February 20 — The Second Day of the Lunar New Year
We set out to Shenzhen for New Year visits with Little Bear, and the trip began with a scramble for the train. The tickets we had bought in advance were for 11:40. Thinking we had left plenty of time, we reached the Garden Hotel at 09:40 to take the shuttle. The 10:00 and 10:20 shuttles were already full, and the next one was at 10:50. It takes fifty minutes to reach Chaoshan Station, so there was no way to catch the 11:40 train.
With bags in both hands and Little Bear in our arms, we went out to the road to find a taxi. None came. We hurried to the bus stop to transfer to route 181. Just as we got near Baihua Road intersection, the 181 pulled away ahead of us. We had missed it by two or three minutes and had to wait for the next one. Carrying luggage and the baby while rushing made all of us sweaty and anxious. We waited from 10:15 to 10:50. When the bus finally came, I could only smile bitterly: after all that trouble, was it any different from waiting patiently at the Garden Hotel? The shuttle there might even have been faster than this bus. But there was nothing to do except get on.
The bus was packed and airless. A kind passenger gave up a seat to Honeydew, who was holding Little Bear. Hillway and I stood among the crowd guarding the luggage. The bus stopped and started, people got on and off, and every time the doors opened Little Bear began to cry. I guessed the crowding and noise frightened him. The bus crawled along and reached Chaoshan Station at 11:45. The train had left on time.
Because the ticket had already been changed once online, it could not be changed again. Hillway thought we could refund it, pay the 20 percent fee, and buy new tickets. At the refund window we learned that the ticket could neither be changed nor refunded; it was simply void. Nearly 300 yuan was gone. We queued again, but there were no seats left, so we bought three standing tickets for 12:50. Outside the ticket hall there was still time before boarding. I took a few photos of Honeydew and Little Bear in the station square. Hillway was too upset to take pictures and stayed with the luggage.
Missing that train cost us: a full-body sweat, a lot of tension, nearly 300 yuan, and an hour’s delay. The lessons were clear. First, be careful with rescheduling; if a refund is possible, don’t use up the one change allowed. Second, when catching a train during a holiday, leave three hours ahead. Two hours is nowhere near enough. Still, things were not completely ruined. Although we had standing tickets, we found two empty seats after boarding and took turns resting. We arrived at Shenzhen North Station at 15:10.
Our cousin’s family from Foshan had also come to Shenzhen for the New Year, and we had arranged to visit my youngest uncle together that afternoon. The families had not seen one another for years. We exchanged New Year gifts, handed out red envelopes, and caught up on family news. The house was lively. The visit helped us know one another better and brought us closer.
Dinner was at a hotel nearby. On the way there, we all looked at another flat my uncle had bought in the same compound and had recently finished renovating. At the hotel, the main hall was full. When we asked about a private room, we were told there was a minimum spend of 1,500 yuan. We thought our group was small and none of us had a big appetite, so how could we eat that much? Then we saw the menu: prices were high across the board. We ordered eight dishes and one soup and cleared the minimum without much effort.
Little Bear was not used to cars or elevators; both felt small and dim to him. At first he was frightened, and he started crying as soon as we entered an elevator. That night he slept poorly, waking and crying again and again. When I touched him, he felt a little feverish. Since we were sleeping in someone else’s home, and I was worried about him, I got up repeatedly to feed and soothe him. None of us slept well.
February 21 — The Third Day of the Lunar New Year
Little Bear did not fall asleep until nearly one in the morning, but he woke early. Fortunately, the low fever was gone and he was in good spirits. After breakfast, we carried him around the compound where my uncle lived, taking photos. After lunch at home, Little Bear napped for an hour, and then my uncle drove us out.
Our first stop was the Shenzhen News Building. We took photos in front of several nearby buildings with local character, and my uncle enthusiastically showed us the place where he “worked and fought.” 
Next were Happy Valley and Window of the World. Little Bear was too small, could not rest well, and was not drinking milk on schedule, so we gave up the plan to buy tickets and go inside. We only took photos in the crowded outer plaza.
Returning to Window of the World brought back memories. In January 2010 I had gone there alone, carrying dry food and fruit, and wandered from nine in the morning until nine at night. I bought a simulated world passport and collected stamps from the different countries. With a borrowed camera I took hundreds of photos of scenery alone, until the battery died before the evening show began. When I first started blogging in June 2010, Hillway urged me to write a travelogue about Window of the World from memory. I had no particular insights and little geographical knowledge, so I forced out a few paragraphs and filled the rest with scenery photos. Hillway still teases me about it: “How is this ‘Seeing the World from Here’? It is clearly ‘Seeing Pictures from Here’!”
In March 2010, Hillway used money he had earned from part-time teaching at a vocational school to buy our own camera. At first, scenery photos took up much of our travel time and storage space. Gradually we realized that apart from using a few as illustrations for blog posts, most of those pure landscape shots just sat in a corner of the computer and served no other purpose. When we flipped through old photos, we always picked out the ones with people. Over time, portraits almost completely replaced scenery photos during our trips. They were more worth keeping, and they saved us a lot of time for talking and looking around.
When I first started writing blog posts, I liked to add pictures. Even if I had no travel photos, I would pick one or two favorite images from the internet and put them into the article. After Little Bear was born, I had less time and energy. Many posts were written in the phone’s notepad and pasted into the back end before being published. Pure-text travel writing had another advantage: the thread of thought stayed clear and continuous instead of being broken up by scenery photos into a caption-like account. 
The third place my uncle took us was OCT Happy Coast. We planned to eat first and then see the light show, but almost every restaurant was packed. By the time we finished dinner, the light show was over. The air was muggy. We carried Little Bear around for a while and went home at 9:30.
February 22 — The Fourth Day of the Lunar New Year
The second night, Little Bear no longer had a low fever or woke crying, and he slept much better. He had not drunk much milk during the day outside, so in the middle of the night he drank 180 ml three times. He slept until ten in the morning and looked happy. He had slowly become used to the environment. Elevators and cars no longer frightened him. He played with toys by himself in my uncle’s living room and could accurately recognize his great-uncle and great-aunt.
We gave up the plan to visit Foshan again and changed the train back to Shantou to 13:50. Worried about missing another train, we finished lunch at noon and urged my uncle to drive us to the station to wait. When catching a train, it is essential to leave enough time. Once at the station, queuing to enter, checking luggage, and finding the waiting area all take time.
Now that the high-speed train between Shantou and Shenzhen is running, it really saves time compared with the bus and is more comfortable. Little Bear’s grandparents were waiting at the Garden Hotel at 16:10 to pick us up and drive us home.
Over those three days, Little Bear had been good and obedient. He had been dragged here and there with us, had his milk at irregular times, had not rested well, and had been frightened more than once. We adults were tired too. Still, by then, home felt like the best place to be.