Just when you think that you are set for the journey ahead, you are given a fork in the road. The family feud is still going on. It is serious enough that people are re-evaluating the situation. Now there is a possibility of selling the project in China. Which means that I might have to change my plans real quick.

Anyway, I am mentioning this to explain my absence, my silence. Communicating with family in Taiwan and China take up a lot of evening and early morning time. It’s really like having a second job before I even start the job in China. Well, I don’t even know if I’ll be going after all. But that may be a good thing, too. If we decide to sell the project, I can use the money and invest in something smaller that I can enjoy. Oh, that’s looking too far ahead into the future.

I am sharing a few images of the design concepts for the interior. It will be sad if we can’t work together to keep the hotel. But, maybe life will be more peaceful without it.

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Wow! I’ve been gone two weeks. I’ve really been working hard learning and putting together a template to be used in Joomla 1.5. One of these days I ought to work on templates for my own site and blogs. Oh, I also registered a new domain name, livingzhangjiajie.com, which I plan to use to blog about Zhangjiajie. I tried to find a personal blog in that area with no luck. So maybe I’ll use this new domain to document my experiences. Who knows. Maybe it’ll be helpful one day. Or maybe it will just be another blog.

I’ve also been caught up in following the T i b e t* protests on twitter. The amount of info coming through is incredible. I found a few tweeters with interest of documenting every bit of info available on the Internet to make available to other readers to have a better understanding of the situation. Through them I found even more tweeters. I am able to get different views around the world. I also learned quickly the danger of censorship, how it can distort perception, and how it may backfire one day. You don’t need to ask me who’s censoring, do you? I was a little worried for my own Internet connectedness in the future. But there are determined people online, using all sorts of ways to break through the wall to get to the whole truth. It makes me glad to know that they are there, and they want the full story so they can make their own judgment. They also passed on a few tricks for me to use later.

By the way, if you are a tweeter, you should check out iwantsandy.com. Sandy is a digital assistant. You send her instructions and she’ll remember them for you and remind you of your appointments when you want her to. You can tell her, “remind me to pick up Chinese food at 6pm.” And she will add it to your calendar and send you a reminder when it’s time. You can even ask her to remember a shopping list! Sandy works perfectly with twitter. And, if you set up twitter for text messaging, you’ll get your reminders anywhere you take your phone. No twitter account? No problem. This can be done through emails, too.

Oh yeah, CB has been home for a few days now. It’s time to really work on what we will be doing in the next few months. So nervous.

* Sorry for breaking up that word. I am being cautious here. After witnessing how “the wall” can shut out web sites with certain keywords, I don’t want any problem for me to access my own sites in the future. Paranoid, huh? Just want to be careful until I understand this thing.

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A little update on my future plans. It is a positive yes for me to be heading to China for a few years. It is still not certain if CB will be moving with me. It’s not a problem with the family. It is just that we (CB and I) are not sure what’s best for CB, yet. Arrrgggh! We only have about six months to make the decision and act on it. Oh yeah, I am moving in August. At least that’s the current plan.

I think Angela was afraid that I’d fear difficulties in China. I admit, I am nervous. It is not what I am familiar with. I don’t know anything about the hotel business. But I am not afraid, and I am eager to learn. Anyhoo. To help relax my attitude, Angela said, “you won’t have too much to do. You will have time for your spiritual practice. And what a place to do that!” True. It is amazingly beautiful in Zhangjiajie. Just look at this:

I wonder how often I will actually set foot in the parks though. Oh, did I mention that Zhang is the way they spell my last name in mainland China? Zhangjiajie consists of three Chinese characters. It translates to “Zhang family homeland”. Meant to be? Another tidbit of information. When I was there in 2002, I didn’t see birds flying around. I wondered where they went? Were they eaten? eeekk! Lots of moths though. Yikes! Moths!

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Not sure if I’ve ever mentioned the building of a hotel in China. It is a dream of my father’s to leave behind something that he can be proud of. Mom was also very excited (and worried) about the whole thing.

My father and the good sister have been working for many years to get it built. Dealing with the officials in China is not an easy task. Talk about a surprise when I received these illustrations of billboards yesterday. I think the design is quite good. (OK Chris. Go easy on this one. )

I really tried to stay away from the project. The whole family is involved, including the crazy ones AND my father’s other family. Plus, no one has any experience managing a hotel. It is a good thing that they decided to sign with Mercure to have them take over the management. At least it will be run properly. The grand opening is scheduled before the Summer Olympics 2008. Crossing my fingers. I wonder if I will get a free room. ha ha ha

It is in Zhangjiajie, Hunan, where the National Park Wulingyuan is located. Here’s a photo of the land that I took in 2002.

More photos here.

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