Light Festival

 February 5th, my sister-friend, her son, and I went to Xiamen's light festival in Jimei. The Botanical Garden holds a special lantern display, separate from the rest of the park. (I posted about the International Garden Expo here when I visited in Nov.) It's really beautiful and mostly family friendly.  This light show was a special display for the Spring festival. 

City at night. 

Trees were decorated outside the entrance.

One of the reasons why the Chinese gods are surrounded by lilies is that "lily" and "mercy" have the same sound.

 lian - lily

lian min - mercy

A white horse with pink means 'love.' The yellow one means 'rich.' The box on its back is 'ma shang' which means 'now.' So basically, the yellow horse means one will be now rich.

This red bird is called Pheonix and according to the story, it's the kind of all birds because it has power to come back alive after it dies in a fire. It can never die. Therefore, it encourages people to not give up, knowing they can rise again.

Lanterns hold special meaning. One meaning is about when all the people in a country live in peace, they can hang a lantern on their houses. Another meaning for a lantern on a house signifies the family can live in peace and safety.

These pink balls represent peach blossoms.

Taiwanese girl

This horse head design is the word for blessing.

Blue horse holds peaches which signify long life. The story goes that god's wife had a garden with lots of peaches.

Purple horse hold ru yi on its back, meaning follow your mind and it will happen. Whatever you put your mind to, it will come to pass. 

Red horse holds fu lu on its back. 'Fu' means blessing and 'lu' is money, so together it signifies one will have blessings and riches. 

A small McDonalds ice cream stand outside the park gave us the perfect addition to our exploration. 😁

There were also traditional and more modern dances that we watched for a little bit as well. Then it transitioned into robot people and dogs dancing, which was a little interestingly weird, but fine, until it turned inappropriate. 

I'm super thankful my friend shared about the stories and beliefs behind the things that hold meaning to these people. And at the same time it makes me sad to know they don't know the one true God, so they believe all these different stories/ideas about different gods/animals/things. 😢

February 2026

 February consisted of many fun, new experiences along with the arrival of the Spring Festival holiday. 

My POVs.

Feb. 4th I spent the afternoon with a sister and her son at the botanical garden. 

It's super large and this is only 1 part of it. 

We rode a bus up the mountain and first stopped at the Cactus Gardens. I immediately felt like I was back in Arizona. 

Cacti greenhouse

This cactus looks like the Statue of Liberty. 

After taking a long break we moved on to the rainforest part. 

For all God's done, I'll lift my hands and praise him. 💖

Did a small bit of climbing before walking down the mountain.

Took a walk around this lake.

Enjoyed fellowship with my sister in the evening. 

Feb. 5th, kids made lanterns. 

Lele has some serious conversation going on here. 😄

Taught kids the key ingredients of hot pot and how to enjoy. 

My 💚

I cherish these moments. 

These hearts contain kid's wishes. 

😋mmm, cafe

Early morning walk Feb. 7th along this old railroad-turned-walking path.

Later that day met up with a Korean sister to walk with and enjoyed Chinese tacos and coffee.

The taco

God paints such glorious skies, and I never want to become too busy to look up and wow at the beauty. 

Decorations in a random alley. 

Small tokens of love that remind me of precious people and God's hand. 

Fruit art for lantern festival

This picture reminds me of a blessing. I was doing some work in my favorite small shop and had ordered something with no drink, and the owner just brought me milk tea. How kind; he has no idea how much it touched my heart. 

This picture reminds me of God's provision. I had bought some fruit at my favorite shop, and the owner gave me these veggies before I left. Small kindnesses sprinkled through life stay embedded in my heart.

I have more pictures to share from Feb., but they need a separate post.

See you next time. 😊