ran through the streets to catch as many as we could in 40 minutes.  How exciting.  中国新2014年在重庆中国烟花。传统说，这些烟花爆竹吓唬邪灵离开，带来好运气。每年有大量的噪声，闪烁着五颜六色的烟花都见识过...招摇过市我们家跑去看尽可能多的烟花，我们可以在40分钟内看到。多么令人兴奋。
video shot by grant johnson on Chinese New Year from midnight to 12:40 am in Chongqing China near 龙湖西路／新南大道 路口 © enoch media, and music composed by adam lehi johnson © 2013/2014

Old Town Ci Qi Kou in ChongQing China 老城磁器口在中国重庆

We went here to CI QI KOU 磁器口 with friends and had a great time!!! We went with Ken my Chinese friend in this video.

My Daughter Emily and Grant Johnson

Also taught at an English school, Ken's school, in downtown ChongQing ShaPingBa area and had a great time there too. Christa had a class, and I participated in another. The kids in the class I was in were great! Had a good talk with them too.  They work so hard, study so much, and yet they too have hopes and dreams for other things. 

When I showed one young man our music studio because he liked music, his face fell a bit as he realized he would never be able to do that soon, being obligated to studies from morning until late at night, every night. 

This was a Saturday that he was also at a special English school getting even more learning. 

I feel like kids need more time to play and have social interaction, and I can tell that these kids too, want that. 

They need that, but they are feeling the realities of what happens if you don't study hard and get the consequences of lack of future opportunities.

it's way cooler than I thought it would be, and the people experience in public places is tops here. We're having a great time with so many people.

Here are several photos taken from the video (screen captures):







PHOTOS:

Adam eating the honey candy chew  photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

the musicians at the tea house  photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

the candy mix and pounding table  photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

the packed streets  photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

Audrey getting some money out to pay the lady for candy honey  photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

Audrey getting professional calligraphy advice  photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

Emily in the tea house  photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

looking at family photos with the musicians  photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

pounding the candy dough mix  photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

churning the sticky rice  photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

on the streets  photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

in the tea house, the musicians photo © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

Chinese Birthday Party for the Kids in Chongqing China 中国生日派对在重庆中国孩子

A Chinese birthday party for the kids. We went and first had fun on the jungle gym apparatus (the kids did), and then a pizza party.  

Had to share this: CLOUD KINGDOM, a new song done last Sunday, by Adam. 

This one is tuned in to happy feelings, and I love it.

Visit to Qiao Tian Men 我们访问瞧天门

Visit to Qiao Tian Men on the YuZhong Peninsula this week. Saw lots of things, and lots of people. SO FUN!!

 at McDonalds with the family, and a spontaneous photo snap with patrons there

images © 2014 grant johnson enoch studios

007 Charity Ball 007慈善舞会

We took our whole family to this large event, and stayed overnight at the same hotel. Kids swam in pool on third floor, a spectacular place on the river.

MY LOVE

HERE'S THE VIDEO. WATCH:

Comments:
SRA You guys look fantastic!

SE I see so much grandma Kate's face in that picture. I'm not saying you r old! I remembering her when she was younger. You guys look like you are having fun.

GJ we are having fun, and we are getting old, at least in the real years. When I tell people I'm 54 they always act shocked. Is that what happens when you old? People act shocked at your real age?

JRT You should have seen the young butcher's face when I told him the salmon was for my mother, at which point his eyes grew big and he gasped out...." How OLD are YOU????" So funny!!

LH What a fun looking evening.

CONSTANCE PRESENTATION:  a slide showing THE FAMILY ON A TRIP TO A LOCAL SCHOOL FOR IWG CHARITY EVENT. 

PEKING DUCK Night Out with the Family 北京烤鸭店：一个晚上与家人在一起

Two taxis to get there... from across town, but it was worth it. We had dinner with our friends Ian and Milli, and explored the famous streets and trails there afterwards.  The two taxis across town to get home, crossing the big Jialing River to get there.

In this video it shows our family mostly on the streets and trails.  They were very interesting and had a Disneyland feel to it.  Kind of like the trails that lead up to those epic rides like Pirates, or the Indiana Jones ride, etc.

We Made the FRONT PAGE NEWS in ChongQing's Newspaper. Home School. 在重庆的报纸的头版新闻我们的家庭得到了. 在家上学

FRONT PAGE NEWS!! we made front page in the ChongQing Newspaper today. Topic is Home School, Music, and Family. If you know Chinese, read all about it!! It's also on the QQ (like twitter) and Weichat throughout China. This was apparently a big deal.

The fact that my wife was in the International Women's Group and met some ladies there, and the fact that she ends up telling them that she has 12 kids does not go lost on their memory of her.  Surely this was part of the reason that we were interviewed by the Newspaper reporter and their photographer came to the home. I was there too, on my lunch break.

 The city of Chongqing's newspaper did a story on our family's home school program this Sunday! It was very positive! We had a really nice reporter over here last week, a young lady, a reporter, who is very interested in our homeschool program and what we do as a family. She was also very interested in our upstairs creative studio. So here are some photos of the printed newspaper, the website, as well as China's biggest instant message or service, QQ and wei chat.

Here is the article in Chinese on various websites:

http://cqcbepaper.cqnews.net/cqcb/html/2013-11/17/content_1693744.htm

http://news.sinovision.net/portal.php?mod=view&aid=273217&page=2

http://cqcbepaper.cqnews.net/cqcb/html/2013-11/17/content_1693744.htm

some of the comments on those Chinese web sites that ran (and still run) the story:

wulilian 2013-11-17 10:40

自由思想，随时体现。让孩子们回归到自然社会，不要去学校被洗脑。(Freedom of thought, ready to reflect. Let the children return to the natural community, do not go to school to be brainwashed.)

引用mandolo 2013-11-16 21:03

现在一个私人的三线城市的小学都要几万。(Now a private elementary school third-tier cities have tens of thousands.)