Aliens with Blonde Hair

One thing that was particularly funny about Guiyang was how unaccustomed the locals were to seeing white people. Apparently a lot of Chinese people visit the place, but westerners don't get that far inland. Think about it. Most people when traveling to China make it to Beijing, Shanghai, and maybe Xian. And that's about it. This is one thing I am really grateful for while living over here. We get to go to less popular places that are still very much worth seeing.

So, basically, we got a lot of stares, a lot of double takes, and a lot of puzzlement. Are those real people? Am I imagining something? This actually happened to me one time in Anchorage, AK. We were graciously given a ride to a trailhead by a bi-racial family. The mom was white, the dad was black, but he must have also had some white ancestry, because, somehow, their children were black with red hair. I kid you not. And I stared at those kids; I couldn't help it. If I was being rude, I didn't mean to be. But I had honestly never seen anything like that before in my life. It was beautiful and mind-blowing at the same time. I imagine that's how they thought of us in Guiyang. Except instead of beautiful, they probably thought we were awkwardly large and frighteningly white. :)

The end result is that we had about 20 different groups of people openly ask to take pictures with us over the 4 days. And those are just the people that asked. A lot more just took pictures of us without us knowing. Drew thought it was hilarious to walk slightly behind the rest of us and watch people's reactions as they passed up. "Shock and awe, boys, shock and awe."

In our group of 4 people, each of us had particular characteristics that were foreign. Luke is over 6'3'', so that was amazing to them. I looked up some average national heights, and it is quite shocking. The average Chinese male is only 5'5'', so Luke must have been a giant to them.

On a side note, the average Filipino woman is only 5'0'', and the average Indonesian women is only 4'10''! The vast majority of helpers in Hong Kong are either Indonesian or Filipino. I see them everywhere, and I always thought they looked tiny, but now I have statistical confirmation! Ha!

Anyways, to continue our super powers list, Luke is super tall, his wife Jill has super curly hair, I have super blonde hair, and Drew is super buff. All unique to them. Enjoy the pics.